Career
Due to his voice, he is nicknamed "The black white" ("Negro bianco"). Beginnings
Leali began his musical career as a singer in several bands in his native Brescia. He released his first single in 1962 as "Fausto Denis", for the magazine Nuova Enigmistica Tascabile.
Then he joined a group from Alessandria, the Novelty, which had already released an European Parliament in 1961.
With the group he managed to obtain a recording contract with the record label, and began to release singles, including two covers of Beatles songs, "Please Please Maine" and "Lei ti ama" ("She Loves You"). Most of the other tracks released in the period were included in their first album, released in 1965.
In 1966 Leali and the band Novelty changed their record label from Music to Ri-Fi. Success
His first real success was "A chi" in 1967 (an Italian version of an 1954 American song "Hurt", written by Roy Hamilton, which was also issued years later by Francesco De Gregori).
"A chi" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.
In the same year Leali took part for the first time in the television festival Un disco per l"estate, with the song "Senza di te", but he did not progress beyond the first round. In 1969, 1971 and 1974, he returned to Un disco per l"estate with the songs "Tu non meritavi una canzone", "Si chiama Maria", and "Solo lei". The same year Oxa and Leali represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest with "Avrei voluto".
The song placed 9th.
He came back to Sanremo in 2002, with "Ora che ho bisogno di te", sung in duet with Luisa Corna, and the next year with the successful, platinum disc single, "Eri tu". After taking part in 2006 in the Rai Due reality show, Music Farm, where he reached the finals, Leali released a new album Profumo e Kerosene, with ten new songs, all in a different musical styling.