Checco Zalone

Luca Pasquale Medici^[1] (born 3 June 1977), known as Checco Zalone (Italian pronunciation: [ˈkekkoddzaˈloːne] ; modeled on the Italianized Barese insult che cozzalone!, lit. 'what a boor!'), is an Italian comedian, actor, showman, singer, musician, cabaret performer, screenwriter, director and film producer. He co-wrote and starred in the five highest-grossing Italian films in Italy headed by Quo Vado? .

Luca Medici was born in Capurso, in the first hinge of the metropolitan area of Bari, close to the suburbs south of the city. The pseudonym Checco Zalone recalls the local expression che cozzalone!, meaning "what a boor!". During his teens, he was very fond of video games and spent most of his afternoons indoors. He graduated from the scientific high school Sante Simone in Conversano; he later enrolled at the University of Bari, where he graduated in law. In the meantime, he participates in the competitions as deputy police inspector and INAIL in Rimini, but is rejected.^{[citation needed ]}

After being a regular in many editions of the Canale 5 variety show Zelig  [it], he became famous in 2006 thanks to the song "Siamo una squadra fortissimi  [it]" (meaning "we are a very strong team" in broken Italian), celebrating the Italian team just before the 2006 FIFA World Cup.^[1] In 2009 he co-wrote and starred in Cado dalle nubi , co-written by Gennaro Nunziante, who also directed.

In 2011, he again co-wrote and starred in Che bella giornata , also co-written and directed by Nunziante. It opened with a record Italian opening weekend of 9ドル.4 million^[2] and became the highest-grossing Italian film of all-time in Italy, grossing 43ドル.4 million,^[3] surpassing Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful .^[4] Life Is Beautiful retained the worldwide record for an Italian film with 70ドル million worldwide.^[4]

In 2013, he and Nunziante followed it up with Sole a catinelle which surpassed it with an opening record of 19ドル.2 million and a total gross of 51ドル.9 million.^{[3] [5] [6]}

In January 2016, his and Nunziante's next film Quo Vado? set another opening weekend record grossing over 22ドルm (16ドル.5m) over the three-day holiday weekend^{[5] [7] [8]} and went on to become the highest-grossing Italian film of all-time^[9] with 65ドル.3 million, second only to Avatar in Italy with 65ドル.7 million.^[9] In the same year, Zalone was the Italian testimonial of the funding raising campaign for the research on Spinal muscular atrophy.^{[10] [11]} His and Nunziate's films are currently the second, third, fifth and sixth highest-grossing films in Italy.

On 30 April 2021, Checco Zalone released the video of his song "La vacinada" (meaning "the vaccinated woman" in pseudo-Spanish), starring English actress Helen Mirren. In the song, Zalone jokes about the fact that, in times of Covid-19 pandemic, it is safer to have an affair with someone who has already been vaccinated against the virus, and therefore the best option is a higher-aged partner, as the elderly are the ones who were vaccinated first.^[12]

In 2022 he has been guest at Sanremo Music Festival with a medley.

• Checco Zalone at IMDb

• 1977 births
• Living people
• Musicians from Bari
• Italian male singer-songwriters
• 21st-century Italian singer-songwriters
• Italian male comedians
• 21st-century Italian musicians
• Italian male film actors
• 21st-century Italian male actors
• Italian comedy musicians
• Italian male screenwriters
• 21st-century Italian screenwriters
• 21st-century Italian male singers
• Male actors from Bari

• Articles with Italian-language sources (it)
• CS1 Italian-language sources (it)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from October 2019
• Biography articles needing translation from Italian Wikipedia
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• Articles with unsourced statements from May 2021