Alexia (singer)

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Alexia
Alexia in 2015.jpg
Alexia on stage in Sofia in 2015
Background information
Birth nameAlessia Aquilani
Born (1967-05-19) 19 May 1967 (age 56)
Arcola, Liguria, Italy
Genres
Occupation(s)Singer
Years active1989–present
Website Official website OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Alexia (born Alessia Aquilani, 19 May 1967) is an Italian singer. Before recording in Italian in the 2000s, she made records in English in the 1990s. Many of those were international hits. Before her solo career, she was the vocalist of Ice MC. [1]

Contents

In her career, she has sold over 6 million records with ten top 10 singles, four of which were number-ones with numerous international sales certifications. She has performed at the Festivalbar nine times, and four times at the Sanremo Music Festival in which she has earned, besides several music critic awards, three second-placings, and one first-placing in 2003.

Career

Alexia in 2008 Alexia toccocaudio 2008 04.jpg
Alexia in 2008

Early work

Alexia was born in Arcola, Liguria, and from a young age regularly entered singing talent competitions.

She started working for Italian label Euroenergy (by Disco Magic) in 1989 with the singles (Eurobeat/hi-NRG style) "Boy" as Alexia Cooper and "It's All Right" as Lita Beck. One year later, she provided backing vocals to the singles "Cinema" and "Scream" by Ice MC. Later she worked with producer Roberto Zanetti (better known as Robyx) in 1990, as a back-up singer to several of Zanetti's Eurodance acts on his DWA label, including Double You and Ice MC and notably featured on many of the latter's biggest hits such as "Think About the Way" (on the Trainspotting soundtrack), "It's a Rainy Day" and "Russian Roulette". When Ice MC left DWA, Robyx turned his attention to Alexia, and the pair wrote the song "Me and You", which included the vocals of Double You. The song was a big international hit and was followed the next year by "Summer Is Crazy" and "Number One", which again were international hits.

International success

In early 1997, recording began on Alexia's debut album Fan Club with the final international single from the album, "Uh La La La", preceding it. Unlike her previous singles which were all Eurodance, "Uh La La La" was a slower pop track and would become her breakout hit, becoming a European summer anthem in 1997, hitting the top 10 in many countries.

In early 1998, Alexia officially signed to Sony Music through their subsidiary Dancepool which had released some of Alexia's previous singles in certain territories. After this, work began on breaking her in the UK market and a special remix was commissioned. The resulting Almighty Edit propelled the track into the UK top 10 and was also a hit in Australia. Simultaneously in Europe, Alexia released "Gimme Love", the first single from her second album The Party , which saw her begin to branch away from Eurodance towards Europop, causing disappointment amongst some of her fans. Later that year, "The Music I Like" (her first Eurodance single since 1996's "Number One") was released across Europe, followed by "Keep On Movin'".

1999 saw the release of her third album Happy , along with the singles "Goodbye" and "Happy", with Alexia switching to the Epic label. The album did not have as much success as her previous albums and her career began to decline outside Italy, with the release of "Goodbye" in the UK being delayed then ultimately cancelled.

2000–2001

After five years with Robyx and the DWA team, Alexia released The Hits , a compilation of all her international singles, along with new track "Ti amo ti amo". Shortly after the release, Alexia decided to leave DWA and Robyx as she wanted to expand her sound and audience beyond Eurodance. In November 2000, she duetted with Gianni Morandi on his single "Non ti dimenticherò".

In 2001, her fourth album, Mad for Music , was released and this was the first album she had co-produced. The album and its two singles, "Money Honey" and "Summerlovers", only saw release in Italy but did not meet with the same success in her home country as her previous music had.

2002–2007

In 2002, Alexia abandoned Eurodance and started singing almost exclusively in Italian. She made her first appearance at the Sanremo Music Festival in 2002, coming second with "Dimmi come…", which was on her fifth album Alexia . Two more singles followed, "Non lasciarmi mai" and "Hasta la vista baby". To satisfy international fans, an English version of the album was released, with "Don't You Know" (the English version of "Dimmi come...") meeting limited success in France and Australia. Following this, Alexia's music would be released solely in Italy. The following year, she returned to Sanremo with the song "Per dire di no" and won. The song was from her 2003 album Il cuore a modo mio , which also contained the single "Egoista".

Her most successful Italian album was released in 2004, Gli occhi grandi della luna , which featured two singles: "Come tu mi vuoi (You Need Love)" and "Una donna sola".

In 2005, Alexia released her second greatest hits album spanning her Italian hits, Da grande . The lead single from the album, "Da grande", came second place in the women's category at the 2005 Sanremo Festival. After a musical break, Alexia returned in 2007 with a new song, and her first digital download single, "Du Du Du". Following its release, Alexia left Sony Music.

2008–present

In 2008, Alexia released her first studio album in four years entitled Ale and a new record deal with Edel. The album was preceded by the single Grande coraggio and later followed by Guardarti dentro . In 2009, Alexia once again participated in the Sanremo Festival singing a duet with Mario Lavezzi titled Biancaneve . The song was a big hit in Italy, reaching the top 10 and being Alexia's biggest hit for some time. Following this, a re-recorded version of Ale was released entitled Ale & C , which contained three songs from Ale re-recorded as duets, two songs re-recorded in English and two new tracks. We Is the Power , a duet with Bloom 06 was released as the second single, followed by E non sai .

