Italian singer-songwriter, arranger, record producer and lyricist Giampiero Scalamogna, professionally known as Gepy & Gepy, was born on 13th June 1943 in Rome and passed away on 3rd July 2010.
Giampiero’s music career started at 16 years old. In his early 20s, he formed the duo Dany & Gepy with whom he sang cover versions of tracks by rhythm and blues and soul artists in a famous Rome nightclub. Two years later, his first 45rpm was released under the stage name of Gepy & Gepy, which a few years on formed a trio with two female singers.
At the beginning of the 70s, Giampiero concentrated more on songwriting and in fact penned numerous songs for various artists like Patty Pravo and Fiorella Mannoia, as well as co-wrote a track named ‘Roma’ (non si discute, si ama) with Antonello Venditti and Sergio Bardotti, in view that he was an avid Roma fan.
Scalogna’s career took a positive turn when he met renowned singer Ornella Vanoni who offered him a recording contract and with whom he even sang in duet the famous track ‘Piu`’. In the late 70s, he competed in two festivals and also wrote several Italo-disco genre songs like ‘Blu’ and ‘Body to Body’. The latter track was very successful, so much so that it made it to various European top charts, thanks to Giampiero’s soulful voice. It was also used as the theme song for a famous music broadcast, ‘Discoring’. In 1989, he competed in the San Remo Music Festival and in 2001 participated in the show ‘La Notte Vola’.
Giampiero died from severe pneumonia on 3rd July 2010 at the age of 67.
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