Raf, pseudonym of Raffaele Riefoli, was born in Margherita di Savoia in the province of Foggia on 29 September 1959. At 17 he moved to Florence to study at the Art Institute and later enrolled in the faculty of architecture. At the beginning of the eighties he moved to London where, together with Ghigo Renzulli, the future guitarist of the rock group Litfiba, he founded a rock / punk group, the Cafè Caracas, with which he recorded a cover of Tintarella di luna by Mina. He worked as a waiter, and kept his savings. One day he met Giancarlo Bigazzi with whom he formed a partnership that earned him the first steps of his career. Back in Florence, he recorded his first single, Self Control, under a French label, a dance track that reached the first place in the charts all over the world, including the United States, and the "cover" sung by Laura Branigan reached n ° 1 of the Billboard Hit Parade. At the end of 1984 was released the first album RAF. In addition to "Self Control", there were two other successful singles: "Change Your Mind" and "Hard". After a period of reflection, Raf decided to go against the tide and began writing Italian pop songs, also collaborating in writing texts. He wrote for the trio Morandi-Ruggeri-Tozzi "Si può dare di più”, song that won the Sanremo Festival in 1987. In the same year, he reached the third place at the Eurovision Song Contest 1987 together with Umberto Tozzi with “Gente di mare”, his debut as an interpreter in Italian. In 1988 he participated for the first time at the Sanremo Festival with "Inevitabile follia", after which he published the album "Svegliarsi un anno fa”, whose supporting track for the summer season was written by Gaetano Curreri, "Il sapore di un bacio". The following year, he returned to Sanremo with "Cosa resterà degli anni ‘80", included in the album "Cosa resterà ...", which also contained "Ti pretendo", with which he won the Festivalbar 1989. In 1991, again in Sanremo, he presented "Oggi un Dio non ho" and in 1993 he won again the Festivalbar with "Il battito animale". In June 1995, "Manifesto" was released, which included the hit single "Sei la più bella del mondo” and the following year was released his first collection "Temporary Collection". At the beginning of the XXI century, we remember the single "Infinito" with which he won the radio award at the Festivalbar 2001. In 2015 he participated in Sanremo, 24 years after the last time, with the song "Come un favola". He was struck by bronchitis and, at the end of the fourth evening, his piece was among the four excluded from the final. He has been married since 1996 with the soubrette Gabriella Labate, from whom he had two children: Bianca (born in 1996) and Samuele (born in 2000).
