The Most Famous

SINGERS from Italy

This page contains a list of the greatest Italian Singers. The pantheon dataset contains 4,381 Singers, 145 of which were born in Italy. This makes Italy the birth place of the 5th most number of Singers behind South Korea, and France.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Italian Singers of all time. This list of famous Italian Singers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Italian Singers.

1. Luciano Pavarotti (1935 - 2007)

With an HPI of 83.23, Luciano Pavarotti is the most famous Italian Singer. His biography has been translated into 96 different languages on wikipedia.

Luciano Pavarotti (, US also , Italian: [luˈtʃaːno pavaˈrɔtti]; 12 October 1935 – 6 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor who during the late part of his career crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most acclaimed tenors of all time. He made numerous recordings of complete operas and individual arias, gaining worldwide fame for his tone, and gaining the nickname "King of the High Cs". As one of the Three Tenors, who performed their first concert during the 1990 FIFA World Cup before a global audience, Pavarotti became well known for his televised concerts and media appearances. From the beginning of his professional career as a tenor in 1961 in Italy to his final performance of "Nessun dorma" at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Pavarotti was at his best in bel canto operas, pre-Aida Verdi roles, and Puccini works such as La bohème, Tosca, Turandot and Madama Butterfly. He sold over 100 million records, and the first Three Tenors recording became the best-selling classical album of all time. Pavarotti was also noted for his charity work on behalf of refugees and the Red Cross, amongst others. He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 1988, and died from pancreatic cancer on 6 September 2007.

2. Adriano Celentano (b. 1938)

With an HPI of 79.87, Adriano Celentano is the 2nd most famous Italian Singer. His biography has been translated into 78 different languages.

Adriano Celentano (Italian: [adriˈaːno tʃelenˈtaːno]; born 6 January 1938) is an Italian singer-songwriter, actor, showman, and filmmaker. He is dubbed Il Molleggiato ('the springy one') because of his energetic dancing. Celentano's many albums frequently enjoyed both commercial and critical success. With around 150 million records sold worldwide, he is the second best-selling Italian musical artist. Often credited as the author of both the music and lyrics of his songs, according to his wife Claudia Mori, some were written in collaboration with others. Due to his prolific career, both in Italy and abroad, he is considered one of the pillars of Italian music. Celentano is recognized for being particularly perceptive of changes in the music business and is credited for having introduced rock and roll to Italy. As an actor, Celentano has appeared in 39 films, mostly comedies.

3. Enrico Caruso (1873 - 1921)

With an HPI of 78.95, Enrico Caruso is the 3rd most famous Italian Singer. His biography has been translated into 74 different languages.

Enrico Caruso (25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian operatic first lyric tenor then dramatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles that ranged from the lyric to the dramatic. Generally recognized as the first international recording star, Caruso made around 250 commercially released recordings from 1902 to 1920.

4. Andrea Bocelli (b. 1958)

With an HPI of 77.51, Andrea Bocelli is the 4th most famous Italian Singer. His biography has been translated into 91 different languages.

Andrea Bocelli (Italian: [anˈdrɛːa boˈtʃɛlli]; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor. He rose to fame in 1994 after winning the newcomers' section of the 44th Sanremo Music Festival performing "Il mare calmo della sera". Since 1994, Bocelli has recorded 15 solo studio albums of both pop and classical music, three greatest hits albums, and nine complete operas, selling over 90 million records worldwide. He has had success as a crossover performer, bringing classical music to the top of international pop charts. His album Romanza is one of the best-selling albums of all time, while Sacred Arias is the biggest selling classical album by any solo artist in history. My Christmas was the best-selling holiday album of 2009 and one of the best-selling holiday albums in the United States. The 2019 album Sì debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and US Billboard 200, becoming Bocelli's first number-one album in both countries. His song "Con te partirò", a duet with Sarah Brightman taken from his second album Bocelli, is one of the best-selling singles of all time. In 1998, Bocelli was named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People. He duetted with Celine Dion on the song "The Prayer" for the animated film Quest for Camelot, which won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. In 1999, he was nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards. He captured a listing in the Guinness Book of World Records with the release of his classical album Sacred Arias, as he simultaneously held the top three positions on the US Classical Albums charts. Bocelli has been blind since a football accident at age 12. He was made a Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2006, and was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 2 March 2010, for his contribution to Live Theater, and he was awarded a gold medal for Merit in Serbia in 2022. Singer Celine Dion has said that "if God would have a singing voice, he must sound a lot like Andrea Bocelli", and record producer David Foster has often described Bocelli's voice as the most beautiful in the world.

5. Toto Cutugno (1943 - 2023)

With an HPI of 77.36, Toto Cutugno is the 5th most famous Italian Singer. His biography has been translated into 74 different languages.

Salvatore "Toto" Cutugno (Italian: [ˈtɔːto kuˈtuɲɲo]; 7 July 1943 – 22 August 2023) was an Italian pop singer-songwriter, musician, and television presenter. He was best known for his worldwide hit song, "L'Italiano", released on his 1983 album of the same title. Cutugno also won the Eurovision Song Contest 1990 held in Zagreb, SFR Yugoslavia, with the song "Insieme: 1992", for which he wrote both the lyrics and music. He has been described as "one of the most popular singers in Italy and a symbol of Italian melody abroad", as well as "one of the most popular Italian performers on a global scale" and "one of the most successful Italian songwriters of all time", selling over 100 million records worldwide.

