Nino de Angelo

by Steve Leggett
 
Although he makes the news these days more because of his massive personal debt than his music, Nino de Angelo has had a long and successful career in Germany as a pop singer. Born in Germany as Domenico Gerhard Gorgoglione on December 18, 1963, to Italian immigrant parents, de Angelo began his music career in 1979 when he began singing Elvis Presley, Adriano Celentano, and Renato Zero songs in a Persian restaurant. A year later in 1980 he officially became a German citizen. Turning 17 in 1981, he signed a recording contract with Polydor Records in Hamburg, releasing two singles under the name Nino before the year was up, but neither of these fared well. His third single for the label appeared in 1982 under the name Nino de Angelo and reached high into the German pop charts, attracting the attention of the teen magazines -- and de Angelo's run as a teen idol began. He released several singles and albums through the 1980s, slowing his pace in the 1990s while he battled lymph node cancer and several financial disasters, rebounding somewhat as the 21st century began, although his career as an adult singer is still being shaped.