Laura Pausini

Laura Pausini was born May 16th, 1974, in Solarolo, northern Italy. But for the rest of the world, she was born February 25, 1993, at the Italian Song Festival in San Remo. It was there that she showcased her tremendous singing talent with the song "La Solitudine," as she won the competition and the song went platinum. Clearly, the 18-year-old was ready for stardom.

Though she has cited that night in San Remo as a surprising and galvanizing event, evidence shows that she was always prepared for it. Her father, Fabrizio Pausini, was a piano bar singer and keyboard and bass player. Aside from getting Laura to start singing at a young age, he exposed her to popular artists like Tina Turner, Barbra Streisand and Ella Fitzgerald, as well as popular Italian music. At 12, she made her solo singing debut, which led to producer Angelo Valsiglio's discovery of her, which eventually led to the Italian Song Festival in San Remo. Which, of course, led to stardom.

Laura Pausini capitalized on her first foray into the business. "La Solitudine" (the song she performed in San Remo) went from contest winner to platinum single off her self-titled debut album, which was, of course, rather successful. In 1994, she received a prestigious World Music Award as the Best Selling Italian Artist and, that same year, she released her second album, simply called, Laura.

The Spanish version of her debut was released in 1995, (that's right, Laura also sings in Spanish) and won her fame in the Latin Pop markets. In the U.S., for instance, she was honored with the Lo Nuestro award, which celebrates new talent in Latin Pop. Laura's Spanish singing has been so successful that in 2001, she was nominated for four Latin Grammys.

But dominance on the charts in two different languages does not seem to have slowed down Pausini's ambition. In 1996, she was awarded the I.F.P.I. Platinum Europe Award in Brussels, an acknowledgement of her astounding record sales. That same year, she began working with UNICEF and performed for Pope John Paul II at a traditional Christmas concert.

In 1997, Pausini went on her first world tour. Aside from the places where she already has a foothold on the market, like Europe and North America, she journeyed to Brazil and was a smash success. Seems strange? Well, by this time she had started singing in Portuguese.

Aside from continuing this recording and touring streak in full force, Pausini has made some choice appearances: in 1998, she sang for an audience of 25,000 in protest of violence in the Basque Region of Spain; in 1999 she sang beside Luciano Pavarotti at one of the tenor's Pavarotti & Friends shows, and collaborated on the soundtrack for the film, Message in a Bottle; and in 2000, she performed a song on the soundtrack for the children's movie phenomenon, Pok?mon.