Rosario Tindaro Fiorello (born 16 May 1960), known just as Fiorello, is an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 comedian

Comedian

A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

, singer, radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 and television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 presenter.

Career

Fiorello was born in Augusta, Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

. 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 Claudio Cecchetto, 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

RAI

RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...

 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

Mike Bongiorno

Michael Nicholas Salvatore Bongiorno , known as Mike Bongiorno, was an American-born Italian television host. He started his career on Italian TV in the 1950s and was considered to be the most popular host in Italy...

 and the Forgetful of Cologno (Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...

). The CD also includes imitations of Andrea Camilleri

Andrea Camilleri

Andrea Camilleri is an Italian writer.-Biography:Originally from Porto Empedocle, Sicily, Camilleri, began studies at the Faculty of Literature in 1944, without concluding them, meanwhile publishing poems and short stories.From 1948 to 1950 Camilleri studied stage and film direction at the Silvio...

, Antonio Cassano

Antonio Cassano

Antonio Cassano is an Italian footballer who plays for Serie A club Milan as a striker. Nicknamed Il Gioiello di Bari Vecchia , he is known for his short temper as much as his ability on the pitch, which led to the coining of the neologism Cassanata by his former coach, Fabio Capello, in November...

, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi

dr. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is an Italian politician and banker. He was the 73rd Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and was the tenth President of the Italian Republic from 1999 to 2006...

, Gianni Minà

Gianni Mina

Gianni Mina is a French professional tennis player. On the junior circuit, Mina reached a career-high combined ranking of No...

, Franco Califano

Franco Califano

Franco Califano is an Italian musician, singer and actor.Born on an airplane above Tripoli, he has lived most of his life in Rome and Milan. He was arrested two times in 1970 and 1984 for possession of drugs...

, Carla Bruni

Carla Bruni

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is an Italian-French songwriter, singer, actress, and former model...

, Oliviero Toscani

Oliviero Toscani

Oliviero Toscani is an Italian photographer, best-known worldwide for designing controversial advertising campaigns for Italian brand Benetton, from 1982 to 2000...

, Marina Flaibani from Onda Verde

Onda Verde (radio)

Onda Verde is the name given to the radio traffic reports produced by the Centro di Coordinamento Informazioni sulla Sicurezza Stradale in Italy and transmitted by the Italian national broadcaster RAI...

, Nanni Moretti

Nanni Moretti

Giovanni "Nanni" Moretti is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter and actor.-Life and work:Moretti was born in Bruneck, South Tyrol , in 1953 to parents who were teachers...

, Vittorio Cecchi Gori

Vittorio Cecchi Gori

Vittorio Cecchi Gori is an Italian film producer and politician.Born in Florence, he is the son of Mario Cecchi Gori. He has produced numerous films, most notably Il Postino , which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.He was also senator from the Italian People's Party.He owned...

, Ignazio La Russa

Ignazio La Russa

Ignazio Benito Maria La Russa is an Italian politician . He became Minister of Defence in the fourth cabinet of Silvio Berlusconi on 8 May 2008...

, the prince Albert of Monaco, Monica Bellucci

Monica Bellucci

Monica Anna Maria Bellucci is an Italian actress and fashion model.-Early life:Bellucci was born in Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy as the only child of Luigi Bellucci, who was born in the British protectorate of Zanzibar, East Pakistan...

 and her husband Vincent Cassel

Vincent Cassel

Vincent Cassel is a Cesar award winning French actor probably best known to English-speaking audiences through his performances in the Ocean's Trilogy of films and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.-Personal life:...

.

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

Garfield (film)

Garfield: The Movie, also known as Garfield, is a 2004 American live-action film based on the Jim Davis comic strip with the same name. In the film, Garfield the cat was created with computer-generated imagery, though all other animals were real...

