Description:
Luisa was born in Palazzolo sull’Oglio, a small town in the province of Brescia, Italy. Since she was a small child, Luisa has been keen on several art forms such as acting and poetry. However, it was her real passion, music, which pushed her to perform, as a young 7 year old, in the church choir. At 17, Luisa began to study singing at Centro Professionale Musica (CPM) in Milan and, later on, privately with instructors such as Roberta Gamberini, Eloisa Francia, Marcello Merlini, Akiko Kikuchi, Lella Costa e Daniela Ghiglione. At 18, Luisa moved to Milan and began performing in nightclubs in Milan and Como with the “Tequila B
Luisa was born in Palazzolo sull’Oglio, a small town in the province of Brescia, Italy. Since she was a small child, Luisa has been keen on several art forms such as acting and poetry. However, it was her real passion, music, which pushed her to perform, as a young 7 year old, in the church choir. At 17, Luisa began to study singing at Centro Professionale Musica (CPM) in Milan and, later on, privately with instructors such as Roberta Gamberini, Eloisa Francia, Marcello Merlini, Akiko Kikuchi, Lella Costa e Daniela Ghiglione. At 18, Luisa moved to Milan and began performing in nightclubs in Milan and Como with the “Tequila Band” composed of Tonino Scala (Pianoforte), Bruno Giordana (keyboard and sax), Gilberto Zilioli (guitars), Tony Bradascio (drums) Vanny Patriarca (base). In Milan, Luisa also started working as model. Fashion allowed her to continue her studies and, further to taking singing lessons, she joined C.T.A (Centro Teatro Attivo – Active Theatre Centre) and later C.S.A.( Centro Studio Attori – Actor studios Centre) directed by Alessandro del Bianco. As a model, she worked with famous photographers such as, among others, Fabrizio Ferri and Helmut Newton, and soon she became a runway model for Missoni, Mariella Burani and Dolce & Gabbana. She also began acting in commercials for national and international campaigns such as Golden Lady, Mantovani, and Fiat. Immediately after finishing acting school, she was cast in a small role as the Kali deity in “Nirvana” directed by Gabriele Salvatores, a movie that won the David of Donatello, among many other awards. Fashion offered Luisa the great opportunity to travel internationally to Europe, Australia, New York, enabling her to further the knowledge of her main passion, music, and to become familiar with musical genres such as blues, rock and Latin – American. In 1988/89, she was the back vocalist of famous Spanish singer Miguel Bose, performing with him at the Sanremo festival. In 1992, she participated in the Castrocaro festival broadcasted on national network RAI 1 with the song “Dove Vanno a Finire gli Amori” (“What Happens to Love Stories”), written by the renowned Italian song writer Depsa, and she placed second in the contest. A few years later, she is hired as a singer for the Sunday afternoon TV show ‘Domenica In”, hosted by Fabrizio Frizzi and directed by Michele Guardì. During this time, Luisa worked on another single called “Anima di Vento”, for Wea label and produced by Db One Music. The same year, Corrado Mantoni and his writing team (Jurgens and Santucci), asked her to co-host with Giampiero Ingrassia the TV show “Tira e Molla”, broadcasted on Canale 5. That way, she began her double job as entertainer/presenter and singer. The following year, again for Mediaset, Luisa was asked to co-host the sport show “Controcampo”, with Sandro Piccinini – she will be one of few women to host a football show. During that time, she collaborated with daily TV sport news “Tutto Campo”, presenting the football section. At the same time, she was asked by movie director Giorgio Panariello to star in his comedy film “Al momento giusto” (At the right moment) as Lara, a photo reporter with whom the character played by Panariello will fall in love. Luisa’s biggest passion is, however, music – she toured Italy with her songs and in 2002 the great opportunity knocked at the door: she sang at the Sanremo festival the song “Ora che ho bisogno di te” (Now that I need you) written by Leali, Tosetto e Berlincioni in a duet with Fausto Leali. They attained 4th place. In addition, in 2002, Luisa was offered to host the TV show “Notti Mondiali” together with Marco Mazzocchi and Giampiero Galeazzi. Besides hosting, Luisa sang a repertoire of international songs to celebrate the spirit of the world cup. The show was very successful and Luisa was asked to host another prime time show called “Sì, sì è proprio lui” (Yes, it’s him) about scouting emerging comedians, directed by Pier Francesco Pingitore, a TV show that allowed Luisa to host, sing and dance. Because of the great positive response from the audience, RAI offered Luisa a prime time show (on Saturdays) “Sognando Las Vegas” (Dreaming of Las Vegas), supported by Max Tortota and I Fichi D’India, a show completely dedicated to great international and traditional TV shows. Ballandi Entertainment produced both shows. Luisa sang in duet with stars such as Dionne Warwick, Gloria Gaynor, Solomon Burke and The Supremes. The