Mango (singer)

Beginning and early career

Mango was born in Lagonegro, province of Potenza. He grew up listening mainly to soul and hard rock music, his favourite musicians included Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Peter Gabriel. He began his musical activity as a teen, playing in a cover band with his older brother Michele. Mango was not into Italian music at the time, stating he only performed some Lucio Battisti's songs. He started to study sociology at the University of Salerno but he left after deciding to move to Rome trying to enter the music business.

In 1976 Mango recorded his first album, La mia ragazza è un gran caldo. Two songs from the album, "Per te che mi apri l'universo" and "Tu pioggia io mattino", attracted the attention of Patty Pravo, who put them on her album Tanto (1976), though, the title of the second song was changed in "Per amarti d'amore". Mia Martini also liked Mango's music and covered the song "Se mi sfiori" on the album Che vuoi che sia... se t'ho aspettato tanto (1976).

He released other records like Arlecchino (1979) and È pericoloso sporgersi (1982). His first three works did not receive attention by the media, pushing Mango to abandon the music career but the meeting with lyricist Mogol changed his mind.

Breakthrough and success

His breakthrough came in 1985 with the album Australia, from which the single "Il viaggio" was performed by Mango at the Sanremo Music Festival of the same year. In 1986 he released Odissea, which was a turning point in his career and contains some of his most famous songs, "Lei verrà" and "Oro". The album saw the collaboration of Brian Auger on the keyboards. 1987's Adesso includes the successful single "Bella d'estate", co-written with Lucio Dalla.

Other notable records are Sirtaki (1990), from which famous singles such as the title-track, "Nella mia città" and "Come Monna Lisa" were extracted, and Come l'acqua (1992), known for the song "Mediterraneo". The album featured the involvement of musicians like drummer Manu Katché and bassist Pino Palladino. Around this time, Mango also recorded three albums in Spanish: Ahora (1987), Hierro y Fuego (1988) and a Spanish version of Sirtaki (1991). On 30 April 1988 the single "Flor de Verano", Spanish version of "Bella d'estate" from Ahora, peaked at number #1 on the Spain's Los 40 Principales. Mango participated at the 1995 Sanremo Music Festival with the song "Dove vai", accompanied by world musician Ayub Ogada.

Credo (1997) contains the single "Luce" which was performed by Mango along with Zenîma at the 1998 Sanremo Music Festival; an English version of the song called "Light" was included in the 1998 reissue. Peter Gabriel's guitarist David Rhodes and Simple Minds's drummer Mel Gaynor played on the record. The track "Amore per te", from the album Visto così (1999), was used as the Italian theme of the telenovela El Privilegio de Amar. In 2004 he released Ti Porto in Africa, which went double platinum. His last work is La terra degli aquiloni, released in 2011. The album featured a Carlos Gardel cover of the song "Volver".

Death

On evening 7 December 2014 Mango suffered a heart attack during a concert in Policoro, province of Matera. While performing the song "Oro", he raised an arm and said "excuse me" to the crowd before collapsing. He died before arriving at the hospital in the early hours of the following day. He was 60.

On 9 December, his older brother Giovanni felt sick during the wake and died at the hospital, aged 75. He is believed to have also died from a heart attack.

Personal life

A very reserved person who rarely appeared in mass media, Mango was married to Laura Valente, known for her tenure as vocalist with the pop band Matia Bazar. From their marriage two children were born: Filippo and Angelina.

Songwriting

Mango wrote songs that were performed by other artists:

Cover

Some of his songs were rearranged by Italian and foreign artists, including:

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilations

Albums recorded in Spanish