On June 22, 2010, Alexia released the album Stars. Only one single, Star, was released on June 11. [2] In July 2012, a new single A volte sì a volte no was released in Italy. In February 2013, Alexia announced a new version of Summer Is Crazy would feature on her upcoming album, ICanzonissime.

In 2015, Alexia released a new album, in Italian, entitled Tu puoi se vuoi, which spawned three singles: Il mondo non accetta le parole, Sento and Prenditi la vita.

In 2017, Alexia released a new album in Italian entitled Quell'altra which spawned three singles: Beata gioventù, La cura per me (which was chosen as the anthem of Gay Pride 2017 held in Milan), and Fragile fermo immagine.

In 2022, Alexia released her first Christmas album My Xmas, which contains covers of songs by Stevie Wonder, Paul Young, Judy Garland, and Amy Winehouse. [3]

Personal life

In October 2005, Alexia married Andrea Camerana, Giorgio Armani's nephew, and in February 2007 they had their first child, a girl named Maria Vittoria. [4] She considers herself Roman Catholic. [5]

Discography

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dimmi come…</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ti amo ti amo</span> 2000 single by Alexia

"Ti amo ti amo" is the tenth single released by the Italian singer Alexia released in 2000 and was the only new track from her first best of compilation album The Hits. It was the last single she released that was produced by Robyx as she decided to leave the DWA team so that she could grow as an artist and pursue different styles of music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Per dire di no</span> 2003 single by Alexia

"Per dire di no" is the first single from Alexia's sixth studio album Il cuore a modo mio and was released on CD in March 2003. The CD contained two tracks, with the second track being the 'reprise' version which would be included as a bonus track on the album.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Da grande (song)</span> 2005 single by Alexia

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<i>The Hits</i> (Alexia album) 2000 compilation album by Alexia

The Hits is the second compilation album and first greatest hits release by Italian singer Alexia released in 2000 and would be her final album released with Robyx and DWA. The album spans all her international singles from 1995 to 2000, with the sole new song being the lead single "Ti amo ti amo". As they were released in only one territory, the singles "Virtual Reality" and "Hold On" were not included on the album.

<i>Da grande</i> (album) 2005 compilation album by Alexia

Da grande is the third compilation album and second greatest hits release by Italian singer Alexia released in 2005. The album spans all her Italian language singles from 2002 to 2005. Two new tracks were included on the album; "Da grande" and "Mai dire mai" with the former being released as a single and the latter as a radio promo single.

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<i>Alexia</i> (album) 2002 studio album by Alexia

Alexia is the fifth studio album by Italian singer Alexia released in 2002. The album was the first release in Italian. It gave boost to her career. The album was released in Italy on CD and cassette on 8 March 2002. It was certified gold by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry for domestic sales exceeding 50,000 units.

<i>Collections</i> (Alexia album) 2009 compilation album by Alexia

Collections is the second budget compilation album of the singer Alexia released after she left the label. It is not regarded as an official Alexia hits compilation as it contains both singles and album tracks. Notably, the songs are from the time after she left Robyx and DWA and cover the albums Mad for Music, Alexia, Il cuore a modo mio and Gli occhi grandi della luna. "Da grande", one of the new songs from her 2005 hits collection Da grande is included and this is the only Alexia compilation album to feature the single Summerlovers. It was released on 19 February 2009 by Columbia and was the first and only release by Alexia on Sony's Columbia imprint.

<i>Le più belle di… Alexia</i> 2007 compilation album by Alexia

Le più belle di… Alexia is the first budget compilation album of the singer Alexia, released in 2006 shortly before she left Sony. It is not regarded as an official Alexia hits compilation as it contains both singles and album tracks. Notably, nearly all of Alexia's physically released Italian singles except "Keep On Movin'", "Money Honey", "Summerlovers" and "Come tu mi vuoi " are included with the album spanning six of Alexia's seven studio albums and two compilation albums with all the new tracks featured on The Hits and Da grande featured. It was released on 22 June 2006, a few weeks before Alexia's final single with Sony "Du Du Du" which is not included on this release.

The following is a selective listing of Italian singer Alexia's discography. She had four number-one singles in Italy.

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References

  1. ↑ "Alexia Biography". Sing365.com. 14 April 2007. Archived from the original on 11 February 2010. Retrieved 22 March 2010.
  2. ↑ "ALEXIA Official Web Site". Alexiaofficial.com. Retrieved 30 April 2012.
  3. ↑ "La solitudine di Alexia | Rolling Stone Italia" (in Italian). 30 November 2022.
  4. ↑ La Gazzetta Italiana (in Italian).
  5. ↑ Pagnini, Mattia (22 December 2023). "Ho odiato il Natale, ma adesso lo amo". Dipiù (in Italian). No. 51. pp. 98–100.
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