Domenico Modugno

Domenico Modugno was born in Polignano a Mare, Italy, in 1928. He started out as an actor before turning to music, which led him to the Sanremo Music Festival in 1958. There he performed a song called 'Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare!)', and it changed everything.

That song, which people usually just call 'Volare', became a massive hit in the United States, topping the Billboard Hot 100. It was the first Italian song to do that. He had other songs like 'Vitti Na Crozza' and 'Bambina Bambina', but 'Volare' was the one that stuck, the one everyone remembers.

He kept making music for years, putting out more than twenty studio albums. He worked with other singers too, including Mina and Frank Sinatra. Modugno died in 1994, but that one song from 1958 is still how most people know him.