Singer Laura Pausini is celebrating three decades as Italy’s top female artist, announcing on Feb. 14 that she will embark on a three-stop concert tour between the U.S. and Europe to take place within 24 hours. Pausini will perform ten songs in each city, representing each decade of her career.
Pausini’s run will begin at 6 p.m. in New York City’s Apollo Theater on Feb. 26, where she will sing for one hour before hopping on a plane bound for Madrid to perform at the Music Station by 3 p.m. CET on Feb. 27. Her third and final stop will be in Milan’s Teatro Carcano, where she plans to begin performing at 11 p.m. CET.
“This is a tour that, let’s say, begins and ends on the same day,” says Pausini of the outing named “#Laura30.” (All shows will be free and open to the public.) “This is also the retelling of my journey because I got started in Italy, then I went to Spain, and after I went to the United States. I had to pick three cities in each country. Initially, it was going to be Miami for the U.S. but I would not have arrived on time to Madrid and be able to do this whole 24-hour trip.”
The date was picked in honor of her participation at the Sanremo Music Festival in 1993, where her triumphant performance of her song “La Solitudine” (“The Loneliness”) catapulted her into national fame and eventually worldwide stardom.
“I wanted to celebrate on the exact date of my [career] anniversary which is Feb. 27,” Pausini adds. “And with this gesture, I want people to realize that I don’t want to celebrate by only thinking of the past, but also, the fact that a new chapter of my life is beginning… a new path.”
The announcement of her three-city tour is accompanied by a tease of new music and of future performances, including first-time concerts in Venice and Sevilla during the summer.
“I’ll be performing in two important venues in Spain and Italy, in two cities where I, surprisingly enough, have never performed in my 30 years,” she says.
Since stepping foot on stage at one of Italy’s most prestigious festivals, Pausini — who was 18 years-old at the time of her Sanremo performance — has sold more than 75 million albums, won four Latin Grammys, one Grammy, and one Golden Globe, plus she received an Oscar nomination.
“I don’t want to stop and only focus on my accomplishments and the things that I am sure of, because they have already happened, whether it be the awards I’ve won or the career I’ve built,” she says. “I want to still think that there are things I haven’t yet experienced. I still want to feel nervous and excited about new things that I do, because the things I have done up until now are numerous, and I know them too well to be spontaneous about them anymore.”
Though she looks toward the future, Pausini reveals she often reflects and marvels at her luck. “I am a person who was born in a small Italian town and who happened to have luck on her side as well as various coincidences that led me towards [becoming] a citizen of the world. I was able to really get to know myself through my travels and the trips I have been on.”
That’s especially true of her success in Latin America after Warner Music Spain executives encouraged her to release the Spanish version of “La Solitudine,” which has already been widely recognized in European countries such as the U.K., France and the Netherlands.
“La Solitudine,” released in 1994, tells the story of her first breakup with a man named Marco, which Pausini also says is part of her fortunate series of events. As Pausini explains: “Some musicians from the comune of Castrocaro, Italy showed me a song that was called ‘Anna,’ and they said they wanted me to listen to it, and I did. When I heard it, I thought that if I could just replace the name Anna with Marco, the lyrics of the song actually told the story of my life.”
Today, Pausini is the fourth best-selling female artist in Latin America and the best-selling female non-Spanish-speaking Latin music artist.
“My world revolutionized completely after the Spanish-language album, because not only was I selling albums, but when I began to work in and live in Spain and then Latin America, my mind opened up completely more than ever before,” she adds. “While in Europe, I felt loved but still was made to feel like an ex-pat in all the countries. But in Latin America, I was immediately embraced as one of them and they gave me a sense of belonging right away. I wasn’t just Italian; I was Spanish, Colombian, Venezuelan, and Mexican… and I quickly fell in love with [Latinos] deeply.”
