Salvatore Adamo was born on November 1, 1943, in Comiso, Sicily, Italy, to Antonio and Concetta Adamo. He has dual citizenship, being both Belgian and Italian, due to his family's relocation to Belgium when he was just three years old.
Adamo holds the Belgian noble title of Ridder, equivalent to the English title of "Knight", since 2001. He first gained popularity in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Japan, and the United States, selling over 80 million albums and 20 million singles, making him one of the most commercially successful musicians in the world.
The majority of Adamo's performances are in French, but he has also sung in Italian, Dutch, English, German, Spanish, Japanese, and Turkish. Some of his most famous songs include "Tombe la neige", "La nuit", and "Inch'Allah", which remain his best-known works. He is currently the best-selling Belgian musician of all time.
Adamo's parents, Antonio and Concetta, moved to Belgium in 1947, where they settled in the town of Ghlin. Salvatore was bedridden for a year due to meningitis at the age of seven. He attended a Catholic school run by the Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes and grew up in Jemappes, where he was an excellent student and showed a talent for music and the arts.
Adamo's early influences included the poetry of Victor Hugo and Jacques Prévert, the music of French singer-songwriters like Georges Brassens, and Italian canzonette. He began singing and composing his own songs at a young age and won a Radio Luxembourg competition in 1960 with his song "Si j'osais".
Adamo's debut album, 63/64, featured his first hit single "Sans toi, ma mie" in 1963. He went on to release a series of hits, including "Tombe la neige", "La nuit", and "Inch'Allah". His self-penned song "Petit bonheur" sold over one million copies by April 1970 and was awarded a gold disc.
Throughout his career, Adamo has recorded in many languages and had hits in numerous countries, including Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Japan, Latin America, and the Middle East. He has sold over 100 million copies of his recordings worldwide and has been awarded the "Antorcha" (Gold and Silver Torch) at the "Festival de Viña del Mar" in Chile.
After a decline in popularity in the 1980s, Adamo's career experienced a resurgence in the 1990s, and he has since continued to compose, record, and tour, with a full season at the Casino de Paris venue in April 1990 marking the beginning of his successful comeback.
