External links
- Official website
- Valerie Dore discography at Discogs
- Valerie Dore at IMDb
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
Valerie Dore | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Monica Stucchi |
| Born | 28 May 1963 Milan, Lombardy, Italy |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Website | valeriedore |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | Italo disco |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals |
Monica Stucchi (born 28 May 1963), known by her stage name Valerie Dore, is an Italian singer. [1]
Monica Stucchi was born in Milan, Italy. Prior to her career in music, she worked as a graphic designer. In the early 1980s she fronted The Watermelon String Band, a bluegrass ensemble led by the banjoist Bruno Guaitamacchi that performed in the Milan clubs circuit.
Stucchi was discovered at age 20 by the Italo producer Roberto Gasparini, who launched her solo career and gave her the stage name Valerie Dore to improve her international appeal. Dore's first single, "The Night" (1984) was arranged by Lino Nicolosi. Her follow-up singles, "Get Closer" and "It's So Easy", were released in 1984 and 1985, respectively. Unsure about Dore's vocal abilities, Nicolosi hired professional singers like his then wife Dora Carofiglio and his sister Rossana Nicolosi (who at the time where members of Nicolosi's band Novecento)to perform on some of these tracks. In 1985, the weekly Italian entertainment news magazine TV Sorrisi e Canzoni ("TV Smiles and Songs") gave Valerie Dore the Best New Artist of the Year Award. The same year, she also finished second at Festivalbar and was invited to perform on the TV show "Azzurro" on Rai 2 and on German TV.
In 1986, Dore felt confident enough to perform all vocal duties herself. She began working with a new production team at Castello di Carimate on what would be her first album, The Legend. A team formed by Marco Tansini (music) and Simona Zanini (lyrics) wrote the ten songs that Dore performed for the album.
The album's first single, "Lancelot," was a hit in the Italian charts. The second single, "King Arthur," enjoyed moderate success in Europe, and Dore was invited to perform on the Italian music program Discoring . Other songs from the album that received significant radio play include "The Magic Rain" and "Bow and Arrow".
In 1986, Dore was voted the 6th best female artist in Italy by readers of TV Sorrisi e Canzoni. The following year, she changed production team again following a dispute over royalties, and moved to London to record her new single "Wrong Direction", in co-production with her future husband, Mauro Zavagli, for their new label "MZM PRODUCTION" (MauroZavagliMonica Production). Dore was aided in the studio by German producer Ralph Ruppert and collaborated with musicians Nick Beggs (of Kajagoogoo fame) and Mark Price. The record, however, suffered from serious underpromotion and only reached the #23 spot in the Italian charts.
Between 1990 and 1991, Dore and Zavagli lived in Madagascar, where they began collaborating with local musicians. Dore considered recording an album in Madagascar but she couldn't find support for the project in the music industry and eventually decided against the idea.
In 1992, the label ZYX released The Best of Valerie Dore with a few bonus tracks, including the extended versions of her dance hits "The Night", "Get Closer" and "It's So Easy," plus two remixes of "The Night" done by DJ Oliver Momm. In 1995, Zavagli and Dore moved to Arezzo, Toscana, where Dore started working as an antiquarian and restorer. The couple separated in 2000.
In November 2006, after a 15 years-iatus, Dore recorded a new song, "How do I get to Mars?". In 2007, she became a vocal anti-smoking campaigner. During an interview on Radio 24, she revealed that she had been smoking for 15 years, and how the habit had affected her voice. In 2007 she recorded more material in her home studio, which was eventually released in her 2014 album Greatest Hits & Remixes.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
Mina Anna Maria Mazzini or Mina Anna Quaini, known mononymously as Mina, is an Italian singer and actress. She was a staple of television variety shows and a dominant figure in Italian pop music from the 1960s to the mid-1970s, known for her three-octave vocal range, the agility of her soprano voice, and her image as an emancipated woman.
