What do you get when you mix Michael Jackson’s showmanship, Motown influenced vocals, and an affinity for ’80s music and slide this combination into a pop landscape? The short answer: Frankie Zulferino.
Born and raised in New York City, Zulferino grew up the son of a fireman and a medical assistant in a traditional Italian household. The veteran singer was equal part athlete and music enthusiast. However, after being enrolled in an all-boys hip-hop dance class, athletics fell by the wayside and music became his sole focus.
Frankie Zulferino just dropped his visual video to his top charting recent single “Let’s Get It On.” Check out the video below and keep reading to learn more about him.
“My mom thought that I had something special and I wound up falling in love with it,” he explained.
Zulferino fell even deeper into his love of music after getting involved in musical theater at 12. He grew increasingly more passionate about musical theater and was even planning to go to college on a full scholarship to pursue this passion until he saw an advertisement for an audition to be a part of a boy band.
“I saw it and it said ‘Do You Wanna Be The Next Justin Timberlake?’ and I’m like ‘yeah, I definitely wanna do that! Who doesn’t wanna [be the next Justin Timberlake],” he laughed.
Zulferino ended up getting the gig despite competing against hundreds of other boys to his utter disbelief.
“I had no idea what I was doing…if I ever found that footage I would burn it,” he said.
However, not long after joining the group, Zulferino decided to go solo. The journey to becoming comfortable with his image as an artist as well as the music he was making has been a 10-year process for the 30-year-old singer.
“I probably changed my hair, my clothes, my everything 200 times…you couldn’t even imagine to just basically figure out who I was,” Zulferino said.
But despite his struggle to truly become himself, Zulferino managed to open up for a string of huge artists including Justin Bieber, Jason Derulo, and Selena Gomez and has made appearances on Teen Nick, CW’s The Next, and performed in front of 80,000 people at Croke Park Stadium in Ireland.
Even with these accomplishments, Zulferino says that he’s seen the most success as an artist by being truly authentic to himself and his vision for his artistry. His singles “Say Less” and “I Feel For You” have charted on the U.S. Pop Chart at #23 and #100 respectively.
Zulferino now has the confidence to release the music that he wants to make and has a clear idea of what that looks like. As much of an appreciation that he has for so many artists from several different genres, he makes sure not to tangle their music too heavily into his.
“I don’t even wanna talk about other artists during my [studio] sessions because I need to make music for me and not something that’s based on someone else,” the “Say Less” singer explained.
However, even with all of the success that the singer has gained through years of incredible accomplishments, Zulferino doesn’t see himself as the global superstar that others see him as.
“I don’t consider myself famous at all … I’m not famous until I sell out Madison Square Garden,” he stated, “I want the whole world to know my name.”
Looking toward the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, Zulferino is excited for the world to hear his new music but is insistent on quality before quantity.
“I’m not planning on rushing anything because I want it done the right way,” he asserted.
This approach has worked wonders for him given that two of the four singles he’s dropped last year have charted and the other two have hit well over 50,000 and 100,000 streams on Spotify.
Zulferino is also looking to begin touring in the summer of 2021 given his love for “over the top” performances chock full of pyrotechnics and dancers. However, he acknowledged that the pandemic may likely put a damper on his plans.
Make sure to go stream Frankie Zulferino’s latest single “Let’s Get It On” below!
