Dolcenera

Emanuela Trane performs under the stage name Dolcenera, an Italian expression meaning “sweet and black.” Born on May 16, 1977, she grew up in southern Italy, where she studied piano and started composing songs at age thirteen. While enrolled at the University of Mechanical Engineering, she encountered her initial producer, Lucio Fabbri, the violinist from the Italian progressive-rock ensemble Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM). Her self-written debut single, “Only You,” appeared in September 2002; twelve months later came “Siamo Tutti là Fuori,” which earned recognition at the 2003 San Remo Festival and secured her a recording deal with BMG Italy. Fabbri oversaw the making of her first full-length release, Sorriso Nucleare, whose title track addresses children born after the Chernobyl catastrophe.

In 2005 Dolcenera claimed victory in the televised contest Music Farm, an achievement that paved the way for the single “Mai Più Noi Due” and her sophomore album, Un Mondo Perfetto. That record became her first platinum-certified project, held the top spot on the Italian album chart for twelve months, and drew its name from an anthem confronting violence against women. The following year her third album, Il Popolo dei Sogni, also attained platinum status; it was introduced by the single “Com’è Straordinaria la Vita,” which she performed at San Remo, and featured her reinterpretation of Radiohead’s “A Wolf at the Door,” retitled “Luminal d’Immenso (L’Ombra di Lui)” to reference both the sedative phenobarbital and Giuseppe Ungaretti’s poem “M’illumino D’immenso” while addressing depression. She then spent two consecutive years touring Italy, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, headlining and supporting Zucchero and Vasco Rossi.

Dolcenera returned to San Remo in 2009 in the main-artist category but exited during the semifinals, prompting audible audience disapproval. She next issued Dolcenera nel Paese delle Meraviglie, produced by Roberto Vernetti and captured live on the studio floor; the set earned its third consecutive platinum certification. In April she joined more than fifty fellow Italian vocalists for the United Artists for Abruzzo recording of Mauro Pagani’s “Domani 21/04.2009,” a charity single benefiting victims of the L’Aquila earthquake. Following additional live work, including a Milan date with Depeche Mode, she released Evoluzione della Specie, which she wrote, produced, and arranged herself. Its lead track, “L’amore è un Gioco,” a duet with English rapper Professor Green, was accompanied by a video backed by the Italian edition of Playboy, whose cover featured the artist; both that single and the follow-up, “Il Sole de Domenica,” a defense of minorities, received gold certification. The album signaled a stylistic shift as she exchanged piano for synthesizer as her main instrument.

A 2012 expanded edition, Evoluzione della Specie II, arrived midway through a two-year tour; both versions achieved gold status, while the new single “Ci Vediamo a Casa” went platinum and topped radio airplay lists for more than eight weeks. Still on the road, Dolcenera continued preparing her next project and, upon returning to the studio, handled production and arrangement once more. She unveiled the single and video “Niente al Mondo,” which logged the highest radio rotation among Italian female artists in 2015; its lyrics imagine a conversation about dreams between Pier Paolo Pasolini and Mario Monicelli. Two further singles, “Un Peccato” and “Fantastica,” also dominated radio charts. The album Le Stelle Non Tremano, issued on Universal in September 2015, reached number five on the Italian chart and attained platinum status; a deluxe edition followed the next year and again entered the Top 40.

While touring in support of Le Stelle Non Tremano, Dolcenera participated in initiatives aiding prisoner welfare and raising awareness of climate change. In 2016 she served as a coach on the debut season of the Italian edition of The Voice alongside Raffaella Carrà, Emis Killa, and Max Pezzali; her contestant Alice Paba ultimately won the competition. She has additionally appeared as an actress in the Italian films Il Nostro Messia, Scrivilo Sui Muri, and Amore 14, as well as in stage productions and on television.