Nek (IT)

About

Also known as: Filippo Neviani

Nek, the stage name of Filippo Neviani from Sassuolo, Italy, built his career across two languages and two continents. His 1997 Sanremo entry "Laura non c'è" never won the festival but became something far more valuable: a genuine European and Latin American hit that pushed his album Lei, gli amici e tutto il resto to over a million copies sold across Europe, earning him an IFPI platinum award. The Spanish version, "Laura no está", went gold in Argentina and charted across Spain, France, Switzerland and beyond, turning a mid tier Italian pop act into a real international name. His pop rock sound, a deliberate shift away from traditional Italian pop, kept delivering. The follow up album In due went triple platinum in Italy and topped radio charts for months on the strength of "Se io non avessi te". Across thirteen studio albums and nearly fifty singles, Nek has reportedly shifted over ten million records. He returned to Sanremo in 2015 with "Fatti avanti amore" and finished second, showing he still had plenty left to say.