Renato Zero

Renato Fiacchini (born 30 September 1950), known by the stage name Renato Zero, is an Italian singer-songwriter, producer, dancer and actor whose career spans from the 1960s to the 2020s.

Zero is the only artist to have reached the top of the Italian charts in six different decades.

With 20 million records sold, he is one of the best-selling Italian music artists.

Zero was born Renato Fiacchini in central Rome, in Via di Ripetta, next to the famed Via del Corso.

He quit his studies early to devote himself to his true passion, the arts, more specifically playing music and singing – though initially with little success.

From an early age, he would wear make-up and cross-dress.

He replied to the criticisms he received (including the recurring insult Sei uno zero! – "You're a zero!") by taking on the pseudonym Renato Zero.

He recorded his first songs in 1965: "Tu", "Sì", "Il deserto", "La solitudine", which were never issued.

His first published single, "Non basta sai/In mezzo ai guai" (1967), sold a total of 20 copies and was quickly forgotten.

He had several different jobs, including an appearance in an advertisement for ice-cream; work as a dancer in a TV show; playing and dancing in two musicals; and minor roles in two Fellini movies.

He became friend to sisters Mia Martini and Loredana Bertè.

In the early 1970s Zero's career was given a boost by the glam-rock movement, from which he benefited with his sexual ambiguity and androgynous appearance.

At the same time, this led him to being accused of emulating other celebrities like David Bowie and, in particular, Marc Bolan.

The late 1970s and early 1980s were years of great success for Zero's character, with the LPs Zerofobia ("Zerophobia", 1977), Zerolandia (1978), Erozero (1979), Tregua (1980), Artide Antartide (1981), Via Tagliamento (1982) and Calore (1983) topping the Italian charts.

At this time Renato Zero was amongst the two or three most popular singers in Italy and his songs "Il Cielo", "Il Carrozzone", "Amico", "Più su" and "Spiagge" were already regarded, by fans and critics, as some of the best Italian songs ever.

The name Zerolandia also referred to the moving theatre (a circus tent with a capacity of 5,000) in which he performed shows throughout Italy.

On numerous occasions fans would participate in the gigs, made-up like Zero and dressed in his typical costumes.

In 1973 he issued his first LP, No! Mamma, no! (recorded live), but still with little success.

The follow-up Invenzioni met the same fate.

It was not until 1976 that he scored his first hit with the single "Madame", a collaboration with songwriter Franca Evangelisti and composer Piero Pintucci, with whom Zero continued to work in the years that followed.

"Madame" and the album including it, Trapezio, established a regular and loyal audience for Zero.

This was to increase exponentially in the following years, until he could boast a huge following of die-hard fans that he dubbed Sorcini ("Little Mice").

Among his greatest hits at the time, all of them topping and breaking the Italian charts for quite some time, "Mi vendo", "Morire qui", "Triangolo", "Baratto" are still popular in Italy, and were among all disco clubs’ playlists.

In 1979 Zero played himself in the movie Ciao Nì (his usual greeting to his fans, which is a term of endearment that can be roughly translated as "Hi, Dear!").

In Italy this film grossed more than the American blockbuster Superman.

In 1980 he founded his own record label called Zeromania Music.

In the 1980s he began to abandon make-up and greasepaint, but this did not rid Zero of his mania for grandeur: in the 1980 tour, for example, he entered the stage riding a white horse.

In 1982 he began a collaboration with the opera director Renato Serio, who was to write the string arrangements for almost all of Zero's following LPs.

In late 1982 he took part in RAI's Fantastico 3, then the most popular Italian TV show.

His career continued to be successful until 1984.

That year, however, his new album Leoni si nasce, that he presented in a press conference disguised as a lion and was escorted by four aborigines, was a commercial failure, even though it peaked at No. 1. His 1987 album Zero marked the lowest point of his career, peaking at No. 13 but then almost immediately disappearing from the Italian charts.

In the mid-1990s Zero dubbed the character of Jack Skellington and sang the songs in the Italian release of Tim Burton's motion picture The Nightmare Before Christmas.

In 1991 Renato Zero participated in the Sanremo Music Festival with the song "Spalle al muro", and from that moment on his career began to rise again.

In 1993 he ranked No. 1 on the Italian charts with the LP Quando non-sei più nessuno.

The following year L'imperfetto repeated this success.

His concerts would regularly sell out, and he returned to his famous dress changes, although in a more balanced style.

In 1999, he sang his hit song "Il Cielo" at Pavarotti and Friends together with tenor Luciano Pavarotti, and later the same year, Italian diva Mina paid him a tribute with her album Mina n° 0, containing ten of Zero's songs, including one sung in duet with him.

In 2004 his tour "Cattura il sogno/Il sogno continua" ("Catch the dream/The dream continues") was awarded by Pollstar magazine as the most successful of the year in Italy as well as one of the most successful worldwide (#30).

The recording of his concerts in Rome, held at Olimpico Stadium in June, was the top selling musical DVD in 2004.

In 2005 he took part in the Italian staging of Live 8, in the Circo Massimo.