), to an appearance in the film The Talented Mr. Ripley

The Talented Mr. Ripley (film)

The Talented Mr. Ripley is a 1999 American psychological thriller written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella. It is an adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith 1955 novel of the same name, which was previously filmed as Plein Soleil .The film stars Matt Damon as Tom Ripley, Gwyneth...

, in the role of Fausto, a young Italian friend of the main characters.

His younger brother Giuseppe Fiorello

Giuseppe Fiorello

Giuseppe Fiorello, also known as Beppe Fiorello or Fiorellino , is an Italian actor of the cinema and television. He usually performs in the starring roles, and has been described as the "number one in Italian fiction"....

 is an actor.

Imitations

Fiorello's most famous imitations include Mike Bongiorno

Mike Bongiorno

Michael Nicholas Salvatore Bongiorno , known as Mike Bongiorno, was an American-born Italian television host. He started his career on Italian TV in the 1950s and was considered to be the most popular host in Italy...

, and that of Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...

 as a character called Smemorato di Cologno

Cologno Monzese

Cologno Monzese is a comune in the Province of Milan in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 5 km north-east of Milan...

who, in the parody, loses his memory every time something related to communism

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 is mentioned. Smemorato di Cologno is a pun on the main character of the Italian comedy 'Lo smemorato di Collegno

Collegno

Collegno is a comune in the Province of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 9 km west of Turin.-Twin towns — Sister cities:Collegno is twinned with the following cities:-External links:*...

', Cologno

Cologno Monzese

Cologno Monzese is a comune in the Province of Milan in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 5 km north-east of Milan...

 being instead the headquarters of Berlusconi's well-known media company.

Other famous imitations include:

• Albert II, Prince of Monaco
  Albert II, Prince of Monaco
  Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco is the head of the House of Grimaldi and the ruler of the Principality of Monaco. He is the son of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, and the American actress Grace Kelly...
  
  
• Andrea Camilleri
  Andrea Camilleri
  Andrea Camilleri is an Italian writer.-Biography:Originally from Porto Empedocle, Sicily, Camilleri, began studies at the Faculty of Literature in 1944, without concluding them, meanwhile publishing poems and short stories.From 1948 to 1950 Camilleri studied stage and film direction at the Silvio...
  
  , an Italian writer
• The Signorina buonasera, a RAI
  RAI
  RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
  
   announcer
• Antonio Cassano
  Antonio Cassano
  Antonio Cassano is an Italian footballer who plays for Serie A club Milan as a striker. Nicknamed Il Gioiello di Bari Vecchia , he is known for his short temper as much as his ability on the pitch, which led to the coining of the neologism Cassanata by his former coach, Fabio Capello, in November...
  
  , an Italian Football player
• Avvocato Messina, a lawyer who defends his clients with absurd pleas
• Barbara Palombelli, an Italian journalist
• Bruno Vespa
  Bruno Vespa
  Bruno Vespa is an Italian television and newspaper journalist.A former director of Italian state-owned TV channel Rai Uno's news program TG1, he is the founding host of the program Porta a Porta , which has been broadcast without interruption on RAI channels since 1996.Vespa was born in L'Aquila,...
  
  , an Italian journalist
• Carla Bruni
  Carla Bruni
  Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is an Italian-French songwriter, singer, actress, and former model...
  
  
• Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
  Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
  dr. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is an Italian politician and banker. He was the 73rd Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and was the tenth President of the Italian Republic from 1999 to 2006...
  
  , former President
• Federico Moccia
  Federico Moccia
  Federico Moccia is an Italian writer, screenwriter and film director. His father Giuseppe Moccia was also a screenwriter and director...
  
  , an Italian writer
• Franco Battiato
  Franco Battiato
  Francesco Battiato is an Italian singer-songwriter, composer, filmmaker and, under the pseudonym Süphan Barzani, also a painter. Battiato's songs contain esoteric, philosophical and religious themes...
  
  , an Italian singer/songwriter
• Gianni Minà
  Gianni Mina
  Gianni Mina is a French professional tennis player. On the junior circuit, Mina reached a career-high combined ranking of No...
  
