Righeira

Righi and Rota first met in the Albert Einstein Liceo scientifico (high school) in the Barriera district of Milan in Turin.[2] At their debut, they made themselves known as Michael & Johnson Righeira, after deciding to become artistically brothers, both adopting the surname "Righeira", a name that Johnson had jokingly obtained by Brazilianizing his surname Righi, while playing football in the hours of physical education.

In 1980, Johnson recorded his first single, "Bianca Surf", with the executive production by Giulio Tedeschi and the artistic production by Oderso Rubini. Skiantos also played on the disc, and a "punk rock" version sung in duet by Johnson and Freak Antoni was also recorded of the song, published only in 2006, on the CD that collected the first material recorded by Johnson, entitled Ex punk.

After Johnson's debut single, some new auditions including the first version of "Vamos a la playa" and an Italian cover of a D.A.F. song, "Der Mussolini", renamed "Balla Marinetti" was played by Michael on his debut as a singer, under the pseudonym of "Italo Monitor".

At the beginning of 1983, when the duo had just started, they made use of the record production of the successful Italian La Bionda brothers, with whom they signed a production contract which lasted until 1987.

In the spring of 1983, the summer torment "Vamos a la playa" was released by the record company CGD and achieved massive success during the summer. The name of the song became a popular catchphrase during the summer of 1983 and reached the top of the Italian charts and remained there for seven weeks (from 20 August to 1 October), selling over three million copies. With "Vamos a la playa" being such a resounding success, and one the first summer torments of Italian discography, Stefano Righi and Rota became well-known faces that summer.

In the autumn of the same year, their next song, "No Tengo Dinero", became another holiday hit. The song, which was written in Spanish just as "Vamos a la playa", was seen as rather unusual in an era in which English was most popular in Italian pop productions. It peaked lower on the charts than their previous hit, but it was enough to indicate the duo as one of the revelations of that year. The song was also released in other foreign countries, including the United States, by the A&M label.

"Hey Mama", recorded (in Italian and Spanish) in the summer of 1984, did not rise high on the charts, and was nevertheless a good success like their debut album, and among those songs were also "Luciano Serra Pilota", which was inspired by the famous film starring Amedeo Nazzari.

"L'estate sta finendo" (The summer is ending), was released in 1985 and hit No. 1 in Italy where it stayed for two weeks.[3] The song has since found popularity as a reworked football chant at several clubs throughout the world, such as at Liverpool F.C. where it is known as "Allez Allez Allez."[4] With the same song, Righeira participated in the Un disco per l'estate festival and also managed to win Festivalbar the same year. The song was also, despite the title, launched when the holiday season had just begun.

In addition to their singles, Righeira were also appreciated by young audiences for their extravagant appearance; for their first success they used to dress with a fake mustache in the manner of Charlie Chaplin. The two singers also performed at the Sanremo Music Festival in 1986 with the song "Innamoratissimo", which finished in fifteenth place in the votes combined with the Totip. This piece too was centered on electronic arrangements that continued the musical discourse undertaken by their producers and arrangers, and the La Bionda brothers who had already marked musical trends with disco music in the previous decade. The response of the public was less for the summer single "Italians a Go-Go" from the album Bambini Forever, also containing the song "Oasi in città" which became a hit during the summer of the following year. Among the many musicians who collaborated with Righeira during the 1980s, there is for example Nando Bonini, Matteo Fasolino, Marco Guarnerio, Steve Piccolo from The Lounge Lizards, Luca Orioli of Stadio and above all Sergio Conforti from Elio e le Storie Tese. Conforti played in Righeira hits such as "Innamoratissimo" (of which he is also the author) and "L'estate sta finendo".

Later they made "Rimini Splash Down", written together with La Bionda and the collaboration of Raffaella Riva from Gruppo Italiano, which became the main song and theme song of the Rimini Rimini film directed by Sergio Corbucci in 1987. Gruppo Italiano also recorded a cover of "L'estate sta finendo". In the same year, Righeira wrote the song "Annibale" which was in the competition at the 30th anniversary of the Zecchino d'Oro song competition.

In 1990, another dance single called "Ferragosto" was released, which resembled some of the early songs, with a sound inherent to the music of the period. In 1992, the duo collaborated to make the album Uno, Zero, Centomila and launched by the song "Vivo al 139" with house sounds. After this experience, the duo broke up. In the mid-1990s, Michael gave life, under the supervision of Franco Battiato and Giusto Pio, to the Gloria Mundi project, which lasted the space of two albums, while Johnson and Montefiori Cocktail together created the song "Papalla", a manifesto of the newborn Italian lounge scene.

On November 19, 1993 Johnson was arrested, along with thirty-seven other people, for drug dealing. He remained in prison for five months, only to be acquitted at the end of the trial. Six years later, in 1999, the duo was reunited.

Righeira released an EP in 2001 containing different versions of their classic song "Vamos a la playa" and participated in some revival-style TV shows, such as Once upon a time the Festival and La notte flies, a competition between 1980s music-scene celebrities. Later they appeared in a sort of first-person cameo in the song "Sole", mare of their fellow citizens Statuto, in whose text the summer of 1983 was recalled, with the verse that reads "Vamos a la playa", we sing. Righeira are from Turin and on the playa we tan".

In 2006, the duo decided to record the album Mondovisione, anticipated on January 24, 2007 by the single "La Musica Electronica" with which they reach a moderate success with a nostalgic flavor. In August 2007, Righeira are engaged in the conduction of the radio program Summer is ending, on R101. Johnson Righeira also engages in short films and experiments in metropolitan cinema, including Pink Forever by Genoese Davide Scovazzo. In 2008, the documentary Tanzen Mit Righeira (in German, from the title of a song from their first album) was released, produced by Endeniu and made by Alessandro Castelletto, which traces the artistic and human story of the two "brothers".

In 2016, Stefano Righi announced his separation from the duo, while Stefano Rota announced that he was going to live in Thiene, in the province of Vicenza.