Marco Mengoni is an Italian singer-songwriter who has become one of the most popular current artists in his country. He shot to fame in 2009 after winning the third season of the Italian version of The X-Factor.
After placing third in the 2010 San Remo festival, he released his first album which went gold in Italy. The same year, he won the MTV Europe award for Best European Act, becoming the first Italian artist to receive that honor.
Marco then won the San Remo festival in 2013, earning the opportunity to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmo, which he accepted. He performed his festival winning song L'Essenziale and finished in 7th place. The song was also the lead single of his 2013 album #prontoacorrere, which went platinum.
He released his third studio album, Parole in Circolo, in early 2015, and won the MTV Europe award for Best European Act for the second time.
He won the Sanremo Festival for a second time in 2023, a decade after his last victory, and accepted the invitation to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool with his winning song Due vite. He secured his second top-10 finish, placing 4th overall.
Trivia[]
- Marco Mengoni was the voice of Simba in the Italian dub of the 2019 "live-action" remake of The Lion King. He is one of two Eurovision representatives to have voiced the character in a foreign-language dub of the film, the other being John Lundvik (Sweden 2019) in the film's Swedish dub.