  , an Italian journalist
• Gianni Morandi
  Gianni Morandi
  Gianni Morandi is an Italian pop singer and entertainer.He made his debut in 1962 and quickly placed high at or won a number of Italian popular song festivals, including the Canzonissima festival in 1969. In 1970, he represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest with "Occhi di ragazza"...
  
  , an Italian singer
• Giorgio Napolitano
  Giorgio Napolitano
  Giorgio Napolitano is an Italian politician who has been the 11th President of Italy since 2006. A long-time member of the Italian Communist Party and later the Democrats of the Left, he served as President of the Chamber of Deputies from 1992 to 1994 and as Minister of the Interior from 1996 to...
  
  , current President
• Giovanni Muciaccia, the presenter of the TV program Art Attack
• Giulietto e Romeo, two gay truck drivers
• Kim Jong-il
  Kim Jong-il
  Kim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim born 16 February 1941 or 16 February 1942 , is the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea...
  
  
• Kimi Räikkönen
  Kimi Räikkönen
  Kimi Matias Räikkönen , nicknamed Iceman, is a Finnish racing driver, who will drive in Formula One for Lotus in . After nine seasons racing in Formula One, in which he took the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, he competed in the World Rally Championship from 2009-2011.Räikkönen entered...
  
  
• Ignazio La Russa
  Ignazio La Russa
  Ignazio Benito Maria La Russa is an Italian politician . He became Minister of Defence in the fourth cabinet of Silvio Berlusconi on 8 May 2008...
  
  , an Italian politician
• Maurizio Costanzo
  Maurizio Costanzo
  Maurizio Costanzo is an Italian television host and journalist. He is married to Maria De Filippi, an Italian television host.-Biography:Costanzo was born in Rome....
  
  
• Marco Carta
  Marco Carta
  Marco Carta is an Italian singer. In 2009, he had sold 350,000 albums and 150,000 singles.-Early life and victory to "Amici":In 2007, he participated as a singer in the Talent Show Amici di Maria De Filippi...
  
  , an Italian singer who won the Sanremo Music Festival in 2009
• Marina Flaibani of the radio program Onda Verde
  Onda Verde (radio)
  Onda Verde is the name given to the radio traffic reports produced by the Centro di Coordinamento Informazioni sulla Sicurezza Stradale in Italy and transmitted by the Italian national broadcaster RAI...
  
  
• Martano Volpi, a mad man from Tuscany
• Monica Bellucci
  Monica Bellucci
  Monica Anna Maria Bellucci is an Italian actress and fashion model.-Early life:Bellucci was born in Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy as the only child of Luigi Bellucci, who was born in the British protectorate of Zanzibar, East Pakistan...
  
  
• The "mostroinviato" (monster-correspondent), which in Italian sounds like "nostro inviato" (our correspondent)
• Nanni Moretti
  Nanni Moretti
  Giovanni "Nanni" Moretti is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter and actor.-Life and work:Moretti was born in Bruneck, South Tyrol , in 1953 to parents who were teachers...
  
  , an Italian director and actor
• Oliviero Toscani
  Oliviero Toscani
  Oliviero Toscani is an Italian photographer, best-known worldwide for designing controversial advertising campaigns for Italian brand Benetton, from 1982 to 2000...
  
  , an Italian photographer
• Paolo Fava, an imaginary jazz player
• Padre Georg
  Georg Gänswein
  Georg Gänswein is a German Priest of the Roman Catholic Church, and the personal secretary of Pope Benedict XVI...
  
  , Benedetto XVI's secretary
• Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
  Recep Tayyip Erdogan
  Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been Prime Minister of Turkey since 2003 and is chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party , which holds a majority of the seats in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Erdoğan served as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He graduated in 1981 from Marmara...
  
  
• The hunchback of Notre Dame
  Notre Dame de Paris
  Notre Dame de Paris , also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the cathedra of...
  
