Giorgia Todrani

Giorgia
Birth name	Giorgia Todrani
Born	April 26, 1971 (1971-04-26) Rome, Italy
Genres	Pop, soul, R&B, jazz
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, record producer
Years active	1994–present
Labels	Dischi di cioccolata
Website	giorgia.net

Giorgia Todrani, best known as Giorgia (born April 26, 1971) is an Italian female singer and song-writer, known for her soulful voice, which is aided by a wide vocal range, high belting register and great vocal abilities. She is one of the most iconic and famous Italian singers. She has released ten studio albums, which all enjoyed good commercial success in Italy. She has sung duets with artists such as Andrea Bocelli, Ricky Fanté, Ronan Keating, Ray Charles, Herbie Hancock, Elton John and Luciano Pavarotti. Billboard magazine called her "one of the most popular Italian singers" and stated that "she could have made it (a great success) in the USA too".

Biography

Giorgia was born in Rome. Musically influenced by Jazz and Soul, she performed from an early age at several roman Jazz clubs. She grew up singing soul and jazz classics by artists such as Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, among others. She recorded two lives albums in the early 1990s, called One more go round and A Natural Woman.

Career

Debut album

Her debut was on the stage of the Ariston theatre for the 1993 Sanremo Music Festival when she sang "E poi" in the category Nuove Proposte (New acts). At that festival she won 7th position in the final New act chart (losing to Andrea Bocelli who praised her in his winning speech). but, after the stunning performances she made, she quickly became one of the most popular Italian singers. E poi, is still nowadays one of her most famous songs.

Her debut-album Giorgia sold more than 160,000 records(it was a best seller in Italy and enjoyed a good success in Germany too). A few months later Luciano Pavarotti asked her to perform with him in a duet at the annual Pavarotti & friends show in Modena, Italy where she astonished the audience with a performance of Queen's Who Wants to Live Forever. She also sang with the famous tenor. In 1994 Giorgia won the European Award as "best Young Italian artist". Thank to this duet Giorgia quickly became a star.

San Remo Music Festival and second album

In 1995 she returned to the Sanremo Music Festival, singing "Come saprei". She won the competition and the critics' award too, becoming the second artist to achieve that (the first being Domenico Modugno). Her second album Come Thelma & Louise sold more than 300,000 copies. In this same year, Todrani recorded the song "Vivo per lei" with tenor Andrea Bocelli. Her success began to grow internationally.

Strano il mio destino (1996)

In 1996 she entered the Sanremo Music Festival for the third time with the song "Strano il mio destino" and ended in third place. Strano il mio destino - Live & studio 95/96 is the title of her third release, which included live tracks, the Sanremo single and another studio recording. The album sold 270.000 copies.

Mangio troppa cioccolata (1997)

In the summer of 1997 she released a cover of an old Italian song by Ornella Vanoni called "Un'ora sola ti vorrei", with a new music sound r&b oriented and a new image; later that year, her 3rd studio album "Mangio troppa cioccolata" was released and started a new dimension on her career, with less ballads and more uptempos, focusing more on the sound and in the interpretation than in the vocals, something that will become kind a prerogative in her following releases.This album was released in ten European countries enjoying a good commercial success,she was also critically acclaimed.The same year music television "MTV Europe"asked Giorgia to present a tv program,however she refused the proposal.

Girasole (1999)

After the release of a song from another soundtrack movie called "Il cielo in una stanza" (cover of an Italian old song by Gino Paoli),in the spring of 1999 she released her 4th studio album called "Girasole" , a very melodic and pop oriented record that gave her more success, helped by the hit single "Girasole", one of the top selling Italian songs of the summer of 1999.The same year she made an international tour along jazz legend Herbie Hancock.

A big dream become true

In 2000 she realised one of her biggest dreams: Ray Charles invited her to one of his concerts and asked her to sing on the stage "Georgia on My Mind" after she told him that her father named her Giorgia in honour of the song. Giorgia produced "Girasole" by herself, thanks to this album (one of the most successful of her career) she began to be considered a sort of "legend" of Italian music, her powerful voice was considered the best of Italian music by critics. The same year she sang in duet with Michael McDonald, in Turin. The year 2000 was also the year of her amazing performance at the Primo Maggio festival that included a brilliant reworking of Prince's NOTHING COMPARES TO YOU ( 2 U ).

Senza ali (2001)

In 2001, she returned to Sanremo Music Festival finishing in second place with the song "Di Sole e d'Azzurro" written by Zucchero and included in her 5th studio Album "Senza Ali" , which features jazz icon Herbie Hancock as special guest in "Il mare sconosciuto" track. Previously Giorgia had already performed with Herbie Hancock during his European tour dedicated to George Gershwin in (1999), and during a concert at the Royal Festival Hall of London along with Youssou N’Dour in (2000).

Greatest hits-Le cose non vanno mai come credi (2002)

In 2002 she released her first Best of album titled Greatest hits - Le cose non vanno mai come credi which sold more than 700.000 copies and stayed in the Italian chart for over a year. The album spawned some Italian hits and as of 2008 it is still in the Italian chart.