6. Farinelli (1705 - 1782)

With an HPI of 77.22, Farinelli is the 6th most famous Italian Singer. His biography has been translated into 38 different languages.

Farinelli (Italian pronunciation: [fariˈnɛlli]; 24 January 1705 – 16 September 1782) was the stage name of Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi (pronounced [ˈkarlo ˈbrɔski]), a celebrated Italian castrato singer of the 18th century and one of the greatest singers in the history of opera, composer, and musician. Farinelli was a soprano castrato, with a range from approximately F3-D6.

7. Albano Carrisi (b. 1943)

With an HPI of 75.50, Albano Carrisi is the 7th most famous Italian Singer. His biography has been translated into 38 different languages.

Albano Antonio Carrisi (Italian: [alˈbaːno karˈriːzi]; born 20 May 1943), better known as Al Bano, is an Italian singer and actor. Having sold over 25 million records globally and career spanning seven decades, he is one of the most recognisable Italian singers in the world. He has gained worldwide notability due to his four and a half octave vocal range as well as his personal and professional association with Romina Power, daughter of Hollywood actor Tyrone Power, lasting until the 1990s. Carrisi is acclaimed for singing with operatic affinity in pop, rock and italo disco repertoires with extensive head voice and minimal usage of falsetto vocal register. As of 2023, he has participated in 15 editions of the Sanremo Music Festival, tying the record for most participations with Anna Oxa, Milva, Peppino di Capri and Toto Cutugno; this includes a victory in 1984 duetting with Power. He additionally took part in the Sanremo Giovani selection in 1965. In 2016, he was awarded Albanian citizenship due to his close ties with the country and a forename referring to the land.

8. Salvatore Adamo (b. 1943)

With an HPI of 73.71, Salvatore Adamo is the 8th most famous Italian Singer. His biography has been translated into 39 different languages.

Salvatore Adamo (November 1, 1943) is a Belgian-Italian musician, singer, and composer, who is known for his romantic ballads. Adamo was born in Comiso, Sicily, Italy, and has lived in Belgium since the age of three, which is why he has dual citizenship. By the second half of the sixties, Adamo had become the world's second best-selling musician after The Beatles. Through his career, he sold more than 80 million albums and 20 million singles worldwide, making him the best-selling Belgian artist of all time, and one of the most commercially successful musicians in the world. He first gained popularity throughout Europe and later in the Middle East, Latin America, Japan, and the United States. Adamo mainly performs in French but has also sung in Italian, Dutch, English, German, Spanish, Japanese, and Turkish. "Tombe la neige", "La nuit", "Vous permettez, Monsieur?", "Inch'Allah" and "Petit bonheur" remain his best known songs. Since 2001 Adamo holds the Belgian noble title of Ridder, similar to the English title of "Knight". He became an officer of the French Légion d'honneur in 2005 and a Commander in the Order of the Star of Italy in 2015. He was also awarded the Order of the Rising Sun in 2016 for his influence on Japanese popular music.

9. Eros Ramazzotti (b. 1963)

With an HPI of 72.49, Eros Ramazzotti is the 9th most famous Italian Singer. His biography has been translated into 66 different languages.

Eros Walter Luciano Ramazzotti (Italian: [ˈɛːroz ˈvalter luˈtʃaːno ramatˈtsɔtti]; born 28 October 1963) is an Italian pop singer and songwriter. He is popular in Italy and most European countries, and throughout the Spanish-speaking world, as he has released most of his albums in both Italian and Spanish. Since 1984, Ramazzotti has released 11 studio albums, one EP, three compilation albums, three live albums, and 37 singles. He has sold over 70 million records in his 40-year career. His repertoire includes duets with artists such as Cher, Tina Turner, Andrea Bocelli, Patsy Kensit, Anastacia, Joe Cocker, Julio Iglesias, Lynn Davis, Ricardo Arjona, Luciano Pavarotti, Laura Pausini, Nicole Scherzinger and Ricky Martin. Ramazzotti first gained international success in 1993, with the release of Tutte storie, which amassed five million album sales and occupied the top five in every country where he had previously released albums. This success led to a BMG International record contract in 1994. His audience appeal comes from several factors, including his unique voice, which can be described as somewhat nasal but nevertheless forceful and resonant baritone, and his energetic delivery of catchy, melodic tunes which are often passionate mid-tempo autobiographical ballads, with instrumentation that is rich in soft-rock influence.

10. Domenico Modugno (1928 - 1994)

With an HPI of 72.09, Domenico Modugno is the 10th most famous Italian Singer. His biography has been translated into 58 different languages.

Domenico Modugno (Italian pronunciation: [doˈmeːniko moˈduɲɲo]; 9 January 1928 – 6 August 1994) was an Italian singer, actor and, later in life, a member of the Italian Parliament. He is known for his 1958 international hit song "Nel blu dipinto di blu", for which he received the first Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. He is considered the first Italian cantautore.

People

Pantheon has 145 people classified as Italian singers born between 1619 and 2003. Of these 145, 90 (62.07%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Italian singers include Adriano Celentano, Andrea Bocelli, and Albano Carrisi. The most famous deceased Italian singers include Luciano Pavarotti, Enrico Caruso, and Toto Cutugno. As of April 2024, 145 new Italian singers have been added to Pantheon including Luciano Pavarotti, Adriano Celentano, and Enrico Caruso.