Francesco De Gregori

Francesco De Gregori (born April 4, 1951) is an Italian singer-songwriter. He is popularly known as "Il Principe Poeta" ("The Poet Prince"), a nickname referring to the elegance of his lyrics. De Gregori was born in Rome to a middle-class family, and spent some of his youth in Pescara before returning to the capital. His elder brother, Luigi, was a musician and had a personal career with the name of Luigi Grechi (the mother's surname), chosen later in order to avoid confusion with the more famous Francesco. Influenced by Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and the Italian singer-songwriter Fabrizio de André, De Gregori started to perform his songs (mainly personal translations of American folk songs) at the Folkstudio, in Rome, which was already...