Laura Pasini was named the Latin Recording Academy’s Person of the Year 2023, in recognition of her 30-year career in Latin music. Being Italian, she is the first artist born outside Latin America to be recognized with this award.
“It’s a historic thing, it’s a symbol,” Pausini said in a video call interview shortly after the announcement. “He is opening a border that was previously closed”.
“When a child is adopted and grows up with a new family, he becomes part of that family. I was adopted by Latinos and I am Latina,” he added. “Today more than ever, I understand this as something that I have not only felt inside of me for years, but is finally recognized by my family.”
Pausini, who has already received four Latin Grammys and a Grammy, will be honored at a gala taking place during Latin Grammy week in November in Seville, Spain, in another milestone for the Latin Grammys to be held outside the United States for the first time in its 24 editions. The person of the year gala will benefit the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation.
Artists previously honored as the Latin Recording Academy’s Person of the Year include Rubén Blades, Juanes, Maná, Alejandro Sanz, Shakira, Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin and José José.
The gala is known for very famous musicians to sing the recipient’s songs in a tribute concert.
Laura Pausini will start a long musical marathon next December in Rome to celebrate 30 years of her successful career. AND will arrive in Argentina on February 28 2024 at the Movistar Arena stadium.
a successful career
The artist is recognized for her outstanding music career, as well as her ongoing commitment to causes such as equality for women and LGBTIQ+ people and the fight against world hunger.
Has sold more than 70 million albumsamong which they stand out Make yourself felt, early spring AND The things that you live. She is the Golden Globe winner for Best Original Song for Me yes (seen)) of the film Life ahead of you and nominated for an Oscar for the same theme.
She was named Diversity Media Awards Person of the Year for her support of the LGBTIQ+ community. written and published The world I would like for UNICEF and in 2004 he became spokesperson for the Italian League for the fight against AIDS.
She was also named a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations World Food Program in 2014.
His relationship with music in Spanish started from childhood. Her father is a musician and in the 80s, when she was about eight years old, he took her as her accompanist to sing in restaurants and bars in the style that he himself called “piano bar”.
Pausini has been with his father for a decade, customers asking for songs in French, English and, of course, Spanish. His father also introduced her to the music of Gloria Estefan, one of his favorite artists of his, translating her lyrics so that he could understand them.
“My dad taught me not to be afraid to sing in a different language than my own because all songs say something,” she said. “After he did the translation for me my mindset completely changed because from there… I started writing songs and I wanted to write lyrics that had meaning.”
Just when Pausini was 18 years old won the Sanremo Song Festival with lonelinesswhich a short time later would become popular in Spanish as Loneliness.
“They asked me almost immediately to do the Spanish version,” he said. “I had no doubts, I said ‘yes, yes, I sing, of course I know, I can’t speak Spanish very well, but I want to sing.’ And from there we tried, we didn’t know if people liked this Italian who sang in Spanish, but I liked singing in Spanish being Italian and I think people listened to that real passion she had”.
Over time, Pausini learned to recognize the differences in the accents of Peruvians, Mexicans, Spaniards, Colombians and also his own Italian-Hispanic accent which gave his music its identity.
“I sang for two of the big names in Mexican music, once honoring Person of the Year Juan Gabriel and recently, because it was last year, Marco Antonio Solís,” Pausini said.
“What I love so much about the person of the year is that the person of the year doesn’t know who the singers are going to celebrate, so from now on, from today that I’ve found out it’s me, I have my head full of who’s going to sing. that of strange loveswho is about to sing not insteadwho is about to sing Live me. It’s going to be a party, I’m really looking forward to it!
Her marriage to Paul
This has been a year full of love and happiness for Pausini, who in March she marries Paolo Cartafather of his daughter Paola, after 18 years of relationship.
“The people I work with never knew anything until the moment I put the photo on Instagram,” she said. “I really wanted to surprise our daughter, our family, we are simpler… we wanted it to be something very intimate, familiar and then shared”.
Pausini shared that his wedding rings were bought on the internet, are black and cost 30 euros. “What’s important to us is the meaning of things,” she said.
“It makes no sense not to tell the truth, that’s what I’ve learned in my life, and also from my life as a singer, to be honest, it will always make you proud of yourself. Sincerity, honesty is never a mistake, even when you’re singing, even when you’re in front of an audience and writing a song,” he said.
“I love being able to speak Spanish, being able to teach it, maybe not in the best way, but I treat my daughter,” she added. “Sometimes I think in Spanish at home, sometimes I speak to her in Spanish. Knowing that I learned it with music, singing my songs, is like receiving millions of kisses every day”.
Source: Clarin
