Nek

Filippo Neviani (born 6 January 1972), known by his stage name Nek, is an Italian singer-songwriter and musician. Nek is popular in Italy and throughout the Spanish-speaking world, and has performed and released most of his albums in both Italian and Spanish. Nek first gained international success in 1997, when he took part in the Sanremo Music Festival in the Big Artists section, and although he did not win, the song "Laura non c'è" (in Spanish: "Laura no está") went on to become his international breakthrough as it became a major hit in Europe and Latin America that year, as well the release of his fourth and million-selling album Lei, gli amici e tutto il resto, which was his first album to also be recorded in the Spanish language. After eighteen years he performed at the Sanremo's 2015 edition with the song "Fatti avanti amore" where he reached second place. During his career he has released thirteen studio albums and forty-eight singles, which include hits "Sei solo tu", "Almeno stavolta", "Lascia che io sia", "Instabile", "La voglia che non-vorrei", and it has been reported that he has sold over 10 million records. Filippo Neviani was born on 6 January 1972 in Sassuolo, Province of Modena. He began playing drums, bass and guitar at nine years of age. He was especially influenced by country musicians like John Denver, and later Sting. In the late 1980s he began searching for a well-defined expressive identity and started playing in small clubs with his country music-oriented band "Winchester", and subsequently enjoyed budding notoriety in the Bologna province with soft-rock band "White Lady". In the 1991 began his solo career when he earned second place at the Castrocaro Music Festival, which at the time represented a major promotional opportunity for emerging artists.