Franco De Vita

Caracas-born Franco De Vita spent part of his youth in Italy and returned to Venezuela to finish high school and ultimately study music. After stints with the bands Corpus and Icaro, De Vita decided to go solo -- and his career took off as a result. Gold and platinum albums followed fast on the heels of each other through the 1980s. De Vita was somewhat quieter in the '90s, but he did pen the hit song "Vuelve" for Ricky Martin and returned to the charts himself in 2004 with the album Stop.