Ladra di Vento (2003)

In 2003 she released her 6th studio album, Ladra di Vento, in which was included her biggest hit as of 2008: Gocce di Memoria. The song reached the top spot of the Italian FIMI singles chart and became the best selling single of 2003, with 130,000 copies sold. The song reached the top 40 of the European singles chart. Gocce di Memoria was the original score of Italian film-maker Ferzan Ozpetck's movie "la Finestra di fronte"starring Giovanna Mezzogiorno,it gained Giorgia many awards including the "David di donatello",the "Silver ribbon"and tree "italian music awards".

Mtv Unplugged (2005)

In 2005, Giorgia was the first Italian artist to release an MTV Unplugged recorded in Milan. The live cd includes acoustic versions all of her major hits. The album has been certified 3xplatinum in Italy and gained Giorgia many awards. She was supported by the band of Prince, Terence Blanchard and during the concert she duet with soul star Ricky Fanté.

Stonata (2007)

In 2007 she released her 7th studio album, Stonata. The album debuted at the second position of the Italian chart and was certified 2xplatinum. The album featured a duet with one of the most influential Italian singers of all time, Mina. The song was Poche Parole and was the first duet for Mina, in all her fifty-years long career, with an Italian female.

Spirito libero Viaggi di voce 1992-2008 (2008)

On November 21, Giorgia released her second greatest hits compilation (the first one was released in 2002), but this will be her first "Anthology" album with 3 cds full of hits, new songs, covers and new versions of some of her old songs; the first single is "Per fare a meno di te", which is the soundtrack of the movie "Solo un padre" directed by Luca Lucini, that hit Italian screens on November 28, 2008.

Dietro le apparenze (2011)

In 2011 Giorgia released her 8th studio album, Dietro le apparenze, included her 2011 summer hit: Il mio giorno migliore (platinum, with more than 30,000 copies). The album also featured a duet with one of the most important Italian singers, Eros Ramazzotti, in Inevitabile; and other collaboration: Passerà l'estate by Marina Rei; É l'amore che conta, the second single, written by Busbee; and Tu mi porti su performed with Jovanotti. The album Dietro le apparenze debuted at the first position of the Italian chart and was certified platinum.

Personal

• She was nominated as Best Italian act at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2005 in Lisbon for the Italian hit "Gocce di Memoria".

• One of her most loved duets of all time is 'Vivo per Lei', which she sang with Andrea Bocelli.

• She is the only Italian artist to have sung with Elton John. The British singer called Giorgia One of the best voices of the world.

The past 21 of June (2009) Giorgia was involved in the extraordinary concert "Amiche per l'Abruzzo" organized by Laura Pausini at the San Siro Stadium in Milan for the people hit by the earthquake in Abruzzo. She had duets with Elisa, Laura Pausini and other of the greatest Italian female singers. The DVD of this concert is available in Italy.

In the winter of 2009, Giorgia confirmed rumors that she and her fiance, singer/songwriter and dancer Emanuel Lo, were expecting their first child. On February 18, 2010, ironically during the third night of the Sanremo Music Festival, it was announced that Giorgia had given birth to a baby boy, Samuel.

Discography

Albums

• I primi anni (1993)
• Giorgia (1994) 2 x platinum
• Come Thelma & Louise (1995) 4 x platinum
• Strano il mio destino - Live & Studio 95/96 (1996) 3 x platinum
• One More Go Round (1996)
• Mangio troppa cioccolata (1997) diamond
• Giorgia España (1999)
• Girasole (1999) 3 x platinum
• Senza ali (2001) 3 x platinum
• Greatest hits - Le cose non vanno mai come credi (2002, collection) diamond
• Ladra di vento (2003) 3 x platinum
• Ladra di vento live 03/04 (2004, DVD, live)
• Mtv Unplugged Giorgia (2005, also in DVD) 3 x platinum
• Stonata (2007) 2 x platinum
• Spirito libero - Viaggi di voce 1992-2008 (2008) 2 x platinum
• Dietro le apparenze (2011) 1 x platinum

Singles

Year	Title	Chart positions
		ITA	SWI	FRA	NET	EUR
1994	"E Poi"	-	-	-	86	-
1997	"Vivo per lei" (with Andrea Bocelli)	24	-	-	39	-
1999	"Il Cielo In Una Stanza"	14	49	-	-	-
2001	"Di Sole e D'Azzurro"	-	-	31	-	-
2002	"Vivi Davvero"	15	-	-	-	-
2003	"Gocce Di Memoria"	1	70	-	-	38
	"Spirito Libero"	5	-	-	-	79
2008	"Per fare a meno di te"	6	-	-	-	22
2009	"Salvami" (with Gianna Nannini)	1	-	-	-	91
2011	"Il Mio Giorno Migliore"	6	-	-	-	43
	"È l'amore che conta (Hostage)"	9	-	-	-	-
	"Inevitabile" (with Eros Ramazzotti)	9	-	-	-	-

External links

• Giorgia.net - Official Giorgia website