Salvatore Adamo: biography, best songs, interesting facts, videos.

Salvatore Adamo

More than half a century of career, more than five hundred songs, more than one hundred million records sold around the world ... One can enumerate for a long time the achievements of the world-famous chansonnier, but Salvatore Adamo himself always preferred cold music filled with sensual content to music. Jacques Brel at one time called the musician "a gentle gardener of love" and was not mistaken. The poetic garden, which the artist has cherished and cherished, still continues to grow and give its fans wonderful fruits in the form of wonderful songs.

The singer performed his masterpieces in nine languages. Therefore, it is not surprising that its popularity is not limited to Italy, Belgium and France. Adamo gained deserved fame not only in all countries of Europe without exception, but also far beyond its borders. Bribing fans of the artist and just an interesting fact is that he is the author of poetry and music for the vast majority of his songs. Exceptions are only a few of the very first compositions. Salvatore is also known to the general public as an actor, director. But, it is worth noting that his main activity was still the execution of works of his own composition.

A short biography of Salvatore Adamo and a lot of interesting facts about the singer can be found on our page.

short biography

The future famous chanson was born in Sicily (Italy) in the town of Comiso on November 1, 1943. In 1947, Father Salvatore, Antonio, together with his wife Konsitta and his first son, moved to Belgium. Antonio was a worker and got employed at a mining enterprise in Mons. In the future, the future musician had one brother and five sisters. For a young Italian émigré, as for many of his peers of similar origin, the most probable professional activity in the future was working on a coal mine in Mons or in neighboring towns. But this was not to be. While still studying at school, the future artist became interested in music. It all started with singing in a catholic choir. At the same time, Salvatore learned to play guitarwhich will later become one of his most favorite tools.

After completing school, the young man continued his college education. He intended to master the specialty of a teacher of foreign languages. The Catholic College, in which the future artist studied, gave good language training, which later came in handy for the artist in his artistic activities. However, the training was never completed. The musician left the walls of the school and decided to devote himself entirely to the song craft. In this matter, he was always supported by his father, who as far as possible helped his son, including financially, to follow the path of art. Later Salvatore himself spoke about this.

The singer met his future wife at a very young age. He was 16, and she was 14. Friendship turned into love over time, the usual neighbor girl Nicole won the heart of Salvatore, and he linked his life with her. They had two sons and one daughter in their marriage. A strong and successful marriage, according to the artist himself, provided invaluable assistance in the realization of his creative abilities.

Formation of a creative career

From a very young age, the singer participated in music competitions. The happy ticket for the musician was a solo performance in the contest of young talents, which was held in Mons. The event took place at the Royal Theater and was broadcast throughout the country live by Radio Luxembourg station. Then the sixteen-year-old singer performed the self-composed song "Si j'osais" ("If I Dare"). Having won at the qualifying stage and after two months went to the capital of France, Adamo won the first place with this single in the final part of the competition. It was the first serious success that inspired the budding musician and became the foundation of his future creative activity. Then he was only 17 years old.

After the first creative success was followed by the recording of several studio albums. However, they were not very popular and sales were small. The author did not despair and continued to write poetry and create music. And it gave a long-awaited effect. In 1962, the record company "Pat-Marconi" proposed to Adamo a contract to record several of his compositions. Among them was the single "En blue jeans et blouson d'cuir" ("In blue jeans and leather jacket"). An obligatory clause of the contract for the continuation of further cooperation was the sale of at least two hundred records on the very first day. The resulting album has created a real furor. On the day of the premiere about two thousand copies were purchased. And after three months, the number of vinyl discs sold reached one hundred thousand. Proposals for cooperation fell on the young singer from the horn of plenty. Almost at the same time, the recording company Polydor released a collection of eight Adamo compositions on a vinyl record, among them was the song “Si j'osais” (“If I dared”), already known to the general public.

The following year, 1963, the musician recorded the song "Sans toi, ma mie" ("Without you, dear"). According to the performer, it was she who determined his further many years of popularity and set a certain lyrical style of performance of the singer in the mass consciousness, which one way or another had to follow in the future. In the same year one of the most famous melodies was born, which, in combination with beautiful poems, became Salvatore's hallmark. This is the single "Tombe la neige" ("Snow Falls"), which made its author and performer popular far beyond the borders of France and Belgium.

