Success 2014: Zucchero Fornaciari, an Italian rock singer and Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. His music is largely inspired by gospel, soul and rock music, and alternates between ballads and more rhythmic boogie-like pieces

Adelmo Fornaciari (born 25 September 1955), more commonly known by his stage name Zucchero Fornaciari or simply Zucchero /ˈtsukkero/, is an Italian rock singer and Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. His music is largely inspired by gospel, soul and rock music, and alternates between ballads and more rhythmic boogie-like pieces.

Zucchero is the Italian word for sugar, as his teacher used to call him. In his career, spanning four decades, Fornaciari has sold over 60 million records around the world and has achieved numerous awards, including two World Music Awards, six IFPI Europe Platinum Awards and a Grammy Award nomination.
After the million selling success of Blue's and Oro incenso e birra in Italy, and his collaborations with Joe Cocker, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton and Miles Davis, Fornaciari from 1990 on attempted to conquer the rest of Europe. The album Blue’s was released the following year in the United Kingdom, and in 1990 Zucchero Sings his Hits in English, an album that featured songs from the Blue's and Oro incenso e birra albums, some of which translated to English by Frank Musker, was released worldwide.
Fornaciari's best known hit "Senza una donna" ("Without a Woman"), in a duet with Paul Young, is from this album. The first pressing of the album didn't feature the duet: the song was performed by Fornaciari only. The duet was a great success worldwide, reaching the top 10 in European charts. Other European hit singles from this album include English versions of "Diamante" (of which the original Italian lyrics were written by Francesco De Gregori), and "Wonderful World" (with Eric Clapton). Diamante was later released as a duet with Randy Crawford, a variant not available on any album until the special edition of Zu & Co.
Between 1991 and 1993 Fornaciari continued duetting with some of the world’s most famous artists, such as Sting, Luciano Pavarotti, a young Andrea Bocelli, Peter Maffay, Elton John, Brian May and Eric Clapton. Many of these duets would later be included in the compilation Zu & Co. (2004). 1992 saw Fornaciari perform at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, with the remaining three members of Queen, singing "Las Palabras de Amor". 1991 also saw the release of Fornaciari's first live album Live at the Kremlin, recorded in Moscow and featuring guest appearances by Randy Crawford (on John Lennon's "Imagine") and Toni Childs.