Paolo Nutini

Paolo Giovanni Nutini was born 9 January 1987 and is a Scottish singer, songwriter and musician from Paisley. Both his parents are Scottish, although his father is of Italian descent, from Barga, Tuscany, and his family has been in Scotland for three generations.

Paolo Nutini's debut album, These Streets, was released by Atlantic Records in the United Kingdom in July 2006 and included the singles "Last Request", "Jenny Don't Be Hasty", "Rewind" and "New Shoes", "Last Request" being the most successful, reaching number five on the UK Singles Chart. The album peaked at number three on the UK Album Chart and was certified 4× platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). It has been in the album charts for a record-breaking 196 weeks.

In May 2009 Nutini released his second album, Sunny Side Up, which debuted at number one in the UK and has produced four singles; "Candy", "Coming Up Easy", "Pencil Full of Lead" and "10/10". It has so far been certified 4x platinum by the BPI. On 19 February 2010, it scooped "Best International Album" at the 2010 Meteor Awards.

Paolo Nutini was taught singing by Avril McCusker for three and half years, but was expecting to follow his father into the family fish and chip shop business. He was first encouraged to sing by his music-loving grandfather, Jackie, and a teacher at his school, St Andrews Academy, who recognised his talent. He left school to work as a roadie and to sell t-shirts for Speedway. He spent three years learning the music business and performing live. He later worked as a studio hand at Glasgow's Park Lane Studio.

His big chance came when he attended a concert staged by 102.5 Clyde 1 for David Sneddon's return to his home town of Paisley at the beginning of 2003. Sneddon was delayed, and as the winner of an impromptu pop quiz, Nutini was given the chance to perform a couple of songs on stage during the wait. The favourable reaction of the crowd impressed another member of the audience, Brendan Moon, who offered to become his manager. Brendan and his business partner Mike Bawden continue to manage Paolo. Only 17, Nutini moved to London and performed regularly at The Bedford pub in Balham. Other radio and live appearances followed, including two live acoustic spots on Radio London, The Hard Rock Cafe, and support slots for The Rolling Stones, Amy Winehouse and KT Tunstall.

Throughout 2006 Nutini played a number of sold-out concerts in the UK and performed at a wide variety of venues worldwide, including King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow, a TV appearance on Later with Jools Holland, Carnegie Hall in New York, The Montreux Jazz Festival, The Wireless Festival, Oxegen and T in the Park. He supported the Rolling Stones in Vienna and was invited to appear with them again at the Don Valley Stadium in August 2006. He was also booked to appear at the V Festival and The Austin City Limits Music Festival, Texas later in 2006, with a European tour in the autumn. In May 2006, he also played at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in Dundee.

On Hogmanay 2006, Nutini appeared on BBC Scotland's Hogmanay Live celebrations, after the official celebrations in Princes Street Gardens were cancelled at short notice due to abysmal weather. He performed several songs in the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle for the TV audience with little or no rehearsal.

On Wednesday 11 April 2007, Nutini performed in a concert that was streamed live via MSN Music.

Nutini performed at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2007 on the famous Pyramid Stage on the second day of the event. Nutini also performed at the UK leg of Live Earth at Wembley Stadium on 7 July 2007, with his set including a cover of "What A Wonderful World", a classic pop tune by Bob Thiele, George David Weiss, and George Douglas. He performed the following day at T in the Park, in Scotland. He performed at the Ahmet Ertegün Tribute Concert on 10 December 2007, an event that drew enormous international attention as it was the first full live concert performance by Led Zeppelin in 27 years.

Scottish independent TV company Volt MediaFix are currently making a one-off special documentary on Nutini's recent US tour. The programme, for the BBC, was scheduled for broadcast on BBC2, on Thursday 7 June throughout Scotland and on Sky channel 990 throughout the rest of the UK.

Nutini's songs have infiltrated American TV shows as well. "Last Request" featured at the end of the Scrubs episode "My Words of Wisdom" from Season 6, the first-ever episode of "Gavin and Stacey," and the One Tree Hill Season-4 episode "The Birth and Death of the Day." "Million Faces" could be heard at the end of the Grey's Anatomy episode "Testing 1–2–3" from Season 3 and is on the Volume 3 Soundtrack. "Rewind" was played at the end of CSI: Miamis Season-5 episode "Broken Home." "Jenny, Don't Be Hasty" was also featured on another member of the CSI franchise when it played on CSI: NYs Season-3-finale, "Snow Day". "New Shoes" featured in The Jane Austen Book Club and in a TV ad for Puma AG during summer 2008. On 24 July 2007, Nutini was awarded The Golden St. Christopher medal by the city of Barga in Italy, the highest honour the city can give, to celebrate his extraordinary contributions to Barga and its people. On 17 September, Nutini performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno performing "Last Request". In September 2007, Nutini recorded a short radio show with imeem.com where he listed his top 10 favourite tracks and the reasons behind his choices. In October 2007, Nutini performed for the annual Voodoo Fest held in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 2008, Nutini's music was featured in a movie adaptation of Irvine Welsh's best-selling novel Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance. On New Year's Eve 2008–09, Nutini performed at the Hogmanay street parties in both Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland, becoming the first act to play both locations on the same day for the event. In The View's 2009 album Which Bitch?, he is featured singing on the song "Covers."