A dizzying musical career began, which was filled not only with crowds of admirers and the joys of creativity, but also with numerous, sometimes exhausting, concert performances. At the end of 1963, the artist performed on the famous stage of Brussels - in the Ansen Belzik Theater. After a short time, the participation in the grand concert on the stage of the legendary "Olympia" in Paris followed. There, the musician spoke directly before going on the scene stars of world magnitude of the time: the performer C. Richard and the vocal-instrumental group Shadows. Two years later, in 1965, Salvatore performed all in the same “Olympia”, but with a solo exclusive concert. Entering the prestigious stage of France spoke volumes. This was a visible confirmation of the recognition of his talent and the results of his many years of work. From now on, he becomes a bright star of popular music.

Interesting Facts:

• As part of his concert activities, Salvatore Adamo visited the USSR twice. In 1972 two solo performances took place. And in 1981, in addition to Moscow and Leningrad, the concert was given in Riga, which at that time was the capital of the Latvian SSR.
• The Belgian chanson is the author of a book about himself called “The recollection of happiness is also happiness”.
• From the beginning of the nineties of the last century, the musician became the goodwill ambassador of UNICEF from his second homeland of Belgium.
• At the beginning of the 21st century, the Belgian king Albert II produced the singer as a knight of his majesty. It is noteworthy that for the first time in history this honorary title in Belgium was granted to a leader of mass culture.
• In 1984, against the background of intense work, the singer suffered a heart attack, followed by an operation. For this reason, the active concert activity of the chanson was interrupted for several years.
• Since 2002, Adamo becomes an honorary resident of the town of Mons, in which chanson passed his youth.
• The song "Les Gratte-Ciel" ("Skyscrapers"), which was published in 1969, later, after the terrorist attacks in New York, was called prophetic. The fact is that the text of the composition mentions two destroyed high-rise buildings.
• In 2002, the musician won one of the highest state awards of the French Republic - the Order of the Legion of Honor.

Best songs

"Tombe la neige" ("Snow is falling"). This composition, performed by the author in 1963, became a landmark for Adamo. She finally determined his style and brought the artist worldwide fame. The refined lyrical melody and romantic text allowed the single to occupy the top lines of the charts of that time. The musician performed it not only in French, but also in several other languages. Without a doubt, this only added to the popularity of both the composition itself and the author of the singer. For more than half a century of its existence, this masterpiece was re-swapped and is still being sung by a huge number of performers from different countries of the world, including from Russia. For example, there is a Russian version of the song, performed by M. Magomayev to lyrics by L. Derbenev.

"Tombe la neige" (listen)

"En blue jeans et blouson d'cuir" ("In blue jeans and leather jacket"). A simple text and a pleasant melody in combination with each other resulted in an imperishable composition of popular chansonnier. The song was met by the general public "with a bang." Poems affecting the anxieties and hopes of the younger generation of the sixties, could not leave fans indifferent. Despite the fact that the composition was written by a musician at the dawn of his song career, it was invariably performed by Adamo in numerous concert performances for decades.

"En blue jeans et blouson d'cuir" (listen)

Salvatore Adamo as an actor and artist

The singer starred in several French films that were of relative popularity. Filmography artist is small, but deserves its attention. Most often, the viewer saw the musician on the screen in entertainment shows or television versions of concerts. We list the most noticeable moments of the appearance of a chanson on the wide screen. In 1967, the criminal drama of the joint Italian-French production "Les Arnaud" ("Arno") was released, in which the musician played one of the roles. Then in 1970, Adamo starred in the film "L'ardoise" ("Fee on the bill"). At the same time, chanson is involved in the production of the film "L'ile aux coquelicots" ("Island of wild poppies"). In this Belgian film musician not only played a major role, but also was the director and screenwriter of the film.

It is no secret that Salvatore for many years seriously fond of painting. He even equipped a special room in his house to do what he loved. Nevertheless, it remained for him rather a passion, an additional point of output of creative energy for this versatile person. The singer himself said about this: "Painting for me is a way of finding myself without any pretensions. This is an opportunity to escape from reality and discover something new, first of all, in myself."

Adamo's music in movies

Beautiful melodies, coupled with good poems, quickly became popular with cinema. The compositions of the singer, often in his own performance, adorn many films of various genres. Imagine the most famous paintings in which themes are heard that came from the pen of the famous chanson.

Salvatore Adamo became one of the symbols of the era of the sixties. His songs, full of romanticism and love lyrics, often dealt with social issues of the time. The creative activity of the musician smoothly passed from the twentieth century to the twenty-first. And today, songs written by chanson can be heard from concert venues and a wide screen.