Rocco Granata

Rocco Granata (b. August 16, 1938) is a Belgian singer, songwriter, and accordionist. Granata was born in Figline Vegliaturo, Calabria, southern Italy; but his parents immigrated to Belgium when he was ten. Rocco's father was a coal miner, but after briefly working in the coal mines, Granata pursued music instead. He played accordion and toured Belgium with his band, "The International Quintet". He then released the song "Manuela" b/w "Marina" as a single in 1959; the B-side became an international smash hit, hitting #1 in Belgium as well as charting across Europe and in America. The song went on to sell tens of millions of copies worldwide, and has been covered many times by artists such as Marino Marini, Dalida and Louis Armstrong. After the success of "Marina", Granata toured the world, including dates at Carnegie Hall. A feature film entitled Marina was released in 1960, which set the stage for a string of German hits from Granata. He also appeared in Italy at the Sanremo Festival in 1961. Granata later became a successful record producer. He owned the labels Cardinal Records and Granata Records, and has produced artists such as Marva, Louis Neefs, Miel Cools, De Elegasten, and others. In 1989, Granata commissioned a dance remix of Marina, which again topped the Belgian charts as well as those of Italy and Germany. Granata has appeared regularly on Belgian television, and served as a jury member for the 2002 Flemish preliminaries for the Eurovision Song Contest. In March 2000 he was awarded the ZAMU Lifetime Achievement Award by the Belgian music industry. Granata has released some 65 albums over the course of his career