Loredana Bertè is an Italian singer, songwriter and actress. In her long career she has worked with prominent Italian songwriters such as Pino Daniele, Ivano Fossati, Mario Lavezzi, Mango and Enrico Ruggeri, among others; her sister Mia Martini was also an acclaimed singer. She has experimented with different genres, from rock to reggae, from funk to pop. Bertè is known for the eccentric clothing she wears onstage for her performances.
Elisa Toffoli , performing under the mononym Elisa, is an Italian singer-songwriter. She is one of few Italian musicians to write and record mainly in English. She draws inspiration from many genres such as pop, alternative rock, electronica and trip hop. In Europe she is perhaps most recognised for the single "Come Speak to Me", while American audiences may recognise the song "Dancing" as featured in both the 2006 and 2007 seasons of So You Think You Can Dance. On 18 December 2012, her collaboration with Ennio Morricone, "Ancora qui", was featured on Quentin Tarantino's film, Django Unchained and its soundtrack album, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media.
Alfredo "Larry" Pignagnoli is an Italian record producer, composer and musician.
Al Bano and Romina Power are an Italian-American pop music duo formed in 1975 by then-married couple Italian tenor Albano Carrisi and American singer Romina Power, the daughter of Hollywood actor Tyrone Power. They have recorded over 22 albums, which have sold in 150 million copies across six decades. Their best known international hits include "Felicità", "Sharazan", "Tu, soltanto tu ", "Ci sarà", "Sempre sempre", and "Libertà!". They participated twice in Eurovision Song Contest in 1976 and 1985 and performed five times at Sanremo Music Festival, winning in 1984 with the song "Ci sarà". The couple also shot seven films, based on their songs, between 1967 and 1984. The two separated in 1999 and divorced in 2012, but reunited professionally in 2013.
Maria Ilva Biolcati, OMRI, known as Milva, was an Italian singer, stage and film actress, and television personality. She was also known as La Rossa, due to the characteristic colour of her hair, and additionally as La Pantera di Goro, which stemmed from the Italian press having nicknamed the three most popular Italian female singers of the 1960s, combining the names of animals and the singers' birthplaces. The colour also characterised her leftist political beliefs, claimed in numerous statements. Popular in Italy and abroad, she performed on musical and theatrical stages the world over, and received popular acclaim in her native Italy, and particularly in Germany and Japan, where she often participated in musical events and televised musical programmes. She released numerous albums in France, Japan, Korea, Greece, Spain, and South America.
"Self Control" is a song by Italian singer Raf, released in 1984. It was written by Giancarlo Bigazzi, Steve Piccolo and Raf, and arranged by Celso Valli. The track topped the charts in Italy and Switzerland, and started the explosion and dominance of Italo disco-style recordings in continental European charts during the 1980s.
Telegatto, was an Italian television award first conceived in 1971 following the contest Gran Premio internazionale dello Spettacolo, though the first award ceremony wasn't held until 1984. It was sponsored by the weekly magazine TV Sorrisi e Canzoni and broadcast on Canale 5. The prize was a golden cat statue with the network's initials on its face. It was inspired by a cartoon from the television series Super Classifica Show, a cult show in the 1980s and early 1990s. The award ceremony was cancelled in 2009.
Carla Bissi, known professionally as Alice or Alice Visconti, is an Italian singer-songwriter and pianist who began her career in the early 1970s. After releasing three albums by the end of the decade, her breakthrough came in 1981 when she won the Sanremo Music Festival with the song "Per Elisa". This was followed by European hit singles like "Una notte speciale", "Messaggio", "Chan-son Egocentrique", "Prospettiva Nevski" and "Nomadi" and albums like Gioielli rubati, Park Hotel, Elisir, and Il sole nella pioggia which charted in Continental Europe, Scandinavia, and Japan.
Fiorella Mannoia is an Italian singer, songwriter, and actress.
Josina van de Wijdeven, known as José Hoebee, is a Dutch pop singer. She was a member of Luv', a famous Dutch girl group in the late 1970s and early 1980s that scored hits in more than 15 countries. In late 1981, she went solo and was successful in her homeland and in the Flanders region of Belgium between 1982 and 1985. She formed a duo known as Bonnie & José with Bonnie St. Claire to record Dutch cover versions of ABBA's songs.