audience appreciated this format, which was confirmed for four consecutive years during “Domenica In”: Luisa invited international performers to duet under the artistic supervision of Sergio Bardotti, Marco Zavattini and Beppe Tortora. In 2003, Luisa was awarded the TV Award for emerging personality of the year. She later hosted TV shows such as “Premio Barocco” (for 2 years on Rai 1) dedicated to Italian excellence. For five years she hosted “Napoli prima e dopo”, a TV show dedicated to Neapolitan songs in which Luisa sang songs from the traditional Neapolitan repertoire. Then she hosted “Castrocaro Terme” together with Massimo Giletti, a musical contest, which aimed to discover new and young musical voices (Rai 1). She also hosted “Sanremo si nasce” together with Massimo Lopez and Michele Cocuzza, at the Ariston Theatre in Sanremo. Luisa sang traditional songs from previous festivals. What followed was “Campioni Per Sempre” for two years, a show to honour sport champions who gained many medals for sport in Italy (Rai 1). Luisa hosted the awards show “David di Donatello” with Mike Bongiorno, the most prestigious Italian awards show for movies. In Saint-Vincent, she presented the awards show “Telegrolle” which acknowledged the most popular Italian fictions (Rai 1). For seven consecutive years, during New Year’s Eve celebration, Luisa sang live from Rimini with the orchestra conducted by maestro Leonardo De Amicis, in the show called “L’anno che verrà”. Again, for RAI 1, she hosted “La Kore” with Valeria Marini to honour the best Italian fashion designers, at the Greek Theatre in Taormina. In 2004, she was cast by Giorgio Albertazzi for the theatrical piece “The Odyssey” at the ancient theatre in Pompeii; she played the magician Circe and, as singer, she interpreted the songs of the sirens. In 2005, Luisa dubbed the movie “Shark Tale” in which Angelina Jolie gave voice to the sexy fish Lola. Never giving up music, Luisa participated to two editions of the Milano Gospel Festival singing in gospel choirs of thirty members. The concerts were performed in honour of Pope Karol Wojtyla and generated two live CDs whose revenues benefitted children charities. In 2005, she released her first single, “Colpa Mia”, which she wrote in collaboration with Gatto Panceri. The CD, “Acqua Futura” followed, which she also wrote with the artistic collaboration of Fio Zanotti, Marco Petriaggi and Alessandro Barocchi. Renato Zero donated a song to her named “L’ultima Luna” whereas Gatto Panceri translated, for the album, Joan Osborne’s song, “St. Teresa” calling it “Santa Vita”. Following the release there was a tour, which was well received by both press and public. In 2006, Luisa participated to the show “O’Shia” on the Isle of Lampedusa, promoted by Claudio Baglioni to raise public awareness on the immigration issue. In 2007, she met Tony Hadley, lead singer of the British band Spandau Ballet; they performed together “I Miss You”, a very evocative song, soundtrack of the movie “Russian Beauty”, written by Rodolfo Matulich and played by the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra. In 2008, she was cast as the District Attorney Lorenza Alfieri in the RAI 1 fiction show “Ho Sposato uno Sbirro” with Flavio Insinna and in 2010, she resumed the same role for the continuation of the fiction produced by Lux Vide. Luisa is a multifaceted artists, not afraid of experimenting with music, acting and new artistic forms. In 2010, however, she decided to focus entirely on music: during the summer, she released the single “Voci”, a cover of Russ Ballard’s Voices, written by Luisa and Giovanni Pezzetti, and in the autumn, she released another single, “Due Sillabe”, written by Luisa and Riccardo Bonfadini with the collaboration of Alex Britti. These singles preceded the release of the album “Non Si Vive in Silenzio”, named after the 1972 song by Gino Paoli, which is covered in the album. Roberto Giribaldi provided the arrangements and Luisa wrote most of the songs, including the Italian version of Sheril Crow’s “Run Baby Run”. In 2011, she toured Italy with the album, forty stops throughout the country in which Luisa sang both songs from “Non Si Vive In Silenzio” and other songs performed during her career. In November 2011, Luisa debuted at the Teatro Nuovo with “Pirates”, playing the role of Angelica. The musical was written by Maurizio Colombi and toured around Italy in 2012 as well. During the 2011 Christmas holidays, Luisa performed for twenty-three dates in churches and jails of the capital. The format, that will be repeated the following year, showcased American gospel music and traditional Italian Christmas songs, a very spiritual and emotional experience. In April 2012, Luisa participated to a new show for RAI 1, “Tale e Quale”, hosted by Carlo Conti. It is a Friday prime time show running for four weeks, in which singers compete, impersonating other national and international singers. The show is a big success and it is confirmed for another season and in November of the same year, Luisa played and sang songs by Whitney Houston, Mina, Renato Zero, Mariah