Laura Pausini
(born May 16, 1974) is an Italian pop singer, popular in several European, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries, famed for her powerful voice, her romantic adult contemporary ballads and love songs. She is fluent in several languages and has recorded songs in Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, English and French. At the 2006 Grammy Awards, Pausini won Best Latin Pop Album for Escucha
. Laura has sold around 40 million albums worldwide in her 15-year career.
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LAURA PAUSINI TICKETS
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Biography
Laura Pausini was born and raised in the town of
Solarolo,
Ravenna in the
Italian region of
Emilia-Romagna.
[1] [2] She started to sing in local piano bars with her father Fabrizio, a musician and singer, when she was only eight years old. At the age of thirteen, Laura had her first recording experience with the album
I sogni di Laura
(Laura's Dreams), a semi-professional release produced by her father in 1987. In 1993 her career was launched when she won the prestigious Italian
Sanremo Music Festival with one of her best known songs, "
La solitudine".
As a natural consequence, she signed a contract with
Warner Music Italy to release her first professional album,
Laura Pausini
(1993), which was a big success in
Italy,
France, as well as in The
Netherlands. Her second album,
Laura
, was released in 1994 and was such a big hit that her recording company offered her a deal to record in
Spanish.
At the end of 1994, Pausini released her first Spanish album,
Laura Pausini
, a compilation of ten adapted versions of hits from her first two Italian albums. The album was so successful that it made her a household name in the
Spanish-speaking world. Her song "Se fue" was one of the most played songs of 1995 according to the
Hot Latin Tracks chart of
Billboard
.
Following this success, Pausini simultaneously released Spanish editions of her native Italian language albums:
Le cose che vivi
(1996),
La mia risposta
(1998) and
Tra te e il mare
(2000), were released in Spain and Latin America as
Las cosas que vives
,
Mi respuesta
and
Entre tú y mil mares
, respectively. She also recorded three
bonus tracks in
Portuguese for a special edition of her album
Le cose che vivi
in 1996.
Pausini's first English language single was a version of the hit "La solitudine" in 1995 titled "The Loneliness" adapted by
Tim Rice, but it was not successful. In 1999 she participated in the soundtrack of the
Hollywood movie
Message In A Bottle
(with
Kevin Costner and
Paul Newman) with a soulful ballad titled "One More Time", written by
Richard Marx and recorded with
David Foster on piano. Also in 1999, famed
Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti invited Pausini to his annual "Pavarotti and Friends" concert, and the two of them sang the Italian version of the
aria Dein ist mein ganzes Herz
, titled
Tu che m'hai preso il cuor
, from
Franz Lehár's operetta Das Land des Lächelns
. In 2000, she recorded the theme "The Extra Mile" for the soundtrack of the movie
Pokémon 2000: The Power of One
.
Pausini then released her first English album,
From the Inside
, with
Atlantic Records in 2002, working with producers
Patrick Leonard and
John Shanks among others. Her first single "Surrender" peaked at #1 in
Billboard
Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart and fared well on the
Dance Radio Airplay chart. The song, "Surrender" saw some limited exposure on the
Adult Contemporary radio format. In an Australian release of the album, she has two versions of "Surrender" included - the original dance version, and a
downtempo version called the "Toronto Chilled Mix".
[3] Her second single "If That's Love" was also a #1 on the
Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. Unfortunately, the album did not obtain the success the label had hoped for, failing to sell more than 100,000 in the long run.
Her first hits compilation came in 2001 both in Italian and Spanish:
The Best of Laura Pausini: E ritorno da te
and
Lo mejor de Laura Pausini: Volveré junto a ti
. In 2003 Luciano Pavarotti again invited her to the "Pavarotti and Friends" concert and once more they sang
Tu che m'hai preso il cuor
. In 2004 she released
Resta in ascolto
. The Spanish version of this album,
Escucha
, awarded Pausini a
Latin Grammy in 2005 and a
Grammy in 2006. This made her the first Italian female to receive such honors. The song "Víveme" was featured as the theme music to
La Madrastra, a popular Mexican
telenovela, in which she had a memorable cameo appearance.
About her album
Io canto
(Spanish
Yo canto
) she has said: "I chose the music I listen to, in sad moments as well as in other, more special ones, those tunes that have taught me how to feel, how to love music beyond genres and styles."
