Francesca Michielin, Italian singer-songwriter
Francesca Michielin (Italian pronunciation: [franˈtʃeska mikjeˈlin]; born 25 February 1995) is an Italian singer and songwriter. She rose to fame after winning the fifth season of the Italian talent show X Factor. Her first single, "Distratto", debuted atop the Italian FIMI Top Digital Downloads chart and was certified double platinum by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry. Michielin's debut studio album, Riflessi di me, was released in October 2012, preceded by the single "Sola".
During the following years, she released the albums di20 (2015) and 2640 (2018), both certified gold by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry, and several hit singles, including "L'amore esiste" (2015), "Nessun grado di separazione" (2016), "Vulcano" (2018), "Io non abito al mare" (2018) and "Cheyenne" (2019).
She recorded three commercially successful singles with Italian rapper Fedez—"Cigno nero" (2013), "Magnifico" (2014) and "Chiamami per nome" (2021)—and she released collaborations with several artists spanning different genres, including rappers Fabri Fibra and Don Joe, indie pop acts Giorgio Poi, Coma Cose, Vasco Brondi and Carl Brave, rock band Måneskin, and pop singers Elisa and Max Gazzè. Her fourth studio album, Feat (stato di natura), was conceived as a collection of previously unreleased collaborations.
During her career, Michielin competed twice in the Sanremo Music Festival, placing second both in 2016 with "Nessun grado di separazione" and in 2021 with "Chiamami per nome", performed with Fedez. With "Nessun grado di separazione", she went on representing Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.