Marco Mengoni

Marco Mengoni (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmarko meŋˈɡoːni]; born 25 December 1988) is an Italian singer-songwriter who rose to fame in 2009, after winning the third season of Italian talent show X Factor. Since that he has sold over 2.8 million records in Italy, peaking the Italian albums chart seven consecutive times and entering the Top 10 Italian Singles Chart fifteen times. He won the Sanremo Music Festival in 2013 and again in 2023, therefore representing Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest in both years, respectively.

His 2009 debut extended play, Dove si vola, was preceded by the single with the same title, which reached the top spot of the Italian Top Digital Downloads chart and also served as his coronation song. In February 2010, Mengoni competed in the 60th Sanremo Music Festival with the song "Credimi ancora", placing third in a field of fifteen. The song was included in his second extended play, Re matto, which debuted at number one in Italy. The EP was promoted through an Italian tour, which yielded the live album Re matto live. Mengoni's first full-length studio album, Solo 2.0, was released in September 2010 and was certified gold by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry.

In 2013, Mengoni won the 63rd Sanremo Music Festival with his song "L'essenziale". Mengoni was then internally selected by RAI to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö with "L'essenziale". The song also became the lead single of the album Prontoacorrere, which became his fourth number-one on the Italian albums chart. In 2015, Mengoni released the albums Parole in circolo and Le cose che non ho, which were part of the same artistic project, also including the live record Marco Mengoni Live, all of them reaching the number one of Italian albums chart. After the 2017 collaboration "Come neve" with Italian singer Giorgia, he published his seventh consecutive number-one album Atlantico in 2018. In 2023, ten years after his first victory, he won the 73rd Sanremo Music Festival with "Due vite", earning him the right to represent Italy again in the Eurovision Song Contest, this time in Liverpool.

During his career, Mengoni has received several awards, including a Nastro d'Argento, two TRL Awards, nine Wind Music Awards, nine MTV Italian Music Awards and a Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards. In 2010 and 2015, he won the MTV Europe Music Award for Best European Act, becoming the first Italian artist to win that prize. In 2013, he also won the MTV European Music Award for Best Southern European Act.