He moved to Australia in 1979, becoming a citizen , and dual national, in 2004.

He is popularly known internationally for the most successful song in Australian music history, 'Shaddap You Face', with international sales of over 6 million copies, (450,000+ in Australia alone. 2 million + in the USA) and Number One on the pop charts in 15 countries, including the UK.

He was the producer and co-writer of the song, INTIMACY, included in the classic US sci-fi film, THE TERMINATOR, one of 25 movies listed for preservation by the US Library of Congress. He is the recipient of the ADVANCE AUSTRALIA AWARD.

He is a virtuoso blues guitarist and blues harp player and over the past twenty years has achieved award-winning recognition as a singer-songwriter, serious composer, poet and essayist. In the past three years, he has had sixty-seven poems, including twenty-five new song-lyrics, selected by LES MURRAY, for publication in QUADRANT, including two poems in BEST OF QUADRANT POETRY 2001-2010, with poetry also published in THE CANBERRA TIMES, OVERLAND, MEANJIN, ETCHINGS, PEN Melbourne, CARMENTA, LITTLE RAVEN, CONTRAPPASSO, JOURNEY, VINE LEAVES, GOING DOWN SWINGING, CORDITE and ANTIPODES (USA).

His essays have appeared in MONTHLY - and regularly in QUADRANT, with recent work published by MEANJIN and SOTTO.

In 2010, he won the 25th Launceston Poetry Cup at the TASMANIA POETRY FESTIVAL, the year his first book of poetry, HATBOX, was published.

With his partner, Lin van Hek, he created the long-running folkblues-poetry-cabaret duet, 'Difficult Women' - with performances at the Edinburgh Festival and tours of Canada, New Zealand, the UK, Japan and Okinawa.

http://www.joedolce.net