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Laura Pausini
Laura Pausini
Background information
Birth name	Laura Pausini
Born	May 16, 1974 (1974-05-16) (age 34) Solarolo, Italy
Origin	Italy
Genre(s)	Latin pop, soft rock, pop
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, record producer
Voice type(s)	Mezzo-soprano
Years active	1993–present
Label(s)	Warner Music Group, Atlantic (United States)
Website	www.laurapausini.com

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, Spanish and English. She has also recorded some songs in Portuguese, a language of which she has a good (but not excellent) knowledge, and French, which she does not speak at all. At the 2006 Grammy Awards, Pausini won Best Latin Pop Album for Escucha.

Biography

Laura Pausini was born and raised in the town of Solarolo, Ravenna in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna.¹² 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 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 synchronously 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, making of her first single "Surrender" saw immediate success, peaking at #1 in Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. It 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.

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.

Of her latest 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 consert was released on CD and DVD and became very successful in Italy and Spain.

On the 8th of November 2007, Laura won a Latin Grammy Award for the best female album with 'Yo Canto', Spanish version of the album 'Io Canto', with sales of over 2 million copies worldwide. 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 spend most of her time in the studio, recording another new album. Her new CD called "Primavera In Anticipo" released on November 14, 2008 in Italy. The international version of this album is going to be released on November 18 in Spain, Portugal, France, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland, Turkey and other European countries. On December 1, 2008 album is going to be released in USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. In 2009 Laura is going to have another world tour to support her new album. The dates of the new tour will be available from early December 2008 on her official website.

Awards

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 balad - "Volveré junto a ti"
• 2006: Best pop balad - "Viveme"
• 2006: Best theme from a soap opera - "Viveme"
• 2007: Best pop balad - "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"

Discography

Main article: Laura Pausini discography

References

External links

• Official website
• Laura Pausini at the Internet Movie Database
• Biography of Laura Pausini from Billboard