French-Italian singer/songwriter Ricardo Cocciante began playing music in Rome, Italy, after assembling a band called the Nations. Riccardo Cocciante, also known in French-speaking countries as Richard Cocciante (born February 20, 1946), is a French-Italian singer-songwriter and actor. His oeuvre includes recordings in Italian, French, and Spanish; he has recorded some of his songs in all three languages. He was born in Saigon, French Indochina, now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to an Italian father and a French mother. He moved to Rome, Italy at the age of 11 where he attended school and started his career as musician coming to success around 1972. He also lived in the USA and Ireland. In 1976, Cocciante covered the Beatles song "Michelle" for the musical documentary All This and World War II.