Sabrina Salerno

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Sabrina Salerno
Sabrina Salerno in 2008.
Background information
Birth name	Norma Sabrina Salerno
Also known as	Sabrina
Born	15 March 1968 (1968-03-15) (age 41) Genoa, Italy [1]
Genre(s)	Pop, dance-pop
Occupation(s)	Singer, showgirl, model, actress and record producer
Instrument(s)	Vocals
Years active	1985-present
Website	www.sabrinasalerno.com

Sabrina Salerno, (born 15 March 1968 in Genoa, Italy, as "Norma Sabrina Salerno", otherwise better known in her singing career as Sabrina) is an Italian singer, television hostess, model, actress, and record producer.

[edit] Biography

[edit] The 1980s

After winning a beauty contest in her native region, Liguria, Sabrina started modeling, and in 1985 made her television debut in the Italian prime time show Premiatissima on Canale 5. The following year, her debut single "Sexy Girl" , sang in English, was released. Produced by Claudio Cecchetto, it became a Top 20 hit in her native Italy and in Germany.

She released her first album, entirely in English (as common sense shows, meaning that all of her songs are sang in the English language), in late 1987, simply titled Sabrina, which soon became her common-first name in the 1980s. In addition to "Sexy Girl", the album included Sabrina's international top five breakthrough, the smash hit single "Boys (Summertime Love)", which has sold more than 1.5 million copies to date worldwide, and "Hot Girl", which made the top 20 in several European charts.

In 1988, Sabrina received "The Best European Singer" award during the Festivalbar event, and enjoyed another European-wide summer hit with the single "All Of Me (Boy Oh Boy)" (produced by Stock, Aitken & Waterman). ^[2] Later in that year, her second album, Super Sabrina, was released, and she established herself as a true European sex symbol thanks to the raunchy videos that accompanied hits such as "My Chico" (#1 in Italy) and "Like a Yo-Yo" (produced by Giorgio Moroder). The latter became the TV theme of Odiens, a very popular Italian Saturday prime time TV show, in which Sabrina also starred.

Thanks to the success of the albums and her sexy image, she was soon to perform in several European TV shows and concerts such as the Montreux Pop Festival in 1988. Another famous performance was in 1989 at the Olympic Stadium in Moscow, where fifty-thousand people gathered over three days to enjoy Sabrina's shows & music. In 1989, she starred in the Italian movie Fratelli d'Italia and released a remix album called Super Sabrina Remix, as well as a new single, "Gringo".

[edit] The 1990s

In 1990, Sabrina was the hostess of the daily morning TV show Ricomincio da 2 with Raffaella Carrà on Rai Due, and appeared on the popular music show Festivalbar with a new single called "Yeah Yeah".

1991 marked a turning point in Sabrina's career: she performed a duet with Italian singer Jo Squillo in singing "Siamo Donne", her first release in the Italian language. They performed together at 1991's Sanremo Music Festival to much acclaim. Sabrina's third studio album, Over the Pop, was released the same year, and for the first time she was allowed to co-write and produce some of the songs. It was clear that Sabrina's will to mature as an artist was emerging, and this desire for independence and a distancing from her sexy image led to conflict with her management. As a result, the album promotion was interrupted and only one more single, "Shadows of the Night" was released from that album. A picture disc edition of Over the Pop was released later in '91, now including "Siamo Donne". A brand new single, "Cover Model", was released in France and Italy with only limited success. Sabrina parted ways with her label and management, a decision that led to a four-years hiatus in her career. In 1995 she was able to come back to show biz, co-hosting some Italian TV shows and releasing with an independent label two new singles, "Rockawillie" and "Angel Boy", which were minor hits in Italy and Scandinavian countries.

The following year she established her own recording studio in Treviso with her then-husband Enrico Monti and released her first Italian language album, Maschio Dove Sei in which she collaborated with Massimo Riva (Vasco Rossi's guitarist and longtime friend), who added a more mature pop/rock influence to Sabrina's music. The album and its two singles, "Fatta e Rifatta" and the title-track "Maschio Dove Sei", were surprisingly acclaimed by the critics, but was a commercial failure due to a lack of promotion and distribution. Supposedly disillusioned by the "flop" of this album, Sabrina focused her attention onto other projects.

