An Italian rock songwriter, Enrico Ruggeri first came to prominence during the new wave period, before becoming a part of the times. Born in Milan on June 5, 1957, he made his debut with the punk band Decibel, then launched his solo career in 1981 with the album Champagne Molotov, in the new wave style of the time, between rock and synthetic pop. He continued in this vein with Polvere (1983), Presente (1984) and Tutto Scorre (1985), while composing "Il mare d'inverno" for Loredana Bertè. In 1986, the Italian charts welcomed him with the album Henry VIII (No. 13), and the following year he won the Sanremo Festival with "Si può dare di più", in the company of Gianni Morandi and Umberto Tozzi. His career continued in the top ten of the charts, with song-and-rock albums such as La parola ai testimoni (1988), Il falco e il gabbiano (1990), Peter Pan (1991) and Oggetti smaritti (1994), with lyrics ranging from tender to incisive. In 1993, he represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Sole d'Europa", finishing in 12th place. Still productive in the 2000s, Enrico Ruggeri composed the song "Primavera a Sarajevo" for the Sanremo Festival in 2003, and performed the duet "Nessuno tocchi Caino" with his partner Andrea Mirò. The former was featured exclusively on the live album La vie en rouge (2001), which was followed by the covers album Punk prima di te (2004), a reminder of his early days in punk and glam rock. A series of studio albums followed, including Amore e guerra (2005), Rock Show (2008), La ruota (2010), Frankenstein (2013) and Pezzi di vita (2015), all of which did well in the charts. In 2016, he reunited with his former partners to reform the group Decibel, then took part in the 2018 Sanremo Festival with the track "Lettera dal Duca", accompanied on guitar by Midge Ure. The albums Alma (2019), La rivoluzione (2022) and La caverna di Platone (2025) have since been released.
