Riccardo Cocciante

Who is Riccardo Cocciante?

Riccardo Cocciante, also known in French-speaking countries and the U.S. as Richard Cocciante, is an Italian singer-songwriter, composer and musician. His oeuvre includes recordings in Italian, French, English, and Spanish; he has recorded some of his songs in all four languages.

He was born in Saigon, Vietnam, now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to an Italian father and a French mother. He moved to Rome, Italy at the age of 11 where he attended school and started his career as musician coming to success around 1972. He also lived in the USA and Ireland. In 1976, Cocciante covered the Beatles song "Michelle" for the musical documentary All This and World War II, as well as releasing his sole English album in the US.

In 1991 he won the Sanremo Festival with the song "Se stiamo insieme", and for Christmas 1997 legendary Spanish operatic tenor and friend Plácido Domingo invited him to sing at Domingo's annual Christmas in Vienna concert, together with Sarah Brightman and Helmut Lotti.

As of 2008, Cocciante has three musicals running, probably Notre-Dame de Paris being the most known. This musical may later be put into competition against another musical in progress, Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame.