Bon Jovi

Bon Jovi (born John Francis Bongiovi, Jr) was born 2nd March 1952 and is from New Jersey, USA.

During his teenage years, Bon Jovi skipped school and failed academically, setting his heart on becoming a worldwide rock star.

By the time he was 16 he was playing in clubs and formed Atlantic City Expressway, an R&B band, with keyboardist David Bryan. Bon Jovi performed with several other bands including The Rest, The Lechers and John Bongiovi and the Wild Ones.

The ‘80s saw Bon Jovi’s career take off with his first big hit “Runaway” which was produced at his cousin’s studio. The song received a large amount of radioplay, and gave him vital publicity which inspired him to get a full band to complete the picture, and build on his success. He added Alec John Such, Tico Torres and guitarist Richie Samborra to his band and were promptly signed to PolyGram in 1983. It was during this time ‘Bon Jovi’ was born.

The band’s eponymous album released in 1984 set the standard for Bon Jovi’s future sound, and cemented him in the mainstream, with his rock and power ballad songs. The album went gold and was followed up with 7800 Farenheit (1985) which reached the top 50 on both sides of the Atlantic.

Bon Jovi built up a loyal fan-base by warming up for many popular rock bands at the time: Scorpians, Kiss and Judas Priest. By their third album, the band had got the formula for success just right. Slippery When Wet went gold and platinum across the continent and included the smash hit singles: "You Give Love a Bad Name", "Livin' on a Prayer", "Wanted Dead or Alive" and "Never Say Goodbye" with the album selling more than 14 million copies.

After the success of Slippery When Wet, Bon Jovi went solo for a while and appeared in the film Young Guns II and received a Golden Globe for ‘Best Song’ for “Blaze of Glory”. It wasn’t long before the band were back together and making music that topped the charts again with their 1992 hit album Keep The Faith, These Days (1995) and Crush (2000).

As well singing, Bon Jovi turned his hand to acting and appeared in many films and TV series, including Ally McBeal and Moonlight and Valentino.

Bon Jovi set up The Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation (formerly the Philadelphia Soul Charitable Foundation) in 2006, which aims to help disadvantaged families with housing and food. He has also contributed his services for many other charities in the US.