© Shopping-Capa - Original text by Paulo Cavalcanti: Translation thanks to: Barbara, Brazil - Photos: Sheryl Nields

LAURA'S NEW CHALLENGE

Laura Pausini is one of the biggest stars of the Italian music. As professional since 1993, she has already sold over more that 20 millions copies, not only in her mother language, but also in Spanish. Few people know, but Laura is one of the stronger foreign artists in Brazil. The singer has already came here lots of times, knows how to speak Portuguese fluently and has uncountable Fan Clubs spread across our territory. Bad comments say that the only successful thing about the unsuccessful soap opera Esperança is the theme song, sung by the beautiful Italian.

In 2001 she released the compilation The Best Of that also contained two new songs, one of them recorded with Gilberto Gil. But now she's getting ready to start a new stage of her career, Laura is releasing From The Inside (Warner), her first album totally sung in English. In this collection of dancing pop and romantic ballads, Laura counts on the support of producers like John Shanks (Melissa Etheridge), KC Porter (Santana, Ricky Martin) Guy Roche (Celine Dion, Cher) Patrick Leonard (Madonna, Cher).

Before the release of From The Inside Laura sang in English occasionally, basically in soundtracks. For Message in a Bottle (1999), she sang One More Time and in Pokemon (2000), The Extra Mile. But before this, she recorded Looking for an Angel in 1996, which Phil Collins wrote specially for her. When Collins was in Italy, they have sang together some times.

From The Inside was recorded in the United States (California) and it took two years to be finished. That's because Laura had to execute her tasks around the world and spent part of her time inside planes. But all this exhaustion didn't take away the singer's enthusiasm. During the recordings, she talked about the project: "I have already 10 years of career, singing in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and now I want to try it in English. I'm 28 and don't want to think I've reached everything".

Later, she concluded the reason: "I mean, I never dreamed to be a very famous person, a celebrity. What I wanted was just to sing, and I want to make good use of the opportunity to learn other languages through the music, and this is my main objective. And if I have success in North America with my English album, it will be my biggest gift. I want to fight for it, I'm a very persistent person, so I want to try".

In general, Laura writes her own songs. This time, working in another language, she called to have collaborators. The Italian describes the work creation and finishing: "From The Inside is a very special album because I'm used to write my own lyrics in Italian and Spanish, but I'm not able to feel comfortable writing alone in an English album. So I needed people who I trusted to 'open' myself, explain who I am, what I want, because I really wanted to sing songs that represented my ideals and my way to believe in life and love. So, From The Inside was a very very long "war"... it took me two years to find the songs, know producers and now I'm very happy. For that reason I named it From The Inside. I wanted something very fair: from the inside!"

About the producers Laura says it was a very interesting experience to come to them: " I wanted to try to know people, that maybe now I understand, who were a little far from me, my way of thinking about music, artistically talking. So it was very important that I met people who could help me to be really sincere, in the most honest way it could be. It also took me some time to find cool producers, people who could work within soul, not just 'the biggest' producers, but that were also unique people in terms of personality. Therefor I'm very happy for having worked with Patrick Leonard, KC Porter, Guy Roche and Kara DioGuardi. They were absolutely important for me because with them I could share my own experience.... I mean, I'm Italian. I come from Europe and I am meeting people from North America and this is very important, because we can really manage a sound that is truly new, singular and 'mine'. I don't want to copy anyone".

The album's first single is called Surrender. She tells how the choice came to her: "My Italian, Spanish and Portuguese albums were always released with a ballad, and this song is quite different, it's pop. The song is pure pop and caught me as I listened to it. I remember that was one of the executives of Atlantic Records in New York... he wanted me to try to sing this track because he thought it would be a success. I immediately asked: What's the title? And he answered me Surrender I wasn't so sure about it, I hadn't listened to it yet, but the title made me feel and thinks something like: 'I don't like to surrender to anyone, so maybe it isn't right for me'. So, I wanted to try this song. It was a challenge. I'm very proud of having it as the first single of my album".

Another key song of From The Inside is I need Love. Laura explains: "It's a very important ballad for me. As my old fans already know, I love singing ballads. And when I discovered that I need Love was written by Kara DioGuardi, it was a very exciting moment. I remember I was in Los Angeles, we were recording together another song for the album and she started playing a new idea she had for a song on the piano, called I need Love. I looked at her and asked: please, try to complete this song because I want to sing it."

Laura completes: "I felt that I need Love was mine, not only because of the meaning that it represents very well, what I feel now in my heart, because I can't wait to find someone to love, but also because it's melody is very soft and is also... you know, you can dedicate it to a person that you really love. This is the first song of the album and the first part of the lyrics says: 'I'd cross the dessert to be where you are'. This is something that I can really do for the man I love."

On the contrary, It's not Good-Bye is not a new song. Actually, it's a song written by Laura in Italian and Spanish, in 1996. But Laura confesses that she always wanted to sing it in English: "It's title in Italian is In assenza di te, in Spanish it's en ausencia de ti, and it was very important for me t ask Shelly Peiken, who translated it into English, to make it's adaptation. Now the song is called It's not Good-Bye. You know what, every day I change my opinion about which is the best song of the album, but today I have to admit that It's not Good-Bye is my favourite. KC Porter, who produced it, was really like a diamond in this song. He co-produced it because we also used the original record that Dado Parasini, my Italian producer, did in 1996. So we mixed it with the experience of KC Porter, and because he is so spiritual I thought it would be the best song for him to do and start the project."

The singer reflects about the epoque that it was to record From The Inside. "Spending so much time in America was a different experience. When you have a successful career in your country and goes out for a time, it can be dangerous somehow. I hope my fans to understand that this is a very important step for me and to continue to admire my work. I'm Taurus, but although I don't understand very much about Astrology, when I read something about my sign, I identify myself completely.

I'm a persistent person and love to work. And now that I have this opportunity, I want to fight until the end, because I believe in that and I'm not afraid of exposing myself. Whether it works or not, I'm sure I have the strength to try and grow."