Mikelangelo Loconte

Mikelangelo Loconte
Background information
Birth name	Michele Loconte
Born	(1973-12-05) 5 December 1973
Origin	Cerignola, Italy
Genres	Pop, Rock
Occupation(s)	Singer, composer, musician, artistic director
Instrument(s)	Piano, Guitar, Drums
Years active	1990–present

Mikelangelo Loconte (5 December 1973) is an Italian singer, writer, composer, musician, performer and artistic director. He was born in Cerignola, but began his acting and performing career in France, in the musical Les Nouveaux Nomades by Claude Barzotti and Anne-Marie Gaspard. Without speaking French, he recorded all his songs in a studio using phonetic writing in the early years of his career.

Career

Discovered in Belgium by Alec Mansion (member of Léopold Nord & Vous band), Loconte worked as an artistic director in the studio La Chapelle in Waimes. From an early age, Mikelangelo Loconte took part in TV shows and stage performances. At the age of twenty-one, he met singer Rita Pavone, who along with Teddy Reno declared him winner of the Festival des Inconnues during a broadcast on RAI 2. In 2001, he performed his song Ad ogni modo at the Castrocaro Music Festival, designed to promote new artists.

He takes his first steps in France as an actor, participating in Claude Barzotti's musical Les Nouveaux Nomades. He recorded all the songs in the studio using phonetic writing, as he had not yet fully mastered French. In the end, the project never saw the light of day.

Mikelangelo lived for nine years in the Belgian city of Liège, where he practiced his profession. He was discovered there by Alec Mansion. A master of many instruments (piano, keyboard, guitar, drums and percussion), he became arranger of some songs for Belgian singers. He performs in shows in various countries, including Brazil.

In 2009, Mikelangelo Loconte was elected Liégeois de l'année (Liégeois of the year) in the culture category.

Mozart, l'Opéra Rock and other musicals

He reached star status portraying Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the musical Mozart, l'opéra rock, directed by Dove Attia and Albert Cohen. His first single, "Tatoue-moi", was a number-one hit in France in 2009. Later, Mozart, l'opéra rock has witnessed a growing international fan base and went on a tour to Korea in 2016 and then other tours to Shanghai and Taiwan in 2018, in which Loconte portrays Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

With the cast of Mozart, l'opéra rock, he won three NRJ Music Awards. The album of the musical production went diamond, selling over 560,000 albums, making it the best-selling French musical between July and December 2009.

In 2013, he toured twice (February and October) with the cast of Mozart, L'Opéra Rock in Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine) for two weeks. He took part in the musical project Dolly Bibble, the Bible told to children, and lent his voice to Adam the first man.

He took part in the show Mozart, l'opéra rock, touring France, Switzerland and Belgium from September 2014, accompanied by a symphony orchestra from Kyiv. Originally scheduled for spring 2014, it was postponed following the events in Ukraine.

On June 13, 2014, he sang L'Assasymphonie at the Zénith in Limoges, accompanied by 1,300 student choristers from Haute-Vienne, Creuse and Corrèze, in the show Mozart Tragédie Comédie, featuring 1,300 middle and high school choristers and 5 young soloists from the Limousin region, an adaptation of the famous Mozart, l'opéra rock.

From February to April 2016, he reprised the role of Mozart during a tour of South Korea.

In autumn 2016, Mikelangelo played Monsieur Loyal in Jean-Jacques Thibaud's musical Timéo, directed by Alex Goude, at the Casino de Paris from September 16, 2016 to January 8, 2017, then on tour throughout France.

He currently takes part in the tour Les comédies musicales - Le grand show in 2023/2024.

Charity events and TV

He regularly takes part in musical charity events (often in aid of children) such as Une Nuit à Makala with numerous artists, for the association Les voix de l'enfant with the single Je reprends ma route in 2013 and with the artists' collective Les grandes voix des comédies musicales chantent pour les enfants hospitalisés alongside Renaud Hantson, Pablo Villafranca and Lââm for the single Un faux départ, as well as the Nuit des Hits in aid of the association Enfant Star et Match which helps sick children.

He was chosen to join the French jury for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, along with Armande Altaï.

Mikelangelo Loconte is a new ambassador of the Organisation for the Prevention of Blindness (OPC), a French association that has been fighting avoidable blindness in French-speaking developing countries since 1978.

External links

• (in Italian) Official site
• Organisation for the Prevention of Blindness