Bon Jovi Biography
Legendary American vocalist Bon Jovi hails from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, USA, he is the son of immigrant labourers John Bovi and Carol Sharkey. Changing from his original name, John Francis Bongiovi, Jr. , he hit the streets of New York as Jon Bovi as a teenager in search of recording studios that would be willing to sign him on. New York was a tough market and to get ahead you had to ‘know someone’, lucky for him a relative had a small recording company that Jovi had initially refused to work with but after losing patience and giving up on ever signing to a big recording studio he decided to work in the relative’s studio.
At the time Jovi was a student at the St.Joseph High School in New Jersey but as he spent more time in the studio and at odd jobs to support himself his school work begun to deteriorate and bad grades led him to the Sayreville War Memorial High School in Parlin, New Jersey. Jovi had to work twice as hard as a mixed race artist in order to gain public acceptance for his music. He was involved in several gigs with various neighbourhood bands before producing his first album titled ‘Christmas in the Stars: Christmas Star Wars’ in 1983.
‘Runway’ was one of the album’s hit singles that the singer credits for his breakthrough, the single was promoted extensively by Jovi until it received airplay in radio stations and got the attention of the public. Fans and producers wanted to know who this new artist was and record deals came in for the singer to work with various producers. He chose to work with Mercury Records and the partnership led to the production of ‘Bon Jovi’ in 1983, this was his solo album although at the time he was in the process of forming a band that was to be named after him.
‘Bon Jovi’ was a success and it included hit songs like ‘She Don’t Know Me’, the single was responsible for grossing millions of dollars for the singer’s other project after it spent weeks at the top of Billboard music charts.
Follow-up albums from the singer were band productions and they included 78000Fahrenheit, Keep the Faith, Slippery When Wet and Cross Road. The group thrived on the 1980s boy band successes like Westlife, Boyz II Men and The Rolling Stones. Ten of the group’s albums were certified either Gold or Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, RIAA. The group’s popularity and success went beyond the US to regions in the UK, Bon Jovi was given and Honorary spot on the UK Hall of Fame for their contribution to the entertainment industry. Bon Jovi got a rare chance to permanently produce in Russia under the band’s newly founded recording company called Melodiya Records.
The band, under the leadership of Jovi went in record for having over 30 million fans in each of their live concerts and album sales for Bon Jovi are also over 30 million to date.
The singer enjoys soccer and has his own foundation, the Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League which provides opportunities for talented youngsters to make careers out of the game.
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