As incredible it may sound, Carla Bissi aka Alice turns 60 today. She has been this blogger's favorite female singer since 1981 and the soundtrack of my years. She may have not been the most productive recording artist over the years but the good news is she's coming out with a new album soon! Can't wait!
She's been in the business since 1971 when she won the Castrocaro music festival for new voices that lead her to Sanremo and winning the La Gondola d'Argento in Venice the year after. All this under her real name Carla Bissi.
In 1975 change of name to Alice Visconti and new production team and a song to remember, Io voglio vivere. The real success comes however after meeting Franco Battiato - and this magical collaboration continues on and off until these days - and scoring her first megahit in 1980 with Il vento caldo dell'estate, dropping Visconti and being simply Alice. The next year she wins Sanremo with Per Elisa, conquers parts of European markets, does Eurovision with Battiato and I treni di Tozeur in 1984 and releases a cover album of his songs in 1985 including Prospettiva Nevski.
In 1986 she changes her style a bit to less commercial with new collaborators and this reserach continues the next two decades. She returns to Sanremo 2000 with Il giorno dell'indipendenza in change to be able to release her God is my DJ album. Her first live album is released in 2009 and finally in 2012 she returned to more commercial and pop sound with Samsara, something that will continue with her next release later this year.
Alice is a true artist who does what she believes in, the way she wants it. Not bending for the commercial sides of things and easy success which kept her away from television for over a decade for example. Maybe not loved by the masses and copied by hysterical teenage girls like she was in the early 1980's but she has a big loyal fanbase that has stood by her all these decades adoring whatever she does. This blogger is proud to be one of them and dreaming of seeing her perform live again one day somewhere. It would be the third time after Helsinki's concert in 1990 and the performance in Rome's Santa Maria degli Angeli many Easters ago.
Tanti auguri, Carla!
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