Rosario Fiorello
Rosario Tindaro Fiorello (born 16 May 1960), known just as Fiorello, is an Italian comedian, singer, radio, and television presenter.
Career
Fiorello was born in Catania, Sicily and raised in Augusta, Sicily. He began his career working in tourist villages, first as a barman, and then as an entertainer. Near the end of the 1980s, Fiorello met Antonio Germinario, a talent-scout. Soon afterwards, Fiorello began hosting the show "Viva Radio Deejay".
Having become popular through the TV show Karaoke, Fiorello went on to host various TV shows. Soon after, he endured a period of drug problems that kept him away from the world of TV. However, he returned to show business and television in the 1990s, displaying great abilities as a showman, first in the Mediaset networks, then with RAI in 2001, 2002, and 2004 with Stasera Pago Io.
Since 2002, Fiorello has hosted the radio broadcast Viva Radio 2 together with Marco Baldini, Francesco Bozzi and Enrico Cremonesi, during which Fiorello shows off his skills as a singer, mimic and entertainer. In the summer of 2005, a CD was published that collected the best of his radio career. The CD's high points include: the imitation of Mike Bongiorno and the Forgetful of Cologno (Berlusconi). The CD also includes imitations of Andrea Camilleri, Antonio Cassano, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Gianni Minà, Franco Califano, Carla Bruni, Oliviero Toscani, Marina Flaibani from Onda Verde, Nanni Moretti, Vittorio Cecchi Gori, Ignazio La Russa, the prince Albert of Monaco, Monica Bellucci and her husband Vincent Cassel.
Fiorello's skills as a vocalist have brought him to the cinema as well. He has participated in such varied roles as: a dubber in cartoons (most recently Garfield), to an appearance in the film The Talented Mr. Ripley, in the role of Fausto, a young Italian friend of the main characters.
His younger brother Giuseppe Fiorello is an actor.
On November 14, 2011 Fiorello back on television with a new program entitled "Il più grande spettacolo dopo il weekend" (inspired by the song "Il più grande spettacolo dopo il Big Bang" of his friend Lorenzo Jovanotti). The first episode showed excellent results, with 10 million viewers and almost 40% share. The data, already outstanding, to further improve in the second episode (with over 12 million viewers and a share of almost 43% [10]) and third (almost 12 million viewers and over 43% share).
Impressions and characters
Fiorello's most famous imitations include Mike Bongiorno, and that of Silvio Berlusconi as a character called Smemorato di Cologno who, in the parody, loses his memory every time something related to communism is mentioned. Smemorato di Cologno is a pun on the main character of the Italian comedy 'Lo smemorato di Collegno', Cologno being instead the headquarters of Berlusconi's well-known media company.
Other famous impressions and characters include:
- Albert II, Prince of Monaco
- Andrea Camilleri, an Italian writer
- The Signorina buonasera, a RAI announcer
- Antonio Cassano, an Italian Football player
- Avvocato Messina, a lawyer who defends his clients with absurd pleas
- Barbara Palombelli, an Italian journalist
- Bruno Vespa, an Italian journalist
- Carla Bruni
- Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, former President
- Federico Moccia, an Italian writer
- Franco Battiato, an Italian singer/songwriter
- Gianni Minà, an Italian journalist
- Gianni Morandi, an Italian singer
- Giorgio Napolitano, current President
- Giovanni Muciaccia, the presenter of the TV program Art Attack
- Giulietto e Romeo, two gay truck drivers
- Kim Jong-il
- Kimi Räikkönen
- Ignazio La Russa, an Italian politician
- Maurizio Costanzo
- Marco Carta, an Italian singer who won the Sanremo Music Festival in 2009
- Marina Flaibani of the radio program Onda Verde
- Martano Volpi, a mad man from Tuscany
- Monica Bellucci
- The "mostroinviato" (monster-correspondent), which in Italian sounds like "nostro inviato" (our correspondent)
- Nanni Moretti, an Italian director and actor
- Oliviero Toscani, an Italian photographer
- Paolo Fava, an imaginary jazz player
- Padre Georg, Benedetto XVI's secretary
- Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
- The hunchback of Notre Dame, a character of Riccardo Cocciante's musical
- The tenor Roberto Alagna
- Roberto Cavalli
- Romano Prodi, former Prime Minister
- Silvio Berlusconi
- Silvio Muccino as Sasha
- Tony Sperandeo, an Italian character actor famous for his stereotypical gangster roles
- Umberto Eco
- Valerio Staffelli, a journalist from the TV program Striscia la notizia
- Vincent Cassel
- Vittorio Cecchi Gori
- Vladimir Putin
During the 16 May 2006 episode, on Fiorello's birthday, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi called to wish him a happy birthday and to congratulate him for his impression, especially for the fact that Ciampi doesn't always pronounce clearly the last syllable of some words.
During November 2006 the newspaper Avvenire (linked with CEI) criticized Fiorello for his impression of Padre Georg. Most of the journalists admitted that they had never listened to the radio program directly.
Discography
- Veramente falso (1992)
- Nuovamente falso (1992)
- Spiagge e lune (1993)
- Karaoke (1993)
- Finalmente tu (1995)
- Sarò Fiorello (1996)
- Dai miei amici cantautori (1997)
- Batticuore (CD Bianco) (1998)
- Batticuore (CD Rosso) (1998)
- I miei amici cantautori (2000)
- Fiorello The Greatest (2002)
- Uno è famoso, l'altro no:Il meglio di Viva Radio 2 CD+LIBRO (2002)
- Viva Radio 2 (il meglio del 2003) (2003)
- A modo mio (2004)
- Viva Radio 2 (il meglio del 2005) (2005)
See also
- Viva Radio 2
External links
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