Returning to Quartu after ten years to perform during the festival of Santa Maria Cepola, singer Nicola Congiu was received by Mayor Graziano Milia. It was an informal greeting, an opportunity to discuss Quartu and the success the singer has achieved far from his hometown, even beyond Italy's borders.
Nicola Congiu, known professionally as Niko, is a native of Quartu, Italy, who emigrated to Northern Italy in his early 20s. His was a gamble on himself, one that, 30 years later, has certainly paid off. Growing up convinced he would become a singer, the artist began in the piano bar circuit, playing guitar and piano for up to four or five hours a night. Over time, he achieved significant success, especially abroad, while always proudly maintaining his Sardinian and Quartu roots.
His voice spans three and a half octaves and easily handles pop, rock, and soul. He has participated in several national singing competitions, such as Castrocaro and Sanremo Famosi, and in 1997 he formed his first nine-piece orchestra, with which he has performed an average of 200 dates a year throughout Northern Italy. It was at one of these performances that he was noticed by American director and producer Steve Binder, who decided to bring Niko to the United States to launch his international career. He has collaborated with artists such as Jewel, Celine Dion, and Tony Bennett. Legendary actor Jerry Lewis also invited him to appear on his Telethon for muscular dystrophy research, before an audience of 60 million viewers. In Italy, he has collaborated with author and presenter Paolo Limiti, appearing on the television show E State Con Noi in Tv.
The meeting with the mayor was also an opportunity to revisit his adolescence, his years in Quartu, and the decision to leave to follow his own path: " I was young, it wasn't easy, but my life turned out the way I hoped. In any case, returning to perform in Quartu is always a pleasure as well as a thrill, " Niko commented the day after the beautiful evening on the stage in Piazza Santa Maria.
"The children of our city who have made their fortunes far from Sardinia is always interesting and enjoyable. First of all, because it shows their pride in their origins and their enduring connection to their homeland, and secondly, because their success is also an opportunity to raise awareness of our city worldwide," he commented. On this occasion, as is tradition, he presented Congiu with the Four Moors pin with a green frame, which, along with the white background, forms the colors of the city of Quartu.
