LOS ANGELES, CA. (Top40 Charts/ Tsunami Entertainment) - Italian-born singer-songwriter Elisa, already a multi-platinum, award-winning superstar in her native country, makes her North American debut this month with her new full-length album, Dancing (Sugar/Universal). The album, which powerfully showcases the genre-bending artist's emotionally resonant pop-rock sound, premieres at iTunes on June 17 (including a bonus track, Elisa's cover of the Stones' "
Wild Horses") and will be released at physical retail and other digital outlets on July 15.
Dancing builds on the love that Stateside audiences have been feeling for Elisa ever since the title track was featured on Fox-TV's hit show So You Think You Can Dance in June, 2007. Immediately following Lacey Schwimmer and Kameron Bink's breathtaking routine, "Dancing" shot into the Top 20 on iTunes (the only place it's currently available), and has since amassed more than 80,000 paid downloads, still selling briskly at 600+ downloads per week. On YouTube, organic audience reaction to the song has also resulted in more than one million views of the SYTYCD clip, making it the all-time most-viewed dance from the show online.
Fans of "Dancing" will feel in sync with the richly textured album's other songs including "Rainbow," an ethereal and hypnotic ballad that's another lead track. Highlights also include the delicate yet passionately soaring album opener "The Waves," the spare and aching "Broken," the rock-flavored "Stranger" and Elisa's gorgeous, almost elegiac take on Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," the album's one cover. Throughout, her emotional intelligence and soulfully immediate - and intimate - lead vocals make for a spellbinding musical journey.
"My songs are centered on emotions," said Elisa, whose work has drawn comparisons to artists including Leona Lewis, Alanis Morissette and Corinne Bailey Rae. "I describe states of mind, and my dynamic involves creating tension, building it and then releasing. It's like a rubber band, I try to stretch it as much as I can." GRAMMY-winning producer Glenn Ballard, who worked with Elisa on her internationally released, top-selling 'best of' compilation Soundtrack '96-'06, said: "When I first met Elisa, I was very impressed to find a true and real artist. In the noise and fast-pace of today's culture, we need real artists who are able to express things we don't even have time to talk about."
In her extraordinary career to date, Elisa has had the opportunity to express herself on many remarkable world stages in the company of a host of global music legends. Most recently, she performed "Dancing" and dueted on "La Voce Del Silenzio" with Andrea Bocelli in Lajatico Italy - both songs are features on the 2008 DVD Vivere: Andrea Bocelli Live In Tuscany. Previously, she has dueted with Luciano Pavarotti at the final session of Pavarotti & Friends, sung a gospel version of the Italian National Anthem at the closing ceremony for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and recorded the song "Teach Me Again" in tandem with Tina Turner. Her many accolades include five awards from Italy's prestigious Festival di Sanremo, an MTV European Music Awards Best Italian Artist honor and a Tenco Award for Best Debut Album for 1997's Pipes And Flowers.
An acclaimed and commanding live performer, Elisa will tour North America in support of Dancing in late 2008 (to date, she has only played once in the U.S., two sets for an April '08 gig at NYC's Joe's Pub). She is excited about coming to America, and experiencing a whole new world of audiences. "The important thing for me is to get out and play," she says, "and to connect with people. We're all the same, we share the same emotions. The world is one place."
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