Lorenzo Fragola

Stepping into the limelight in 2014 by winning the eighth season of Italy's X Factor, singer and songwriter Lorenzo Fragola was born in Catania, Sicily. As a schoolboy, he took music lessons, sang in a choir, and eventually began writing songs in his teens. After high school, he moved to Bologna to further his studies, and auditioned for the music competition show X Factor, making the field in his second attempt, where he was crowned champion. His X Factor winner's single, "The Reason Why," debuted at number one on the singles chart in Italy. Named after the year of his birth and released by Sony Music in the spring of 2015, his debut album, 1995, topped the Italian albums chart. Fragola's second full-length, Zero Gravity, also hit number one upon its release in March 2016. ~ Marcy Donelson