Finley are an Italian pop punk band, formed in Milan in 2000. The band is made up of four guys from Legnano, a town near Milan. The band got its name from NBA star Michael Finley. The four members of the band chose the name because they thought it had a cool sound, even if though they weren't into basketball that much. They used to call themselves a "HardPop" band, some others said their genre is Pop punk or Soft Punk, but actually their genre is a mixture between Pop and Rock. Their way of making music changed during their career, throughout which they have sung in both Italian and English. In 2006, the group won in the category Best Italian Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2006 in Copenhagen. On 14 April 2007 they won in the category Italians Do It Better, Best Lacrima Awards and Best Number One Of The Year at the MTV TRL Awards (Italy) 2007. 
Finley released their single "Fumo e cenere" on Total Request Live on 24 November 2006; in the same year, they released a DVD+CD combo of all their works.
The band is particularly active on the road. They were on tour non-stop in 2006, putting on over the year over sixty concerts all around Italy.
In 2008, they once again won in the category Best Italian Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008.
Band members
- Marco Pedretti, known as Pedro - born in Magenta, Italy, 22 September 1985 - Lead vocals.
- Carmine Ruggiero, known as Ka - Castellammare di Stabia, 30 May 1985 - Guitars & Vocals.
- Stefano Mantegazza, known as Ste - Saronno 7 August 1985 - Bass & Vocals.
- Danilo Calvio, known as Dani - Cerignola, 17 October 1985 - Drums & Vocals.
Career
The band started with Danilo Calvio, aka Dani, who used to play pop with Ka (Carmine Ruggiero) in a basement in Legnano, while Ste (Stefano Mantegazza) and Pedro (Marco Pedretti), who had known each other since childhood, used to play Grunge music. In 2000 Dani, Ka and Pedro met each other at university where they had classes together, while Ste is a childhood friend of Pedro who eventually met the others. In 2002 the four formed Finley and started performing in competitions, parties and auditions. In 2004 they recorded a demo of "Make Up Your Own Mind" and a low budget video and in 2005 they came into contact with Claudio Cecchetto. He helped them debut by signing their single with Capitol/EMI, "Tutto è possibile," the Italian version of "Make Up Your Own Mind." Their album of the same name was released on 31 March 2006. All the songs on the album were composed by Finley and the musical production was contracted to Daniele Persoglio.
In May, they worked with Mondo Marcio for Dentro alla scatola. In June they were on stage for Jamming Festival 2006 and opened the concert on the first day (Guest Star: Depeche Mode). "Diventerai una star" is their second single. Finley participated at various summer shows of Festivalbar earning an invitation to participate also to the finals which were held in Verona. In September, they released "Sole di settembre" as a CD Single with video.
Their concert at Jesolo for Coca Cola Live was aired on MTV during prime time. They won the award for best Italian Music Video in the newcomers category in 2006 and in November they won the Best Italian Act Award at the MTV Europe Music Awards held in Copenhagen. For the opening of the Italian version of Nickelodeon's Kids Choice Awards, Finley wrote and performed the theme song. Part of their CLUB TOUR 2006/2007, was organised by Barley Arts. Initially 15 concerts were planned, this number was then doubled. This also doubled the publicity received by the band. Through its sales it became a Gold Disc and then a Platinum Disc. In January they concluded the tour "Tutto è possibile 2006/2007", after some months out of the limelight, on 14 April, they attended the TRL Awards (Italy) 2007 and performed their new single Niente da perdere.
In 2008, they joined the Sanremo Music Festival and managed to get the fifth position. After the Festival, a new album of theirs, Adrenalina 2, came out, and it became a Platinum Disc only after a few weeks.
During the Adrenalina 2 tour, held in the 2008, they played new versions of their songs, such as "Per Sempre" (For Ever), which was played unplugged.
They also performed a cover, Iris by Goo Goo Dolls and a dance version of "Questo Sono Io" (Italian version of "All I've got"). During November 2009 a new mini-album entitled "Band at Work" was released: in February-March 2010 their fourth album will be released.
Discography
- Tutto è possibile (March 2006)
- Adrenalina (June 2007)
- Adrenalina 2 (February 2008)
- Band At Work (November 2009)
- Fuori! (March 2010)
Awards
- 2006:
- MTV Europe Music Awards Copenaghen - Winner: "Best Italian Act"
- Best Italian Videoclip (New Act) - Winner with Tutto è possibile
- 2007:
- Italian TRL Awards 2007 - Winner: "Italian Do It Better"
- Italian TRL Awards 2007 - Winner: "Best Lacrima Awards"
- Italian TRL Awards 2007 - Winner: "Best Number One Of The Year"
- Kids' Choice Awards Italy - Winner: "Best Italian Band"
- Kids' Choice Awards Italy - Winner: "Tormentone Dell'Anno" with Adrenalina
- 2008:
- Venice Music Awards - Winner: "Best Band"
- Italian TRL Awards 2008 - Winner: "Best Riempipiazza"
- MTV Europe Music Awards Liverpool - Winner: "Best Italian Act" (Second place - "Favourite Europe's Act")
- Kids' Choice Awards Italy - Winner: "Best Band"