[4] On the 2nd of June 2007, Laura Pausini was the first female artist to play at the
San Siro Stadium in
Milan,
Italy in front of a crowd of 70,000 spectators. Later that year the concert was released on CD and DVD and became very successful in Italy and Spain.
On 8 November 2007, Laura won a Latin Grammy Award for the best female album with 'Yo Canto', the Spanish version of the album 'Io Canto'. Laura dedicated the award to the memory of Italian legend
Luciano Pavarotti. Later on during the show she sang songs from her album 'Yo Canto' alongside Italian singer
Andrea Bocelli.
In 2008 Laura spent most of her time in the studio, recording another new album. Her tenth studio album called "
Primavera In Anticipo" was first released in its
Spanish language edition
Primavera anticipada on
November 11,
2008 in the
hispanophone market, then was released in the
Italian language edition in
Italy on
November 14,
2008. The international version of the album was released on
November 18 in
Spain,
Portugal,
France,
the United Kingdom,
Germany,
Switzerland,
Sweden,
Poland,
Turkey,
Malta and other European countries. On December 1, 2008, the album was released in the
United States,
Canada,
Brazil,
Argentina and
Venezuela. In 2009, Laura Pausini began a new World tour, starting in Italy and across Europe, then to
North America,
South America and
Australia.
Awards
right
;
Billboard Latin Music Awards
- 2006: Latin Pop Airplay Song Of The Year, Female – "Víveme"
;
Grammy Awards
- 2006: Best Latin Pop Album – Escucha
;
Latin Grammy Awards
- 2005: Best Pop Vocal Album by a Female Artist – Escucha
- 2007: Best Pop Vocal Album by a Female Artist – Yo Canto
;
Premio Lo Nuestro
- 1995: Best New Pop Artist
- 2006: Best Female Pop Artist
;
World Music Awards
- 1994: Best-Selling Italian Artist
- 2003: Best-Selling Italian Artist
- 2007: Best-Selling Italian Artist
;
ASCAP Latin Music Awards
- 2002: Best pop ballad - "Volveré junto a ti"
- 2006: Best pop ballad - "Viveme"
- 2006: Best theme from a soap opera - "Viveme"
- 2007: Best pop ballad - "Como si no nos hubieramos amado"
;
Platinum Europe Award
- 1996: In recognition of European sales in excess of 1 million for the album "Laura Pausini"
- 1996: In recognition of European sales in excess of 1 million for the album "Laura"
- 1997: In recognition of European sales in excess of 1 million for the album "Le cose che vivi"
- 2002: In recognition of European sales in excess of 1 million for the album "The best of Laura Pausini"
;
Wind Music Awards
- 2007: One award for the CD Io Canto
- 2008: Two awards for the CD and DVD of the San Siro concert
- 2009: One award for the CD Primavera in anticipo
Honors
-
Commendatore Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana: Awarded the fouth highest civil honor in Italy, by President
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on February 6, 2006.
Discography
;Studio albums
- 1993: Laura Pausini
- 1994: Laura
- 1994: Laura Pausini (Spanish)
- 1996: Le cose che vivi / Las cosas que vives
- 1998: La mia risposta / Mi respuesta
- 2000: Tra te e il mare / Entre tú y mil mares
- 2001: From the Inside
- 2004: Resta in ascolto / Escucha
- 2006: Io Canto / Yo Canto
- 2009: Primavera in anticipo / Primavera anticipada
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;Compilation albums
- 2001: ''The Best of Laura Pausini: E ritorno da te|The Best of Laura Pausini: E ritorno da te / Lo mejor de Laura Pausini:
Volveré junto a ti''
;Live albums
- 2005: Live in Paris 05
- 2007: San Siro 2007
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References
- Bottomley, Charles. "Laura Pausini: All About Diva", ''VH1.com'', November 22, 2002. Accessed October 19, 2007.
- Interview. ''Nadie se duerma'' con Beto Ortiz, Frecuencia Latina (Perú), November 2, 2001.
- allmusic ((( From the Inside [Australia Bonus Tracks] > Overview )))
- ''La Vanguardia Magazine'', Barcelona, 24 December 2006, page 20.