Massimiliano Pani

 
Massimiliano Pani is an Italian songwriter, producer and composer born on 18 April 1963 in Milan to parents Corrado Pani and Mina. His mother has always aroused great curiosity and interest not only for her career but the events that have characterized her private life Corrado Pani was married at the time and due to Mina's refusal to hide the relationship, the singer was banned from performing on public Italian television or radio channels. Within a year, her affair with Corrado ended.
Musical career.
At the age of sixteen he wrote his first two songs, "Sensazioni" and "Il vento", which were both included on the 1979 album "Attila" by Mina. Following this, Pani trained Mario Robbiani and Celso Valli. Thereafter he started working with mother on her album Kyrie in 1980 and even appears on the cover.
This would be the start of a permanent collaboration with his mother as a writer, arranger and keyboardist. 
While developing musical projects with Celso Valli and Piero Cassano for the musical group Matia Bazar, Pani continued to write songs for other artists including the opening theme of the Sanremo Festival in 1984, with the song "Rose su rose" sung by Mina.
Pani is also dedicated to the composing jingles for children's cartoons with the lyrics of Alessandra Valeri Manera. These jingles were aired by the networks Mediaset and sung by Cristina D'Avena including "Principessa dai capelli blu" and "Prendi il mondo e vai" in 1988, "Siamo fatti così" and "Questa allegra gioventù" in 1989, "Un mondo di magia" and "Super Mario" in 1990, "Conosciamoci un po" and "Bravo Molière" in 1991). In 1988, he composed some songs for the album "Palla al centro per Rudy", sung by Cristina D'Avena and dedicated to the TV series of the same name.
Pani later moved on and became a talent scout. He produced the debut albums of Massimo Bozzi, the Proxima and Audio2. Pani made his debut as a solo singer with "L'occasione". The album contains music by Pani and lyrics by Giorgio Calabrese. The album is dedicated to his mother, who also appears among the choirs of the disc, under the pseudonym Regina Zoni. In 1992, his mother recorded "Non avere te" , "Robinson" and a duet "Come stai" with Pani for her album Sorelle Lumière.
Two years later he released his second album, "Storie per cani sciolti", again as a songwriter and arranger. Some pieces from this album were also recorded by Mina on her later albums. This was his past album and since then has been an active songwriter, producer and composing music for television and film.
In 1998 wrote the music for the soap opera "Vivere", including the main theme, titled "Cazzo largo", recorded later by Mina. Also in 1998, he arranged and produced the CD " Mina Celentano ". Four singles were released from the album ("Acqua e sale", "Specchi riflessi", "Brivido felino", "Io ho te") and the album remained in the sales chart for several months, selling more than 1,500,000 copies. In 1999 he arranges six tracks on the album "Minage" by Monica Naranjo, including a duet with Mina, titled "El se encuentra entre tu y yo". He also occasionally arranges albums for singers Georgia, Fabrizio De André, Piero Cassano, Danilo Rea, Anna Oxa, Pelù, Fausto Leali and Franco Ambrosetti. In 2010, 2011 and 2012 he returned to TV as a judge in the children talent series "Ti lascio una canzone", presented by Antonella Clerici.
Personal life.
He has a younger half-sister, Benedetta, who is the daughter of journalist Virgilio Crocco and his mother Mina. He has been married twice. His first marriage was to German model Ulrike Fellrath with whom he had a son "Axel Pani" in 1986.
Axel is a musician and songwriter in his own right, he has worked as a writer and has contributed to his grandmother Mina’s albums, including the songs, "Per poco che sia" for the 2006 album Bau, "Con o senza te" and "Il frutto che vuoi" for the 2009 album Facile, "Il povero e il re" for the 2010 album Caramella "Fly away" and "Only this song" for the 2011 album Piccolino, "La sola ballerina che tu avrai" and "Oui c'est la vie" for the 2014 album Selfie.
His second marriage is to showgirl Milena Martelli, with whom he has a son " Edoardo Pani", born in June 2004. Edoardo sings on the opening lines of the song with his grandmother Mina on her 2014 album Selfie
Since 1986 Pani lives and works in Lugano, but unlike his mother and sister, he retained his Italian citizenship.