Carey, Rita Pavone, Liza Minnelli, Amy Stewart and Diana Ross. In May 2012, Luisa resumed her summer tour around Italy. The very well attended concerts are a musical account of the many collaborations and musical experiences lived and felt by the artist. In 2013, Luisa focused on the production of her new single: in July, she released “Tutto e Niente”, a story describing the game between past and present, between what happened and what might have happened, in all its contradictions. Luisa, Amati, Vaccaro and Manzani, who also arranged, wrote the song. During the summer of 2013, she was back on tour with “Non si vive in silenzio”. The tour would be ongoing over the summers until 2016. At the same time, in 2013, Luisa added another experience to her resume, hosting and singing in the TV show “Festival show”, featuring Italian and international singers, with the Orchestra Ritmico Sinfonica Italiana conducted by Maestro Diego Basso. The year 2013 also sees the release of the CD “Capo Verde Terra D’Amore”, a musical, cultural and humanitarian project collecting songs from the Capo Verde repertoire adapted in Italian and performed by amazing artists, including Luisa who, in the CD, proposes the song “Disperato Amore”, translated and arranged by Luisa together with Alberto Zappieri, who is the creator and producer of the project. In October 2013, Luisa began a new experience in Milan, the “Manzoni Derby Cabaret” show at Teatro Manzoni. These Sunday shows, which will go on the whole winter season, aimed at re-creating the atmosphere of the historic “Derby Milanese”, the temple of the city’s comedy. Luisa’s role was to integrate the various comedic performances with music in a show so successful to be confirmed for three consecutive seasons, until April 2017. She shared the hosting of the show on stage with Maurizio Colombi, a jury composed of music critic Mario Luzzatto Fegiz and famous Italian comedian Brusketta, evaluated the cabaret performers. In 2016, Luisa collaborated with US singer Harold Bradley who moved to Rome in the 1960s where he founded the famed Folkstudio. This collaboration resulted in the single “Everything’s easy”, a sophisticated song with jazz and blues accents. The same year saw Luisa as the protagonist of a photographic show called “Love me Love me not”, exhibited in London and Beirut. The pictures by famous Lebanese photographer Abdul Massih promoted a message of non-violence against women from the western world to the Middle East. Again, in 2016, during the Football European Championships, Luisa was invited to sing in the four instalments of the TV show “Il Grande Match” hosted by Flavio Insinnia (Rai 1). During the summer of 2016, she recorded the single “Così Tu Mi Ucciderai” with tenor Joaquin Iglesias, an evergreen song written and produced by Grammy winner Daniel Victor. The single would be part of Iglesias’ album, “Nas Alla’ De Mi Vida”. Having concluded her commitment at the Teatro Manzoni for the “Manzoni Derby cabaret” in April, Luisa was getting ready to release on June 2nd a new single entitled “Angolo Di Cielo”, a very intense song written by herself, M. Colavecchio, M.P. Ledda and G. Oggiano. The lyrics expressed the desire to share the artist’s life with her deceased father. Luisa talked to him with a joyous cry to share, despite her father no longer being alive, her life as a happy woman living a fulfilling relationship. After the release of that song, Luisa paid homage to one of the amazing women of the Italian music panorama, Mia Martini, interpreting songs of the deceased artist released posthumously. The songs have been arranged by Marco Colavecchio and produced by Colavecchio and Marco Poggioni. An Italian tour will follow with the album “Angolo Di Cielo”. The summer of 2018 will see Luisa making one of her dreams come true: a collaboration with the great Sananda Maitreya. They met in the recording studio to produce three tracks written by the American musician, which are now featured in his latest album "Prometheus and Pandora". The first single is “It's been a long time" whose video has been shot by director Luciano Boschetti in the wonderful eighteenth century setting of Villa Arconati in Bollate (Milan). In March 2018, Luisa released her new single titled “Col tempo imparerò” resulted from her new music project. The song was written for Mia Martini by A. De Sanctis and A. Cheli but it was never finalised in the recording studio before her premature departure. It was, however, released posthumously in the collection called “Indimenticabile Mimì” in 1996. Luisa’s collaboration with the non-profit association “Minuetto onlus – Mimì sarà” founded by Leda Berté and Vincenzo Adriani dates back a few years now. It was during one charity concert that Luisa sang “Col tempo imparerò” and felt deeply the intensity of the lyrics. The date chosen for the release is 8th March, International Women’s Day as a delicate homage from a woman to a great Italian woman singer and to all those women who manage to be resilient when life proves itself harsh.
... (more)
(less)
My tags:
Add tags
Login
Italy
1 comment
