Simone Cristicchi (born 5 February 1977 in Rome) is an Italian singer and composer. Cristicchi won the 57th edition of the Sanremo music festival in 2007 and also the Mia Martini critics award. His song "Ti regalerò una rosa" won due to extremely high marks received from the festival juries (96/100) and popular vote. The lyrics to the song are taken from papers he found that were written by a man who was in a mental hospital for most of his life. It is a sad tale of the man's struggle with being away from the woman he loves and being exiled for being mentally ill. The song has so far reached number 3 on the official Italian charts and number 1 on the official downloads chart going to become Cristicchi's most successful song to date in the country.