The year 1996 saw her theater debut with the comedy I cavalieri della Tavola Rotonda, playing the role of Morgan le Fay, and after a two year stint she then hosted the game show Il mercante in fiera on TMC.

In 1998, after the success of her stage debut, Sabrina was cast in a new comedy called Uomini sull'orlo di una crisi di nervi which was also very successful, but during the production she suffered a broken knee and was unable to continue. She had recovered by the summer and could host the TV show Cocco di mamma on Rai Uno. In this show she had the chance to sing some Italian and international "summer hits" of the past, and these performances led to her commencing a music comeback. The same year she was in the cast of Italian music band 883's debut movie, Jolly Blu, and of the sit-com Tutti gli uomini sono uguali airing on Italia 1.

In 1999, Sabrina released a new album, A Flower's Broken, in Italy and Spain but, although an early curiosity was evoked by the new single - "I Love You" - video, both the album and the single were unsuccessful. She was a guest on the British TV show Eurotrash where she performed her new single "I Love You". Unfortunately, the album's music label RTI Music was being sold (at the same time of the album's release), and all marketing and promotion was stopped.

[edit] The 2000s

The year 2001 saw Sabrina's comeback to theatre with the musical Emozioni that received very good reviews from critics; with this show she toured Italy for almost three years and the cast included Vladimir Luxuria.

In 2002, Sabrina hosted another TV show on Italia 1 called Matricole & Meteore, in which she travelled the world in order to uncover the current situations of former stars such as Shannen Doherty, Al Corley, Gary Coleman, Jimmy Sommerville, Charlene Tilton and others.

In April 2004, Sabrina married her partner Enrico Monti and they had her first child, a son named Luca

In 2005, Sabrina starred in the independent film Colori that premiered at the Salerno's Independent Cinema Festival, where she won the The Critics' Choice Awards as best actress. Sabrina also took part in ITV's Hit Me Baby One More Time where she sang the songs "Boys (Summertime Love)" and the Sugababes' "Hole in the Head". In November that year, Sabrina performed the songs "Boys (Summertime Love)" and "All of Me (Boy Oh Boy)" in the Russian concert Дискотека 80-х.

In 2006, Sabrina released (but only through her own Web site) a new song called "I Feel Love (Good Sensation)". Also in 2006, the Iranian model/actress Aylar Lie sang a covering of Sabrina's song "Boys (Summertime Love)", a hit from 1987, accompanied by a music video.

In 2007, Sabrina toured throughout the French Zénith venues with all her old hits, and also her own cover version of the disco song "Born to Be Alive", premiered at her MySpace page.

On December 31, 2007, Sabrina appeared in the New Year's Eve show of Gato Fedorento, on Portuguese television, with a lip-synched performance in front of an audience of 10,000.

In 2008, Sabrina toured again throughout France with the nostalgia tour RFM Party 80 organized by the French TV network RFM.

On 24 August 2008, Sabrina performed in Poland in a concert of stars of the 80s, together with Kim Wilde, Samantha Fox, Sandra, Modern Talking, Limahl, and Shakin' Stevens. This concert was a part of the Sopot Festival 2008 presented live on Polish channel TVN.

Nowadays, Sabrina is also a record producer: she owns a recording studio which was used by Sade, Simply Red, Vasco Rossi, and many others. She also runs a management agency, called New Boys Productions, and she manages some song & dance acts.

On 3 October 2008, Sabrina published her first official greatest hits album in continental Europe, called Erase/Rewind. It includes new versions of her hits, as well as several new recorded tracks and cover versions.

[edit] Discography

Music portal

[edit] Albums

[edit] Singles

¹ Remix version
² Not the official chart

Film portal

[edit] Filmography

[edit] See also

• Euro disco
• Italo disco

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sabrina Salerno at MySpace
• Sabrina Salerno at Last.fm
• Discography at discogs.com
• Sabrina Salerno at the Internet Movie Database
• Sabrina Salerno fan site
• Sabrina Salerno management agency webpage