Federico Russo

Federico Russo was born and raised in Florence, Italy with his parents and younger brother Francesco, born in 1985. As a child, he enjoyed playing soccer which he did for nine years. During his teenage years he formed a band called "Scrabbles" with his school mates, for which he wrote lyrics and performed as a singer at parties and small venue gigs. In 1999 he graduated from Senior High School "Liceo Classico Dante". Later he went on to study law at the University of Florence. In 2001 he started working as a speaker for Florence area radio stations Lady Radio and Radio Sieve. In 2002 he made his breakthrough as a singer when he was selected as one of the 16 final contestants to participate in the reality show "Operazione Trionfo", the Italian equivalent to Operación triunfo (2001) which was shown on Italian national TV channel Italia 1 and hosted by Miguel Bosé. After the show ended, he recorded an album titled "Canterò per te" with three fellow contestants, which was released in Ita