Jeffrey Jey
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Jeffrey Jey (born January 5th, 1970) is the lead singer of the popular Italian group, Eiffel 65.
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[edit] Early Life
Real name is Gianfranco Randone. Born on 5th January, 1970 in Lentini, Sicily. At the age of one and a half, Gianfranco made his first appearance on a stage with his father, who was a guitarist and saxophone player. When he was two, Gianfranco moved to the United States with his parents, and lived in Brooklyn, New York. Ten years later, they moved back to Italy.
When Gianfranco was fifteen, he fell in love with computers and also discovered his 'secret' singing talents. He was inspired by a friend to take on singing. He formed his first band, ICU, when he was seventeen, using several computers to program the music.
In 1991, he met Massimo Gabutti, head of Bliss Corporation. Through the assistance of Gabutti, Jey launched his musical career as the singer of Bliss Team. Through this time, he was studying accounting at a university, but couldn't finish his degree due to the success of the dance hit Love is Forever.
Throughout the 1990s he met future bandmates Maurizio Lobina and Gabry Ponte, who was a DJ collaborating with many groups such as Da Blitz.
[edit] Music Career
In 1998, Jey and Lobina composed Blue (Da Ba Dee) and released the song, which received little profit at first. A few months later, it started to become locally popular, then nationally, before finally it was released internationally. Reaching #1 in many countries, Jey grouped with Lobina and Ponte, and formed Eiffel 65. They released their debut album, Europop in 1999.
Second album Contact! was released in 2001. A self-titled album followed in 2003, and was almost completely in Italian, although an English version of the album was released soon after.
Their fourth album, which has been indicated that its style will be electropop cross rock, is due to be released sometime this year. It is said to feature electric guitars and includes a version of "In My City" with vocals added.
[edit] Trivia
- Gianfranco Randone got his nickname "Jeffrey" by his American friend who called him this as a joke, to make his name sound more American. Gianfranco the went to a vocalist audition at a disco and someone there thought he should come up with a cool nickname. So he took "Jeffrey" and added "Jay" (as in VJ or VeeJay) to the end. To make it sound more like a name, he changed the "Jay" to "Jey". "Jeffrey Jey".
- Has one brother and one sister.
- Musical influences are U2, Duran Duran, Rick Astley, and Depeche Mode.
- Height = 170 cm.
- Hair color is black.
