Marco Borsato (born December 21, 1966) is a Dutch singer. He started performing in Italian before switching to Dutch in 1994.
Marco was born in the Wilhelmina Hospital in Alkmaar as the son of Roberto Borsato and Mary de Graaf. He has a brother, Armando, and a sister, Sylvana. The family moved to Italy, where the father started up a restaurant in Garda. Marco spent a significant amount of time in Italy and speaks fluent Italian.
When Marco was 12 years old he decided he wanted to be a sushi chef. Marco, though brought up with Italian cuisine, had a great love for raw fish bound in seaweed. When he was older he went to school during the week and he worked in a restaurant during the weekends. During his conscription he was bound to the cavalery, where he was conscripted as a NCO. Success stayed out after Marco Borsato won the Dutch Soundmixshow on April 6, 1990 with his rendition of Billy Vera's song "At This Moment." During that time he was indeed working as a chef.
Marco brought out 3 albums with Italian songs, but it wasn't until 1994 that Marco gained popularity after his first Dutch single "Dromen Zijn Bedrog" which reached number one and remained number one for 12 weeks. His second single "Waarom Nou Jij" also reached the first place in the Dutch "Top 40."
Many of his songs are actually Dutch covers or adaptations of Italian songs, (for example by Riccardo Fogli, Giorgia, Riccardo Cocciante, Claudio Baglioni, Marco Masini and Zucchero). In particular, he had quite a success with an adaptation of Margherita by Riccardo Cocciante. Because the majority of Marco's songs are originally written in Italian he has recently decided to compose songs in Dutch, after which he has become far more popular.
In 2009 Marco nearly went bankrupt when his company The Entertainment Group was caught up in a web of debt.
Marco married his wife Leontine Ruiters and they have 3 children together Luca (1998), Senna (2001 en Jada (2002).
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