Wesley Johnson, better known by his stage name Wess, was an American singer and bassist.
Born in North Carolina, Wess lived in New York as a boy, and attained a number of musical experiences through his time there and in Europe. In the 1960s he was part of the band The Airedales, where he was the bassist. They went to Italy in 1966 and became the first group to introduce rhythm and blues music there. After splitting up with Rocky Roberts, thus making Wess the lead singer, they obtained further success despite one of their songs getting eliminated from the show Settevoci.
While working on his solo career in the 1970s, Wess suggested that he, along with fellow label-mate Dori Ghezzi, record the song Voglio stare con te, an Italian version of "United We Stand". The single achieved much success, and they became a musical duo thereafter, with seven albums and two runs at Sanremo.
They were internally selected by RAI to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 1975 with the song Era, which placed 3rd with 115 points.
After the musical split with Dori in 1979, Wess continued to appear on Italian television, and set up a recording studio in Canada, which he continued to make music while traveling between the two countries. He continued to tour and record until he died of a sudden asthma attack in his home town on 21 September, 2009, just after a concert in New York.
Eurovision Song Contest 1975 | |||
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