Michael Fredo
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| Michael Fredo | |
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 Michael Fredo with Jay Levine a.k.a. Today Kid and William Quigley |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Michael Fredo Coppola |
| Born | July 17, 1978 |
| Origin | New York, United States |
| Genres | Rock Pop Rock Acoustic |
| Years active | 1998–present |
| Labels | Qwest Records Warner Bros. Records Lefthook Records/Sony Music |
| Website | Official Website |
Michael Fredo (born July 17, 1978 in Elmira, New York) is an American musician and the nephew of Tommy Hilfiger. He has collaborated with producers like Quincy Jones, Rudy Perez, David Foster, Jay Levine and performed original material opening for Norah Jones, David Lee Roth, Julio Iglesias and Lenny Kravitz.
[edit] Career
Michael moved from his hometown of Elmira, New York to Manhattan where he studied performing arts at the prestigious Professional Children’s School. Michael’s talents were soon noticed by fellow student Paul Ellington, grandson and heir to the famed Duke Ellington Orchestra, who encouraged Michael to audition for the orchestra’s upcoming worldwide tour. Subsequently, he was cast as the lead male vocalist where he performed for the next four years alongside the likes of Diana Krall, Wynton Marsalis and many others.
A few years later, a chance encounter with Grammy Award-winning Producer Quincy Jones led to Michael’s first major record label deal with Warner Bros. Records. Under the guidance of Jones and his mentor, Andy Hilfiger, Fredo’s music accompanied the first Tommy Jeans by Tommy Hilfiger ad campaign, which he became the model and spokesperson for. While modeling and filming an advertisement for Hilfiger, he met pop star Britney Spears and was recruited as her opening act on the Baby One More Time Tour. His hit single, "This Time Around," reached #21 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales Chart while on tour with Spears, and his first album, “Introducing Michael Fredo,” sold over 500,000 copies worldwide. Since then, he has collaborated with producers including Rudy Perez, Mark Ronson and David Foster and has performed original material opening for Norah Jones, Aaron Neville, and Lenny Kravitz. In addition to his live shows, Michael released the self-written song, "Who Said,” chosen as the theme song for the Tommy Girl Fragrance advertising campaign, and “Free” which was chosen as the theme song for James Toback's controversial film “Black and White” starring Robert Downey Jr. and Brooke Shields. Several of his original songs were also featured in MTV’s “The Real World,” “Rich Girls,” and “The Newly Weds,” and many other pop culture reality tv shows.
Most recently, Michael Fredo, has been on long runs with some of the best hotels in the world. He was chosen as the first house band to perform at The Plaza Hotel since the 1960s. He spent two years performing in the famed Rose Club, formerly known as The Persian Room, serenading a packed house of New York's socialites, celebs, young professionals, and sometimes even Royalty from around the globe! After performing for six months at the brand new Trump Hotel in Soho, Mayor Bloomberg hired Fredo to perform at his New York residence, Gracie Mansion. A favorite of casinos around the United States, Michael Fredo plans to bring his version of "The Rat Pack" to an International audience in the very near future. His next musical journey brings him to Michael Feinstein's at The Loews Regency in New York City for an eight month residency, April until December, 2012.
Fredo first came into the public eye after being signed to Qwest Records/Warner Bros. Records by Quincy Jones. His single, "This Time Around", reached # 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales Chart while touring with Britney Spears on her ...Baby One More Time Tour. His first album, Introducing Michael Fredo, sold over 500,000 copies worldwide while his music videos played extensively on MTV. In 2006, Fredo performed his song "Popstar Lovelife" live on the Fox News morning show, Fox and Friends and New York's CW11 morning show inspired by his former tour mate.
He landed 3 songs on the Abercrombie and Fitch music network worldwide: "Popstar Lovelife", "Love all Over Again", and "This Time Around Remixes".
Between 2007 and 2008, Fredo becomes the producer and host for Fame is Television with Tommy Hilfiger as cofounder. He also shoots the music video for the theme song which he wrote and recorded for a guest appearance by singer/rapper Tokyo Diiva. He is also featured in the Hilfiger Sessions series of concerts held in LA, New York, and Miami in the Summer of 2007.
He collaborated with Jay Levine (a.k.a. Today Kid) from the band Prozzäk between 2009 and 2011.
