Michael Sembello

Michael Andrew Sembello (born April 17, 1954) is an American Grammy-award winning and Oscar nominated singer, musician, songwriter, composer and producer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Sembello was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his 1983 song "Maniac", which he sang and co-wrote. The song reached number-one in the United States and notably featured on the 1984 Grammy Award winning Motion Picture soundtrack for "Flashdance."

Sembello began his career as a session Guitarist, then became a solo-artist, songwriter, composer and producer.

Early life

Sembello was born and raised in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, a western suburb of Philadelphia. He studied guitar with jazz great Pat Martino.

Career

Sembello began his career in music as a session musician, working with increasingly high-profile artists as a guitarist. By age 17 he was working professionally with Stevie Wonder on electric and acoustic guitar as a studio player on Wonder's Fulfillingness' First Finale. He continued the same year, chosen as one of the core artists who worked on Songs in the Key of Life, an ambitious double album that took two years to create. He was credited as lead and rhythm guitarist on most of the tracks, and shares songwriting credit with Wonder on the song "Saturn". The list of pop music personalities he worked with, or wrote for, includes Stevie Wonder (from 1974 to 1979), George Benson, Michael Jackson, Donna Summer, Chaka Khan, Barbara Streisand, Diana Ross, Sérgio Mendes, The Temptations, Stanley Clarke, David Sanborn, Miguel Mateos and New Edition among many others.

Sembello wrote a song, "Carousel", which Michael Jackson recorded for his 1982 album Thriller, but it was replaced on the track list by "Human Nature".

Sembello released his first solo album, Bossa Nova Hotel, in 1983. The song "Maniac" from that album, which he co-wrote with his keyboardist Dennis Matkosky, was selected for inclusion in the blockbuster film Flashdance. "Maniac" went on to become the second best charting song from the soundtrack (after the title track) and the ninth biggest single of 1983. That soundtrack was rewarded with a Grammy Award in 1983 for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special.

Sembello produced guitarist Jennifer Batten's first solo album, Above Below and Beyond in 1992. In 1994, he produced Argentine singer Valeria Lynch's album Caravana de Sueños (1994), and co-wrote the title song with Puerto Rican Wilkins Vélez.

Sembello has spent much of his career writing songs for movies and film, some of which have achieved blockbuster commercial success. His songs are featured in the films Cocoon, Independence Day, Gremlins, The Monster Squad and Summer Lovers, among many others. His song "Gravity" from the film Cocoon was accompanied by a music video directed by Cocoon director Ron Howard and included an appearance by Howard in a scripted fictional foreword to the video.

In 2008, Michael Sembello worked with saxophonist Michael Lington on his album Heat, which was nominated as Jazztrax Album of the Year for 2008. Michael and his brother Danny Sembello penned three songs with Lington for the project. Sembello travels to Brazil frequently and is good friends with Daniel Jobim, the grandson of legendary composer Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Sembello has recorded his vocals in six languages and is continually writing, producing and releasing albums. In May 2009, the album Moon Island was released on EMI Japan. The album consists of American pop songs given new arrangements with a strong Brazilian influence.