Italian television and radio presenter (born 1962)
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Italian. (February 2022)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Italian Wikipedia article at [[:it:Amadeus (conduttore televisivo)]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|it|Amadeus (conduttore televisivo)}} to the talk page.
Born in Ravenna to Sicilian parents, Sebastiani grew up in Verona.[1][2] He started his career in 1979 as a deejay for a small radio station in Verona after a successful audition.[2]
One day in 1985, Sebastiani spent six hours outside a hotel to lend Vittorio Salvetti, Italian television producer, a VHS with his audition. Salvetti then got him in touch with talent scout Claudio Cecchetto, to which Sebastiani recorded and sent a demo cassette. The talent scout gave him a chance in 1986 and made him debut for Radio DeeJay with the stage name "Amadeus", basing it off of Rock Me Amadeus, 1985single by Falco.[3] Over the next two years he became one of the main radio presenters for Radio Capital Music Network, where he co-hosted many programmes with Luca Laurenti among mang others. He made his television debut in 1988, appearing in the Radio DeeJay spin-off DeeJay Television on Italia 1.
His debut on a Rai network was in 1999 as a quality juror for Sanremo Music Festival 1999. In September of that year he became the host of Domenica In for the next season. In October 2000, Quiz Show premiered on Rai 1 with him as the host. The game later rebranded to L'eredità, which he kept hosting until he briefly quit Rai in 2006.[4][5]
In April 2024, he left Rai at the end of his contract and signed a four-year deal with Warner Bros. Discovery.[7] His final appearances for Rai included Una. Nessuna. Centomila – in Arena[8], Viva Rai2! hosted by Fiorello[9], and Affari tuoi[10] (English: "Your Business"), the Italian version of Deal or No Deal.
On Nove, he launched Suzuki Music Party[11], the quiz show Chissà chi è[12] and La Corrida – Dilettanti allo sbaraglio[13], and also hosted the 2024 SIAE Music Awards[14]. In 2025, he joined the jury of Amici di Maria De Filippi[15] on Canale 5 before returning to Nove in May to present Like a Star[16], the Italian version of Starstruck, which was followed in June by The Cage – Prendi e scappa[17].
Personal life
Between 1993 and 2007, Sebastiani was married to Marisa Di Martino. They have a daughter, Alice Vittoria, born in 1997.[citation needed]
In 2003, after separating from his first wife, Sebastiani began a relationship with the showgirl Giovanna Civitillo, whom he had met while working at L'eredità.[18]
In January 2009, Sebastiani and Giovanna had a son, José Alberto, named after José Mourinho, who at the time was coaching Inter Milan – the team Sebastiani supports. The couple married later that year.[19]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
