Laura Pausini

A consistent presence in Italy's upper album rankings from the moment of her self-titled 1993 introduction onward, Laura Pausini has moved tens of millions of units around the globe and registered on charts throughout Europe together with Latin America. Her emotionally direct adult-contemporary style and expansive voice have drawn comparisons to Celine Dion and Michael Bolton. With her fourth studio album, 1998's La Mia Risposta, she secured her initial Italian chart-topping position. Subsequent releases, among them the 2002 English-language bid From the Inside, preceded a return to number one via 2004's Resta in Ascolto, an album that launched an unbroken sequence of domestic leaders extending through the following decade and encompassing the multilingual 2016 holiday set Laura Xmas. After claiming a Golden Globe and receiving an Academy Award nomination for the song "Io sì (Seen)" from The Life Ahead, she marked three decades in music by issuing 2023's Anime Parallele.

Pausini entered the world in Faenza, Ravenna, during 1974. Having performed publicly from the age of twelve, she entered the studio at eighteen for the debut album Laura Pausini. Its lead single "La Solitudine" reached the summit in Italy while the full-length effort climbed to number six and also appeared in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The next year she issued a Spanish counterpart that rendered the breakthrough track as "Lo Soledad," a bilingual pattern she would repeat throughout her career. The 1995 and 1996 sets Laura and Le Cose Che Vivi/Las Cosas Que Vives each peaked at number two domestically; the first led the Dutch chart and the second topped the Swiss listing. Issued near the close of 1998, Mia Risposta/Mi Respuesta delivered her maiden Italian number-one album. Two years afterward Tra Te e il Mare/Entre Tu y Mil Mares placed inside the top five in Italy, Finland, Spain, and Switzerland.

During the same period she performed at a Vatican Christmas mass for Pope John Paul II and at Barbra Streisand's 1998 birthday celebration while selling out venues on worldwide tours. That run concluded with the greatest-hits package The Best of Laura Pausini/Lo Mejor de Laura Pausini, after which came her first English project, 2002's From the Inside. Although it failed to register in English-language territories, the album found favor with her core audience. Following the supporting tour she took a hiatus before resurfacing late in 2004 with Resta in Ascolto/Escucha. Powered by its chart-topping title track, the record became her second Italian number one; Warner Music Latina re-released it stateside in late 2005, securing the Latin Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Album. The concert recording Live in Paris 05 documented her rising profile.

She next exercised full creative control on the covers album Io Canto/Yo Canto, issued in 2006 and built largely from influential 1990s Italian pop and rock material; it finished as Italy's biggest seller of the year. After earning another Latin Grammy she became the first woman to headline Milan's San Siro Stadium, with the performance captured on the 2007 release San Siro 2007. Her tenth studio effort, 2008's Primavera in Anticipo/Primavera Anticipada, featured the single "Invece No"/"En Cambio No" and a collaboration with James Blunt. In 2009 she assembled a multi-artist benefit concert at San Siro for victims of the L'Aquila earthquake; footage appeared in mid-2010. Further touring preceded the 2011 album Inedito/Inédito, which was promoted on the Inedito World Tour that reached London's Royal Albert Hall.

Late in 2012 she joined Josh Groban on a track for All That Echoes and reissued her original 1993 single "La Solitudine" for its twentieth anniversary. The retrospective 20: The Greatest Hits/20: Grandes Exitos arrived in 2013, mixing older material with new recordings that included Kylie Minogue on the Italian chart-topper "Limpido" and Thalía on the top-ten entry "Se Non Te," along with Marc Anthony, Lara Fabian, Alejandro Sanz, and Andrea Bocelli. The collection surpassed one million copies worldwide and led the rankings in Italy, Malta, Mexico, and Switzerland. Her Greatest Hits World Tour visited Europe, Latin America, Australia, and Russia for the first time.

Recording sessions for the next project took place across Europe in late 2014 with multiple producers and musicians. The lead single "Lato Destro del Cuore" surfaced in October 2015, followed in November by Simili in simultaneous Italian and Castilian editions. Promotion included repeated Sunday-evening slots on Univision's La Banda and a coaching role on the Spanish edition of The Voice, titled La Voz. Two holiday albums appeared the next year: Laura Xmas in English and Laura Navidad in Spanish.

Her thirteenth studio album, 2018's Fatti Sentire (and its Spanish counterpart), became her seventh consecutive Italian number one. A deluxe edition, Fatti Sentire Ancora, arrived at year's end and contained a duet version of "Il Coraggio di Andare" with Biagio Antonacci. She also served as a judge on the Spanish series Factor X. In 2021 she contributed "Io sì (Seen)" to the soundtrack of The Life Ahead; the song earned an Academy Award nomination and became the first Italian-language track to win the Golden Globe for Best Original Song. The following year she made her screen debut in the autobiographical film Laura Pausini – Piacere di conoscerti. She co-hosted the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest in Turin and became the first Italian to preside over the Latin Grammy ceremony that November. These milestones framed a series of 2023 anniversary concerts, preceded in October by Anime Parallele, her first studio album in five years, and followed by an extensive world tour.