  , a character of Riccardo Cocciante
  Riccardo Cocciante
  Riccardo Cocciante, also known in French-speaking countries as Richard Cocciante , is an Italian singer-songwriter and actor. His oeuvre includes recordings in Italian, French, and Spanish; he has recorded some of his songs in all three languages.He was born in Saigon, French Indochina, now Ho Chi...
  
  's musical
• The tenor
  Tenor
  The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
  
   Roberto Alagna
  Roberto Alagna
  Roberto Alagna is a French-Italian tenor. He was born in Clichy-sous-Bois, Seine-Saint-Denis, France.-Early years:Alagna was born outside of the city of Paris in 1963 to a family of Sicilian immigrants . As a teenager, the young Alagna began busking and singing pop in Parisian cabarets for tips...
  
  
• Roberto Cavalli
  Roberto Cavalli
  Roberto Cavalli is an Italian fashion designer from Florence.-Biography:Roberto Cavalli was born in Florence, Tuscany. His grandfather, Giuseppe Rossi, was a member of the Macchiaioli Movement, whose work is exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery. Cavalli decided to enroll at the local Art Institute,...
  
  
• Romano Prodi
  Romano Prodi
  Romano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
  
  , former Prime Minister
• Silvio Berlusconi
  Silvio Berlusconi
  Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
  
  
• Silvio Muccino
  Silvio Muccino
  Silvio Muccino is an Italian actor.-Biography:Muccino was born in Rome on April 14, 1982.Graduated from Rome’s Arts High School and enrolled in the Arts Faculty of Rome’s La Sapienza University....
  
   as Sasha
• Tony Sperandeo
  Tony Sperandeo
  Tony Sperandeo is an Italian actor of cinema and television. Sperandeo is notable for frequently playing the roles of characters from his native region, Sicily...
  
  , an Italian character actor famous for his stereotypical gangster roles
• Umberto Eco
  Umberto Eco
  Umberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
  
  
• Valerio Staffelli, a journalist from the TV program Striscia la notizia
  Striscia la notizia
  Striscia la notizia is an Italian television program on the Mediaset-controlled Canale 5. Its name in Italian translates as "the news slithers", a probable parody of the slighting italian journalist, submitted to politicians and overwhelmed with shame...
  
  
• Vincent Cassel
  Vincent Cassel
  Vincent Cassel is a Cesar award winning French actor probably best known to English-speaking audiences through his performances in the Ocean's Trilogy of films and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.-Personal life:...
  
  
• Vittorio Cecchi Gori
  Vittorio Cecchi Gori
  Vittorio Cecchi Gori is an Italian film producer and politician.Born in Florence, he is the son of Mario Cecchi Gori. He has produced numerous films, most notably Il Postino , which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.He was also senator from the Italian People's Party.He owned...
  
  
• Vladimir Putin
  Vladimir Putin
  Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
  
  

During the 16 May 2006 episode, on Fiorello's birthday, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi

dr. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is an Italian politician and banker. He was the 73rd Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and was the tenth President of the Italian Republic from 1999 to 2006...

 called to wish him a happy birthday and to congratulate him for his imitation, especially for the fact that Ciampi doesn't always pronounce clearly the last syllable of some words.

During November 2006 the newspaper Avvenire

Avvenire

Avvenire is an Italian daily newspaper affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. It was founded in 1968 in Milan through the merger of two Catholic magazines: L'Avvenire d'Italia of Bologna and l'Italia of Milan.-History:...

 (linked with CEI

Conferenza Episcopale Italiana

The Italian Episcopal Conference is the episcopal conference of the Italian bishops of the Catholic Church and as such is the official assembly of all the bishops in Italy. The conference was founded in 1971 and carries out certain tasks as well as having authority assigned to setting the...

) criticized Fiorello for his imitation of Padre Georg

Georg Gänswein

Georg Gänswein is a German Priest of the Roman Catholic Church, and the personal secretary of Pope Benedict XVI...

. 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)

External links

• Official website