"Il mio amore unico" is a song by Italian singer Dolcenera, released in 2009 as the lead single from her fourth studio album, Dolcenera nel paese delle meraviglie. The song competed in the Sanremo Music Festival 2009, being eliminated in the semi-final of the show. Despite this, it became a radio hit and a commercial success in Italy, peaking at number five on the Italian Singles Chart.
Chiara Galiazzo is an Italian singer. She rose to fame in 2012, after winning the sixth season of the Italian talent show X Factor. Her debut single, titled "Due respiri" and co-written by Eros Ramazzotti, was released on 8 December 2012 and debuted atop the Italian Singles Chart. Chiara released her first studio album, Un posto nel mondo, which debuted at number 2 on the Italian Albums Chart, and spawned the singles "Il futuro che sarà", "Mille passi" and "Vieni con me". In November of the same year, Galiazzo featured on Mika's single "Stardust", which became a number-one hit in Italy.
"L'essenziale" is a song by Italian singer Marco Mengoni and the lead single from his second studio album, #prontoacorrere (2013). Released in Italy on 13 February 2013, the song was written by Roberto Casalino, Francesco De Benedettis, and Mengoni, and produced by Michele Canova. Casalino described the song as an Italian-style ballad that is about the necessity of essentiality.
The Sanremo Music Festival 2014, officially the 64th Italian Song Festival, was the 64th annual Sanremo Music Festival, a televised song contest held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, Liguria, between 18 and 22 February 2014 and broadcast by Rai 1. Fabio Fazio and Italian comedy actress Luciana Littizzetto presented the show, which was based on the same rules adopted for the previous contest. Competing artists were split in two different sections—Big Artists and Newcomers. The Big Artists section included 14 established Italian artists. During the first and the second night of the show, each act performed two songs, and only one song per act was allowed to continue the competition, as a result of votes received by public and journalists. After the third night, Riccardo Sinigallia's entry, "Prima di andare via", was disqualified for being performed during a concert preceding the competition. During the final night, Arisa's "Controvento" was announced as the winning song for the Big Artists section of the contest. The Newcomers' section featured eight songs performed by debuting or little known artists. The winning entry, Rocco Hunt's "Nu juorno buono", was announced during the semi-final of the contest.
"Fotoromanza" is a song composed by Gianna Nannini, Conny Plank and Raffaella Riva and performed by Gianna Nannini. The single peaked at first place for four consecutive weeks in September 1984 on the Italian hit parade. It won the 1984 edition of Festivalbar and also won "Vota la Voce", a musical event organized by the magazine TV Sorrisi e Canzoni. The music video of the song was directed by the Academy Award winner Michelangelo Antonioni.
Massimiliano Pani is an Italian songwriter, producer and composer born on 18 April 1963 in Milan to parents Corrado Pani and Mina. His mother has always aroused great curiosity and interest not only for her career but the events that have characterized her private life Corrado Pani was married at the time and due to Mina's refusal to hide the relationship, the singer was banned from performing on public Italian television or radio channels. Within a year, her affair with Corrado ended.
The Kolors is an Italian pop rock band founded in 2009 by lead vocalist Stash Fiordispino, drummer Alex Fiordispino and Daniele Mona who plays synthesizers. They are known for their hits "Everytime", lead single from their second studio album, and the collaboration "Pensare male" with Elodie. Their 2023 song "Italodisco" peaked at number one in Italy and charted in severals European charts.
Anime Parallele and Almas Paralelas are the fifteenth studio albums by Italian singer Laura Pausini, released on 27 October 2023 by Warner Music and Atlantic Records. The album is primarily in Italian and Spanish, but it also contains parts in Portuguese.
"Questione di feeling" is a duet song recorded by Italian singers Mina and Riccardo Cocciante. The song was released as a single and anticipated Mina's album Finalmente ho conosciuto il conte Dracula... in which it is contained. Cocciante puts the track on his album Il mare dei papaveri (1985).