Matia Bazar (Raggio Di Luna)

Matia Bazar (Italian: [maˈtiːa badˈdzar, - baˈzar]) is an Italian pop band formed in Genoa in 1975. The original members of the group were Piero Cassano (keyboards), Aldo Stellita (bass), Carlo Marrale (guitar, vocals), Giancarlo Golzi (drums), and Antonella Ruggiero (vocals). They represented Italy in the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest with a song called "Raggio di luna". They are known for the quality of their female vocalists; after Ruggiero, vocalists included Laura Valente, Silvia Mezzanotte, Roberta Faccani, and Luna Dragonieri. Their major hits were "Solo tu" (1977), "Vacanze romane" (1982), and "Ti sento" (1985), which peaked on the charts in Belgium, Netherlands, and Italy. The group achieved several major successes, amongst which the win of two Sanremo Music Festivals in 1978 and in 2002. Ruggiero and Marrale, the two main vocalists of the original line-up, left respectively in 1989 and 1994 to pursue solo careers. Main lyricist and bassist Stellita died in 1998 and drummer/writer and founding member Golzi in 2015. Cassano, the last original member, left in May 2017. As of 2024, none of the current members of the group belongs to its original lineup. The band is now led by Fabio Perversi, keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist since 1998, who has been indicated by Cassano and Golzi as the right person to carry on the new era of the band, which in their idea "should survive to their original members".