Patrizio Buanne

Born in Vienna but raised primarily in Naples (where his family originated), Patrizio Buanne is a singer whose style is rooted in the pop traditions of his Italian homeland (not classical or opera), and he has recorded everywhere from Abbey Road Studios in London to Capitol Studios in Hollywood. Buanne spent much of his youth listening to the great Italian-American singers — Mario Lanza, Dean Martin, Al Martino, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett — in his father’s pizzeria, and soon fell in love with the music of the 1950s and ’60s. While living in Austria, he won local singing competitions at an early age and, at 17, performed for Pope John Paul II. He later returned to Italy, where he enrolled at a university in Rome and worked as a television entertainer. Four years later, he met producer Christian Seitz, and the two of them went to Abbey Road in London to record Buanne’s debut album, L'Italiano, mainly a covers album of the songs he grew up with. It came out in the U.K. in February 2005 after Buanne signed with Universal Music. In March 2006, The Italian, a slightly abbreviated version of its British counterpart, was issued in the U.S., followed by a worldwide release of the singer’s sophomore record, Forever Begins Tonight, in the fall of that same year. Buanne switched to Warner Music in 2008, and an 18-track Best of Patrizio Buanne was released by Universal in mid-2009 shortly before his Warner debut, simply titled Patrizio. Produced by Humberto Gatica (David Foster, Michael Bublé), it consisted mostly of covers sung in English (including “Fly Me to the Moon,” the Patsy Cline/Willie Nelson hit “Crazy,” and “You’re My Everything”), but also included several originals written expressly for the album, including Diane Warren’s “Why Did You Have to Be?,” Paul Barry’s “This Kiss Tonight,” and Buanne’s own “Solo Tu (My Baby).” He toured Asia, Australia, and the U.S. over the next two years, and Patrizio hit number five on Billboard’s Jazz Albums chart. In 2012, Patrizio Buanne released a German-language album, Wunderbar, with Warner, then signed back with Universal, which issued 2013′s Dankie/Thank You Suid Afrika, a collection of popular South African songs, some sung in English and some in Afrikaans, with guests including Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Nianell. Signed to Universal’s Decca unit in 2015, Buanne returned with Viva La Dolce Vita, an album of pop favorites and Italian songs. ~ Marisa Brown & Marcy Donelson