Tony Renis (1938) is an Italian singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was presented with the Magna Grecia International Award during the Magna Grecia International Week held in Buenos Aires in 2007 and organized by the International Association bearing the same name and chaired by President Nino Foti.

Born in Milan, from an early age he showed a great passion for music, performing as a child on the stage of the parish theatre of San Lorenzo alle Colonne in Milan.

However, his career as a musician truly began around the 50s, first in nightclubs and later in the avant-garde theatres of the Lombard capital, where he performed with his great friend and singer Adriano Celentano, impersonating Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis respectively. During those years he spent the summer seasons on the island of Elba, impersonating idols of the time such as Elvis Presley, and regularly playing at the Hotel Del Golfo in Procchio.

In 1958, he signed his first contract with the record company "Combo Record", owned by Gorni Kramer, releasing his first 7-inch record, with covers of Italian and American hits that marked his success and are still "must-haves" today. The following year he moved to another record company, the "Voce del Padrone", with which he made his debut as a singer-songwriter, winning the "Sei giorni della canzone" (a musical event of the time that took place in Milan) with Tenerezza, a song that would also be later interpreted by singer Gianni Morandi.

The year 1961 was marked by his debut on the Sanremo Festival stage, where he performed a song written by his father, but he didn’t reach the finals. However, the following year Renis returned to the Festival with Quando quando quando, a song born from the collaboration with author Alberto Testa, which, although it did not win, topped the charts for ten weeks in Italy, touring the world and being re-recorded in hundreds of versions by performers of various nationalities. The huge commercial and artistic success of Quando quando quando more than made up for Tony’s defeat at Sanremo. However, in 1963, he would later have the opportunity to achieve even more success by winning the Canzonissima television competition with Quando quando quando and the Festival, with the song Uno per tutte.

Despite his achievements, Tony Renis' desire was to have his longtime friend and artist Mina perform a song he was sure would have been a ticket to international success if interpreted by the right voice: the song was Grande grande grande, and Mina was able to make it one of the greatest hits of her career.

In the early 1970s, Tony Renis moved to America and met other famous artists such as arranger, producer and conductor Quincy Jones, as well as the world-famous Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra.

Given the worldwide success of Quando quando quando, in 1978 Warner Bros offered him the re-recording with a new arrangement of the same song. In the meantime, during his stay in the U.S.A. he performed in Las Vegas as a singer, paving the way for record production. He began writing soundtracks, becoming one of the most famous Italians in the United States. He would be known by everybody as "Mister Quando quando quando".

In the years between 1990 and 2000, Renis received a series of accolades and awards including the Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination with the song The Prayer, sung by Célin Dion in duet with tenor Andrea Bocelli (1999). This was followed by the Special Lifetime Achievement Award (Sanremo 2000) and in 2002, the appointment of Ambassador of Italian Song in the world; he was later bestowed the title of Academician of Italian Music by the European Academy for Economic and Cultural Relations, and that of Academician Tiberino, by the Pontifical Tiber Academy.

In 2004 Rai appointed him artistic director of the 54th edition of the Sanremo Festival.

Tony Renis returned to composition and created the soundtrack of the film Christmas in Love, composing the song Merry Christmas in Love, awarded in 2005 with the David di Donatello, the Grolla d'oro, the Saint-Vincent award for cinema and the Golden Globe, the film award of the foreign press in Italy. In 2005 he received the Federico Fellini Lifetime Achievement Award at the Rome Film Festival, and returned to the United States where the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) awarded him a Golden Globe nomination for best original song with Merry Christmas in Love.

In 2006 he worked on a project that he had been pursuing for many years, the song Amore, created and co-produced with David Foster and Humberto Gatica and starring Andrea Bocelli. Love quickly became a great international success and the performances of Stevie Wonder and Christina Aguilera stand out. The partnership with Andrea Bocelli kept going and, in 2007, together with David Foster and Humberto Gatica, he produced 5 tracks of the Album The Best of Vivere.

In 2016 he was awarded the America Prize of the Italy-USA Foundation, at the Chamber of Deputies.