Piero Cotto

Piero Cotto (born 14 July 1944) is an Italian musician and singer-songwriter.

Life and career
Born in Asti, Cotto began his musical career as a member of the Orchestra. In 1964, he took part in Un disco per l'estate, and in 1966 he charted in Greece with the song "Forgiveness".

After serving as a guitarist for the band Majority One, under the stage name "Peter Cook", in the early 1970s Cotto formed the band Piero e i Cottonfields, with which he achieved a major hit with the single "Due delfini bianchi", which sold over 500,000 copies. In 1972, the group recorded their first and only album, Il Viaggio, La Donna, Un'altra Vita. In 1975, shorly after the disbandment of the band, he entered the main competition at the 25th edition of the Sanremo Music Festival, reaching the finals with the song "Il telegramma".

In the second half of the 1970s, Cotto collaborated to various projects by Augusto Martelli. In 1980, he ranked second at the Viña del Mar International Song Festival with "Ninna nanna a un posto vuoto", and in 1990 he eventually won the festival with "Non devi abbandonarmi mai". In the 1980s he toured with Astor Piazzolla and collaborated with Francesco Salvi, appearing in his Italia 1 show MegaSalviShow and composing "Le solite promesse", the B-side of his number 1 single "C'è da spostare una macchina".

In 2024, Cotto's 1983 single, "Johnny in the Middle of the Park", which was used as the credits theme for an episode of the Italian sport programme La Domenica Sportiva, was identified after being an example of lostwave under the name "Johnny" or "The Grass is Green". Cotto and his son confirmed that he was the artist behind the song as well as its official title after Reddit and Discord users discovered that his songs sounded similar to it.

In 1992, he married Beatrice Pasquali, who served as backing vocalist for him under the stage name Beatrice Dalì since 1981. In 2022, the couple took part in The Voice Senior, reaching the finals. Cotto has two sons, Matteo and Samuele.