Laura Pausini

Laura Pausini Bio

Laura Pausini (born 16 May 1974) is an Italian singer, songwriter, and television personality whose career has spanned more than three decades. She first gained national attention in 1993 when she won the newcomer section of the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with the single “La solitudine,” a song that became an Italian standard and launched her onto the international stage. Over the following years, Pausini built a multilingual catalogue recorded primarily in Italian and Spanish, releasing fifteen studio albums, two international greatest hits compilations, and selling tens of millions of records worldwide. Her achievements include a Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album, a Golden Globe for Best Original Song for “Io sì (Seen),” and an Academy Award nomination, establishing her as one of Italy’s most successful global recording artists.

Early Life and Background

Laura Pausini was born in Faenza, in the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. She is the elder of two daughters of Fabrizio Pausini, a former pianist who once played as a session musician for ABBA’s Frida Lyngstad and later became a piano bar artist, and Gianna Ballardini. Raised in the small comune of Solarolo, Pausini grew up surrounded by music, as her father encouraged her to perform and later gave her singing lessons.

Her earliest live appearance took place on 16 May 1985, when she sang alongside her father in a restaurant in Bologna. Throughout her teenage years she continued performing in local piano bars and also sang in a church choir. In 1987 she recorded her first demo album, “I sogni di Laura,” produced by her father and featuring eight covers and five original songs, which was used to promote her live shows. She later attended the “Gaetano Ballardini” Institute of Ceramics in Faenza, receiving her diploma shortly after the release of her debut album in 1993.

In 1991 Pausini entered the Castrocaro Music Festival, performing Liza Minnelli’s “New York, New York,” but she did not advance to the final round. That same year she also took part in “Sanremo Famosi,” a selection tied to the newcomers’ section of the Sanremo Music Festival, where she was declared joint winner, although she was not allowed to compete at Sanremo the following year.

Path to Music

Thanks to her performances in local singing competitions, Pausini was noticed by Italian producer and songwriter Angelo Valsiglio, who introduced her to manager Marco Marati. Valsiglio suggested the song “La solitudine,” a track he had co-written with Pietro Cremonesi and Federico Cavalli. Her rendition convinced Valsiglio and Marati to arrange auditions with major Italian labels, and during one of those auditions she impressed Fabrizio Giannini of Warner Music Italy’s Compagnia Generale del Disco with an unreleased Mia Martini song. The audition led to her first recording contract.

“La solitudine” was selected as her entry in the newcomer artists’ section of the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival, where she performed it for the first time on 23 February 1993. She won the competition on 27 February 1993, receiving 7,464 votes and beating Gerardina Trovato by a narrow margin. The victory marked the start of a professional music career that would quickly expand beyond Italy’s borders.

Following her Sanremo triumph, Pausini began recording her first professional album while still attending high school in Faenza. The self-titled “Laura Pausini” was released in May 1993 by CGD Records and sold 400,000 copies in Italy, later exceeding two million units worldwide. In September 1993 she received a Telegatto for Revelation of the Year, confirming her rapid rise within the Italian music industry.

Laura Pausini Career

Early Career (1993–1995)

The commercial success of “La solitudine” paved the way for Pausini’s second studio album, “Laura,” released in February 1994. The album sold three million copies worldwide and produced the hit “Strani amori,” which ranked third at the Sanremo Music Festival that year. During the summer of 1994, Pausini received the Premio Europa at the Festivalbar for her international success, and she was awarded a second Telegatto for Best Female Artist.

In 1994 she also released her first Spanish-language album, a compilation of adapted versions of her Italian hits that became the best-selling album of the year in Spain and earned a diamond certification for exceeding one million units sold. The success made her the first non-Spanish artist to achieve that milestone in the Spanish market. In 1995 she received the World Music Award for Best Selling Italian Recording Artist and the Lo Nuestro Award for Best New Artist of the Year.

Breakthrough (1996–2010)

In September 1996, Pausini released “Le cose che vivi” and its Spanish counterpart “Las cosas que vives,” initiating the practice of recording most of her songs in both Italian and Spanish that came to define her career. The album sold 3.5 million copies worldwide and earned an IFPI Platinum certification for European sales. During the same period she launched her first international tour, the World Wide Tour, performing across Europe and the Americas.

Her fourth studio album, “La mia risposta / Mi respuesta,” appeared in 1998 and was described by Italian critics as a more mature work influenced by soul music, selling two million copies worldwide. Subsequent releases “Tra te e il mare / Entre tú y mil mares” (2000) and the English-language “From the Inside” (2002) consolidated her international reach, even though the latter sold modestly in the United States at 50,000 copies. In November 2004 she released “Resta in ascolto / Escucha,” whose Spanish version won Best Latin Pop Album at the 48th Grammy Awards, making her the first Italian female artist to win a Grammy.

Her tenth studio album “Primavera in anticipo / Primavera anticipada” (2008) featured a duet with James Blunt and won Best Female Pop Vocal Album at the Latin Grammy Awards. Throughout this period she also organised large charity events, including the 2009 “Amiche per l’Abruzzo” concert at San Siro Stadium in Milan, which raised funds for victims of the L’Aquila earthquake.

Notable Works and Milestones

Among her signature recordings are the 1993 debut “La solitudine,” the 2004 Spanish-language release “Escucha,” the 2006 covers album “Io canto / Yo canto,” the 2015 studio set “Simili / Similares,” and the 2020 single “Io sì (Seen),” co-written with Diane Warren. These works anchored her status as a leading figure in Italian and Latin pop music and underlined her ability to operate fluently across multiple languages and markets.

Laura Pausini Award Nominations

Throughout her career, Laura Pausini has received numerous nominations across Italian and international award ceremonies. Among the most prominent are her nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2021 for “Io sì (Seen),” her Latin Grammy nominations for Best Female Pop Vocal Album and Best Engineered Album in 2001, and her Grammy nomination for Best Latin Pop Album in 2015 for the Spanish version of “Simili.” She has also earned nominations at the Lo Nuestro Awards, the Sanremo Music Festival, and the Italian Music Awards, reflecting a consistent presence on year-end shortlists in both the Italian and Latin music industries.

Laura Pausini Awards Won

Pausini’s award history spans more than three decades and includes some of the most prestigious honours in the music world. She won the newcomer section of the Sanremo Music Festival in 1993, the World Music Award for Best Selling Italian Recording Artist in 1995, and the Lo Nuestro Award for Best New Artist of the Year in the same year. In 2005 her album “Escucha” earned the Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album, and she has collected multiple Latin Grammy Awards, including Best Female Pop Vocal Album for “Io canto / Yo canto” in 2007. In 2021, “Io sì (Seen)” won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, becoming the first Italian-language song to receive the award.

Laura Pausini Family

Pausini is the daughter of Fabrizio Pausini, a pianist and former session musician, and Gianna Ballardini. Her father played a formative role in her early musical life, producing her first demo album and encouraging her stage work in local piano bars. She is the elder of two sisters and grew up in Solarolo before moving to Milan in 1995 to pursue her professional career.

Personal Life

Pausini began a relationship with Italian guitarist, composer, and producer Paolo Carta in 2005, and the couple married on 22 March 2023 after eighteen years together. They have a daughter, born on 8 February 2013. Pausini has lived in Milan, Lombardy, since leaving her hometown in 1995, and she has openly discussed her Catholic faith while also expressing personal reservations about certain Church positions on social issues. Beyond music, she has served as a coach on international versions of “The Voice,” a judge on “La banda” and “The X Factor,” a host of Eurovision 2022 and the Sanremo Music Festival 2026, and she was honoured as the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year in 2023.