On 1 June 2009, Nutini released his second studio album Sunny Side Up, which debuted at number one. The first single from the album "Candy" was released on 25 May. In July, he appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, performing "Coming Up Easy". This was released as the second single to the album on 10 August and it debuted at number 62 in the UK Singles Chart on 16 August 2009. On 10 September 2009, Nutini performed "Coming Up Easy" on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. The third single from the album was "Pencil Full of Lead".

The album received a mixed critical reception. Allmusic's Thom Jurek noted the move away from the sound of the debut album: "Nutini has taken huge chunks of America's (and Scotland's) pop and folk pasts and reshaped them in his own image," going on to describe it as "wise beyond this songwriter's years". Andy Gill of The Independent commented on Nutini's progress since his debut, saying the album "sees the singer making giant strides in several directions", and going on to say "don't be surprised if, come December, this is one of the year's biggest-selling albums." Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph was also positive, stating "his joyous second album organically blends soul, country, folk and the brash, horny energy of ragtime swing."

Some reviewers were less impressed. It was described by The Guardian's Caroline Sullivan as "not bad", with opening track "10/10" described as "jaunty enough to make you retch". Graeme Thompson of The Observer saw the album as an attempt by Nutini at "rebranding himself as a mongrel hybrid of John Martyn, Otis Redding and Bob Marley".

The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with sales of over 60,000 copies, fighting off strong competition from Love & War, the debut album of fellow male solo artist Daniel Merriweather. The album performed similarly well on the Irish Albums Chart, debuting at number two behind Eminem's new album before rising to the top of the charts the week after.

The album has been one of the best UK album sales of the year. On the UK Albums Chart on the Week of Monday 19 Oct, the album move from number 31 to number 5, making the album sell more than The Saturdays second album. On 3 January 2010 Sunny Side Up topped the UK Album Charts for a second time, making the album the first Number one album in the United Kingdom of 2010 and the decade.

On 19 February 2010, Colin Farrell presented Nutini with "Best International Album" for Sunny Side Up at the 2010 Meteor Awards.

Paolo Nutini embarked on a world tour with his Sunny Side Up album. The band consisted of, in addition to Paolo: Donny Little-Guitars, Vocals Seamus Simon-Drums Michael McDaid-Bass, Keyboard Dave Nelson-Guitars, Keyboard, Vocals, Percussion Gavin Fitzjohn-Trumpet, Saxophone Ben Edwards - trumpet & flugelhorn, and Tom Pinder - trombone & sousaphone. The brass section are collectively known as the "Horns of Thunder" (a name formed by Paolo himself)

Nutini made his first demo which saw him signed to Atlantic Records in May 2005, shortly after his 18th birthday. He released his first single "These Streets" as a free download in May 2006, this was then followed by his next single "Last Request" which was released on 4 July 2006 and charted at number 5 in the official UK charts. In the video for "Last Request", Nutini plays the part of a robber – though this is not revealed until the end. Nutini's third single, "Jenny Don't Be Hasty", was released on 25 September 2006 and got to number 20 on the UK Singles Chart. "Rewind" was Nutini's fourth single. It was released on 4 December 2006, and reached number 27 in the UK.

His debut album These Streets, produced by Ken Nelson (who has also worked with Coldplay and Gomez), was released on 17 July 2006 and immediately entered the UK album charts at number three. Many of the songs on the album, including "Last Request" and "Rewind", were inspired by a turbulent relationship with his girlfriend Teri Brogan, and "Jenny Don't Be Hasty" is a true story about encounters with an older woman. These Streets, as Paolo himself puts it on his official website, he states, "The album is a little glimpse of some of the experiences I have been through in the last three years". In late 2007 he covered Labi Siffre's "It Must Be Love" for BBC Radio 1's Radio 1 Established 1967 album.

His self-produced second album Sunny Side Up was released on 1 June 2009.