laura pausini

Biography

Laura Pausini was born in Faenza, the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, in Northern Italy, and was raised in the town of Solarolo. She started to sing in local piano bars with her father Fabrizio, a musician and singer, when she was eight. At the age of thirteen, Laura had her first recording experience with the album I Sogni Di Laura, 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, as well as in France. Her second album, Laura, was released in 1994 and was such a hit that her company proposed that she sing in Spanish to conquer the music market in Spain and Latin America.

At the end of 1994, Pausini released her first Spanish album, Laura Pausini, a compilation of 10 adapted versions of hits from her first two Italian CDs. The album was so successful that made her a household name in the Hispanic and Latin world. Her song "Se Fue" was the most played song in 1995 in the Hot Latin Chart of Billboard.

Following the success Laura started releasing both Italian and Spanish versions of every album: Le Cose Che Vivi in 1996, La Mia Risposta in 1998 and Tra Te E Il Mare in 2000, were also released in Spain and Latin America as Las Cosas Que Vives, Mi Respuesta and Entre Tú Y Mil Mares respectively. She also recorded 3 songs in Portuguese from her album Le Cose Che Vivi, releasing a special version in that language titled Tudo O Que Eu Vivo in 1996.

Pausini's first English single was a version of the hit "La Solitudine" in 1995 titled "The Loneliness" adapted by Tim Rice, but it was not a successful release. In 1999 she participated in the soundtrack of the Hollywood movie Message In A Bottle (with Kevin Costner and Paul Newman) with a song titled One More Time, written by Richard Marx. 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" a Billboard #1 in the Hot Dance Club Play Chart. Her second single "If That's Love" was also a #1 in the same chart.

Her first hits compilation came in 2001 both in Spanish and Italian: "The Best Of: E Ritorno Da Te" and "Lo Mejor De: Volveré Junto A Ti". In 2004 she released "Resta In Ascolto". The Spanish version of this album, "Escucha", awarded her a Latin Grammy and a Grammy in 2005.

Pausini has sold over 29 million records world-wide and has over 160 Platinum albums and one Diamond album awarded to her for 13 years of career.

Awards

Pausini has received two World Music Awards in 1994 and 2003 for Best Italian Selling Artist, and several I.F.P.I. Platinum Europe Award for high sales in Europe of various of her CDs. In 2005 she won a Latin Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Album with her record "Escucha". Also in 2005 she won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album with the same disc. Pausini has also received two Premio Lo Nuestro awards - one in 1995 for Pop Revelation of the Year and one in 2006 for Best Female Artist (Pop).

Pausini became the first Italian female to ever win a Grammy Award.

Discography

Albums

• 1993 - Laura Pausini (Italian)
• 1994 - Laura (Italian)
• 1994 - Laura Pausini (Spanish)
• 1996 - Le Cose Che Vivi (Italian) | Las Cosas Que Vives (Spanish) | Tudo O Que Eu Vivo (Portuguese)
• 1998 - La Mia Risposta (Italian) | Mi Respuesta (Spanish)
• 2000 - Tra Te E Il Mare (Italian) | Entre Tú Y Mil Mares (Spanish)
• 2001 - The Best Of: E Ritorno Da Te (Italian) | Lo Mejor De: Volveré Junto A Ti (Spanish)
• 2002 - From The Inside (English)
• 2004 - Resta In Ascolto (Italian) | Escucha (Spanish)
• 2005 - Live In Paris 05 (CD+DVD) (Live)
• 2006 - Io Canto (Italian) | Yo Canto (Spanish)

Singles

Beside the fact that Italian is a language with roots in the Latin language, most Italian songs cannot chart on Billboard Magazine's Hot Latin Tracks due to the fact that very few Italian songs ever manage to make it on to playlists of radio stations listed as being under the Latin format.

See also

• List of best-selling music artists
• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart

External links

• Laura Pausini Official Site
• AscoltaLaura.com
• Pausini Today
• Laura Pausini U.K.
• Biography of Laura Pausini, from Billboard
• Laura Pausini at the Internet Movie Database
• Tutto Laura Pausini