Nicola Ciccone - Career

Career

In 1998, he won "Ma Première" at the Place des Arts contest and immediately picked up his first record contract.

While studying child psychology at McGill University and the University of Montréal, he launched his first album, L'Opéra du mendiant, in 1999. It received critical acclaim and sold 60,000 copies. Four releases from his first album reached number 1 on Québec radio station hit parades. The singer/songwriter also received four nominations at the 2000 ADISQ Ceremony and two nominations at the Juno Awards in 2001 ("Male Artist of the Year" and "Best Selling Francophone album"). After the release of his first album, he took two highly-acclaimed tours to theatres across Quebec. The grand premiere of his first show in Montreal was in August 2000. He has explored other musical channels: at the 2001 Montreal International Jazz Festival, he put together a show in English that covered the greatest blues classics.

In September 2001, Nicola Ciccone released his second album, Noctambule, on which he also acted as producer. The album has more of a rock sound and features eleven songs that tell the story of one character's night-time journey. Nicola Ciccone's third album, J't'aime tout court was released on October 7, 2003. The title song remained number one on radio stations' hit parades. By the fall of 2004, the album had sold over 100000 copies. The record company Universal France signed an agreement to release his album in Europe.

On October 31, 2004, Nicola won his first Felix trophy at the ADISQ Gala, "Song of the year" with "J't'aime tout court". He was also nominated for "Male Artist of the year", "Pop Album of the year" and "Show scripter of the year". In 2005, Nicola Ciccone was once more nominated at the Juno Awards. Less than 3 months after the release in France, Isabelle Boulay invited him to be the opening act of her show at the prestigious Olympia de Paris. On May 7, he performed at the Bell Centre to a sold out crowd and gave more than 100 shows of the J't'aime tout court tour across Quebec. His album sold over 200 000 copies and for the second time, on November 18, 2005 he performed at the Bell Center. In 2006, the ADISQ gave Nicola Ciccone the Prize of Recognition to underline the presence of the album J't'aime tout court during more than 100 straight weeks on the French sales charts in Quebec.

In April 2006, he began the recording of his 4th album entitled Nous serons six milliards. A first single quickly made its way to the top of the radio charts, the song "Nous serons six milliards". Released October 3, 2006, the album reached 75000 copies and another Gold Record Certification. On February 9, 2007, Nicola Ciccone began another tour of more than 100 shows to critical acclaim. After radio success with the first five singles, all number one radio hits, "Nous serons six milliards", "Trésor", "Mio Amore", "Chanson pour Marie", "Un ami", Nicola Ciccone was chosen as "Male artist of the year" at ADISQ 2007 . His album Nous serons six milliards was also in nomination for "Best Popular Album of the year". Following his four previous albums, l'Opéra du mendiant, Noctambule, J't'aime tout court and Nous serons six milliards, which have successfully sold in the hundreds of thousands, the singer-songwriter released his first English album Storyteller in September 2008. The album received many accolades and produced four top 10 hits on radio charts. October 2008, he earned two nominations at ADISQ 2008, in the categories "Male Artist of the Year" and "Most Popular Song of the Year" with "Chanson pour Marie". November 2009, he was chosen by the public, for the second time, as "Male Artist of the Year". The album Storyteller was also nominated in the category "Best Anglophone Album of the Year". During the Storyteller tour which ran between November 2008 and December 2009, he gave over 80 shows, introducing the public to his new English songs. With many ideas, he continues writing in English, French and Italian. The language always influenced by his characters and his stories.

In the Fall of 2009, the singer-songwriter returned to the studio to record his new album that was released in March 2010, a French language album titled Imaginaire. He earned two nominations at ADISQ 2010, in the category "Best Popular Album of the year" and at ADISQ 2011, "Most Popular Song of the Year" with "J't'aime pas, j't'adore". Four songs from Imaginaire were top 10 radio hits. In addition, the song "Tu m'aimes quand même" won a Socan Award. The tour for Imaginaire lasted over 2 years and was composed of close to 100 shows.

October 2012, Nicola Ciccone releases is seventh album, Pour Toi. The first single is accompanied by a video filmed on the Pont des Arts in Paris and portrays a ritual based on the lovelocks. Both the song and the video reached the top of the charts. The album is composed of other romantic songs such as "Et si on faisait un enfant", "Marjolaine Bonjour", "Inconditionnel" et "J'ai rêvé qu'on se mariait". Furthermore, the album contains more social songs such as "l'Autiste" (which deals with autism), "Faire la guerre à la mort, faire l'amour à la vie" (which deals with the fight against cancer) and "La Prière" (which deals with the death of a child) and "Le Vieil Homme" (with talks about the nostagia of an old man). Finally, the album also contains "Les Portes du Bonheur" and "Sempre", two songs on the theme of happiness.

Beginning of 2013, Nicola Ciccone will start an important new tour of shows which will take him across Québec and Ontario.