Luciano Riccardo Ligabue (born 13 March 1960), commonly known as Ligabue or Liga, is an Italian singer-songwriter, film director, and writer.
Biography Ligabue was born in Correggio, in the province of Reggio Emilia (Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy). Before becoming a successful singer, he held various jobs, working in agriculture and in factories. He entered the music world in 1987 when he founded the amateur band Orazero. For this band, he wrote several original songs, with which they participated in several local and national contests. The following year his fellow Emilian singer-songwriter Pierangelo Bertoli was the first to discover Ligabue's writing talents, and included one of Ligabue's songs, "Sogni di Rock'n'Roll" ("Rock n roll dreams"), in his new LP.
The following year Bertoli introduced him to producer Angelo Carrara, to finish an LP of his own, Ligabue, which was released in May 1990. Ligabue soon gained fame as one of the most successful Italian rock stars, finding fans mainly among younger audiences. His most famous hits include Balliamo sul mondo (Let's Dance on the World), Ho perso le parole (I've lost words) and the most successful of all, Certe Notti (Certain Nights), which was voted as "Italian song of the 1990s" in a poll held by a popular music magazine. He also collaborated with another famous singer-songwriter, Francesco Guccini, who also had a part in Ligabue's first movie.
Ligabue directed his first movie, Radiofreccia, in 1998, a semi-autobiographical story of a local radio station. Critics acclaimed it as surprisingly well shot for a newcomer, and the film received three David di Donatello Awards (the highest award in Italian cinema). He also composed the soundtrack. Four years later he shot Da zero a dieci ("From Zero to Ten"): however, it was not as well-received as the first work, by both critics and fans.
On 10 September 2005, Ligabue held a concert in Reggio Emilia to celebrate his first 15 years of activity. The audience of around 180,000 set a European audience record for the one, non-free event for a single artist. However, due to problems with the audio system, several thousand people were unable to listen to the music and left the concert early. Ligabue later apologized for the problems.
Ligabue has also published a short story collection, Fuori e dentro il Borgo ("In and out the village"), which won several literary awards, a science fiction novel La neve se ne frega ("Snow doesn't care") (2005), and collections of poems Lettere d'Amore nel frigo ("Love Letters in the fridge") (2006).
He considers himself a "believer", even if he shows strong criticism towards the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church.
He is an Inter Milan fan.
Political involvement In the 1980s Ligabue was a member of the communal council of his native Correggio, elected for the Italian Communist Party. Though he no longer assumes a public high-level political position, Ligabue, together with Jovanotti and Piero Pelù, released in 1999 the single "Il mio nome è mai più" ("My Name Is Never Again"), a song against the Kosovo War to collect funds for the Italian NGO Emergency.
Discography
Ligabue (1990) Lambrusco coltelli rose & popcorn (1991) Sopravvissuti e sopravviventi (1993) A che ora è la fine del mondo? (1994) Buon compleanno Elvis! (1995) Su e giù da un palco (1997) Radiofreccia (1998) Miss Mondo (1999) Fuori come va? (2002) Giro d'Italia (2003) Nome e Cognome (2005) Primo tempo (2007) Secondo tempo (2008) Sette notti in Arena (2009) Arrivederci, mostro! (2010) Campovolo 2.011 (2011) Mondovisione (2013) Giro Del Mondo (2015) Made in Italy (2016) Start (2019) 7 (2020) Dedicato a Noi (2023)
Tour and live NAME TOUR YEAR/DATE LOCATION Neverending tour 1990–1993 square, club, palasport, theatre 1995–1996 palasport 1997 stadium 1997 club (Europe) 1999 palasport, Verona Arena 2000 stadium 2002 stadium 2002–2003palasport 2002–2003 theatre 10 September 2005 airport "Campovolo" in Reggio Emilia 2006 club, palasport, stadium, theatre November – December 2007 PalaLottomatica, Mediolanum Forum 2008 club (Europe) 2008 stadium September – October 2008 Verona Arena 2009 club (Europe) 19–20 September 2009 Verona Arena September – October 2009 Verona Arena 2010 stadium 2011 Theatre 16 July 2011 airport Reggio Emilia May-June 2012 Royal Albert Hall in London, Piazza Grande in Locarno, Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples, Parco della Lesa in Cividale del Friuli, Teatro antico di Taormina in Taormina 4-5 April 2013 Royal Albert Hall in London 16-17-19-20-22-23 September 2013 Verona Arena March 2014-April 2015 palasport, stadium, club (Canada, U.S.A., Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Japan, China) 19 September 2015 airport Reggio Emilia 24-25 September 2016 Monza Park, Monza September - December 2023 palasport
Filmography Year Title Credited as Role Notes Writer Director Actor Soundtrack1997Partigianicolspan="2" HimselfDocumentary film1998Radiofrecciacolspan=4 DeejayDebut as director and screenwriter2002Da zero a diecicolspan=2 —Second film as a director and writer2010Niente Paura colspan="2" colspan="2" HimselfDocumentary film2018Made in Italycolspan=2 —Third film as a director and writer
Bibliography Fuori e dentro il Borgo ("In and out the village") (1997) La neve se ne frega ("Snow doesn't care") (2004) Lettere d'amore nel frigo ("Love Letters in the fridge") (2006) Made in Italy (2018)
References
External links
[ Ligabue on AllMusic.com]