Lele

Raffaele Esposito (born 23 December 1996), known professionally as Lele, is an Italian singer-songwriter. In 2017 he won the 67th Sanremo Music Festival in the "New Proposals" section with the song "Ora mai".

Biography 2015–2016: Amici 15 and Costruire Born in 1996, Lele was interested in music from an early age and at the age of twelve he entered the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella in Naples, where he studied piano. He also plays the guitar as a self-taught. In 2015 he participated in the third edition of the talent show The Voice of Italy in J-Ax's team but was eliminated during the 2nd Live Show. The following year he participated in the fifteenth edition of the talent show Amici di Maria De Filippi, entering the evening show in Emma and Elisa's white team. Lele reached the final on 25 May 2016, finishing fourth behind the singers Sergio Sylvestre and Elodie and the dancer Gabriele Esposito.

A few days after the final of the program, on 27 May, he released his first album Costruire which includes unreleased songs and covers sung during the talent show. The album entered the charts, reaching third place. Following the release of the album, he embarked on an instore tour, performing live. During the summer he took part in various musical events, such as the Summer Festival, the Festival Show and the Radio Bruno event. In autumn 2016 he was the opening act for various musical artists. For Emma Marrone he opened the concerts on 28 September in Ancona, on 6 October in Pescara, on 14 October in Conegliano and on 15 October in Padua. For Elisa he opened the On Tour on 19 and 20 November (Rome), on 25 and 26 November (Milan) and on 3 December (Naples). On 8 December 2016, during a live broadcast on his Facebook profile, he announced the release of his new single "L'ho voluto io (Alternative Version)", the third single from his debut album.

2016–2020: Sanremo Music Festival 2017 and Black Love Parthenope On 7 November 2016 he announced his participation in the programme Sarà Sanremo, where he competed with 11 other singers for access to the Sanremo Music Festival. The song was included in the re-release of his debut album entitled Costruire 2.0, released on 10 February 2017 with Sony Music, which includes 12 unreleased tracks, all written or co-written by Lele himself, who is starting the Costruire 2.0 Instore tour.

In February, the first dates of the Costruire 2.0 Live tour were announced. On April 4, Lele announced the second single from Costruire 2.0, "Così com'è", which will be broadcast on radio rotation starting 7 April. On April 5, Mario Volanti, director of Radio Italia, announced his participation in the Radio Italia Live event on 18 June at Piazza del Duomo in Milan. Furthermore, on 15 May, he was announced as a special guest, along with Chiara, at the preview of Michele Bravi's Anime di carta tour, on 20 May in Milan. On May 26, he received an award in Pomigliano d'Arco for his victory at Sanremo, and the following day he attended the TIM MTV Awards in Rome.

On June 15 2018, Lele released the single "Giungla", followed in 2019 by his second album, Black Love Parthenope. On 14 January 2020, the web series 4 on the Boat was released, in which Lele discusses social issues.

Discography Studio albums +List of albums, with selected chart positionsTitleAlbum detailsPeak chart positionsITA Costruire Released: 27 May 2016 Label: Sony Music Format: CD, digital download, streaming3Black Love Parthenope Released: 28 June 2019 Label: RCA, Sony Music Format: CD, digital download, streaming—"—" denotes album that did not chart or were not released.

Singles

Songwriting credits

Television program

Tour 2017 – Costruire 2.0 Live tour

Participation in singing events Sanremo Music Festival (Rai 1) 2017 – 1st place in the "New proposals" section with "Ora mai" Sanremo Giovani (Rai 1) 2016 – Finalist with "Ora mai"