Oscar 2021: Io Sì, the song with which Laura Pausini strives for the golden statue after 3 decades of success (and the occasional disappointment)

The nomination adds to a long list of hits the singer has recorded since she debuted at the famed San Remo Song Festival in Italy in 1993 at the age of 18.

But in the interviews she gave after the nomination, Pausini also recalled a bitter episode: the time her label didn’t believe she could win the Grammy she was nominated for and how she retaliated after winning the Golden Globe.

Based on Romain Gary’s novel, the film “Life Ahead” tells the story of Mrs. Rosa, an elderly prostitute and Holocaust survivor who forges a relationship with a 12-year-old orphan immigrant from Senegal.

The film stars Sophia Loren, who returned to the screens after 10 years, and was directed by Edoardo Ponti, the actress’s son.

seen, a theme from the feature film’s soundtrack, was originally written in English by Diane Warren, who was previously Oscar nominee 11 times for songs like I do not want to miss a Thingplayed by Aerosmith for the film Armageddon

As the film project developed, Pausini was about to record a new album, but had to put his plans on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I felt scared and depressed, as most of us certainly did,” Laura Pausini told Leila Cobo, the magazine’s vice president of Latin Music. Billboard, in early March, after winning the Golden Globe.

Until Warren and Ponti called her in to write the Italian version of the song. seen For the movie.

“I listened to the song in English and immediately felt a very strong connection. I felt like I was coming back to life. It felt good to do that because the message behind the song was very uplifting and necessary,” Pausini said. Cobo, from Billboard , and author of the book “La Fórmula ‘Despacito’: the hits of Latin music told by its artists”.

In an interview with the channel E! Entertainment, the artist said the project gave her ‘the strength to start over’ and that she hoped to be ‘the only person they had [Warren y Ponti] in mind”.

“I wanted to spread the meaning of the song, it’s very moving,” he added.

Pausini translated the song in Italian with Niccoló Agliardi, under the title I do (“I do”), and also adapted in Spanish, Portuguese and French

The Spanish version of the song has verses like “When words are most missing // I am, I am // If you don’t appreciate what you accomplish // I am, I am”; “If no one sees you // I do // If no one feels you // I do”; “And nobody believes it // More, I do.”

“I can use my voice and my platforms to keep spreading the song’s love message,” Pausini also said. E! Entertainment“It’s amazing how we still need to remind people in the 21st century to be kind regardless of race and culture. We need to love.”

For the news of the Oscar nomination, Pausini shared his emotion on social networks.

“I still can’t believe it. Being part of a project as special as ‘Life ahead’ together with Edoardo Ponti and Sophia Loren, I already consider it one of the best gifts life has given me Now I know that I am nominated because the Oscar exceeds every goal or expectation that I had dreamed of in my life It is something that my being still does not understand and I can only thank the Academy for observing ‘Io Sì’ and its message, ” Pausini wrote on Instagram on the same day that the nominees for the ceremony were announced.

“A song in Italian has been nominated for an Oscar !!!! What a pride to represent my country in one of the most important awards in the industry!”

Leila Cobo, the Billboard, told BBC Mundo that “having an Oscar nomination is something super important to any artist’s career” and that “whether he wins it or not, the nomination is a very important achievement, besides being the first Italian woman ( in this category), it is threefold important. ”

Despite the attention she receives for the Oscar nomination – and has received throughout her career – Laura Pausini has said in several interviews that as a child she did not dream of becoming famous, but only to sing in one or another “piano bar”.

But his life changed when he was 18, when he got the chance to perform at the famous San Remo Song Festival in Italy in 1993.

Your song Loneliness (which would soon after become famous in Latin America as “La soledad”) led her to win first prize in the category of new artist in the competition.

After the triumph, he recorded his first album that same year and entered the Spanish market in 1994, with successive hits such as’ Se fue ‘,’ Listen to your heart ‘,’ Amores extraños’, ‘Las cosas que vives’ or’ I wil tell you I love you “, among others.

In 2004, more than 25 million records had already been sold worldwide., the magazine describes Billboard

“A surprising achievement for everyone, much more so for an artist excluded from the lucrative English-speaking market,” the magazine wrote in an article on the Italian published in 2014.

As Leila Cobo told BBC Mundo, Pausini “is a music superstar, in both Italian and Spanish.”

“The fact that he has such a long career speaks to his position in the music world in general. He has a very special sound, very recognizable, a divine voice, and that has allowed him to go far beyond any fad. continue, ”he added. Cobo.

He has also won four Lo Nuestro Awards, a Billboard Award, a Grammy, and a four-time Latin Grammy. Although she last won this award in 2018, the label she worked with didn’t seem to have much faith in her, according to her.

In an interview with Leila Cobo, out Billboard, in 2014, after two decades of professional career, Laura Pausini said, “I am not one of those who have revolutionized her music in 20 years and I am very happy to say it in the sense that many people in love it over the years […] experience new sounds. Of course I have changed as a person from 18 to now, but I feel a lot like what you guys knew from the beginning. “

But in 2018, when she was nominated for a Latin Grammy in the Best Traditional Album category, with the album ‘Make You Feel’, her label seemed ‘less confident in the validity of her music,’ Pausini said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, published in March.

“Let me tell you something: two years ago I was nominated for the Latin Grammys for the song ‘Make yourself feel’. I called my company and they said, ‘With your age and the music that works now, we think you won’t win. No, let’s pay for the trip. “I was so surprised I burst into tears. My parents suggested that I take the family to Las Vegas, and if I won, at least that memory would last. […]Now they have sent me flowers for the Golden Globe and I have returned them… ”, Pausini told La Vanguardia.

However, a few days later, Pausini spoke to his record company, according to a statement by his US publicist to BBC Mundo. The situation has been resolved and he continues to work with the company.

Today I spoke to the president of my record company in Italy who generated an unpleasant situation regarding the Latin Grammy in 2018 that hurt me a lot. I was happy to receive his call and had the opportunity to clarify everything . […]Pausini wrote on one of his Facebook accounts.

“In order to finally clarify everything and receive your apologies, I have understood and now I have more energy than ever … We have started at full speed for everything that lies ahead … together,” she also said .

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