Elisa was born in Monfalcone (Gorizia) on December 9th, 1977. Since childhood, she has expressed a remarkable artistic sensitivity: she dances, paints, recites and writes stories. Her love for art first blossomed as she discovered the poems of Rudyard Kipling and the poetic lyrics of Jim Morrison, but the natural evolution of her talent is most clearly expressed in her music: writing her first lyrics and composing her first melodies at the age of eleven.
At age sixteen she met Caterina Caselli at an audition, who immediately recognized her talent. The following year, Elisa signed her first recording contract with Sugar. At eighteen she left for Berkeley, where she worked on her debut album Pipes and Flowers at Fantasy Studio.
In late March ‘97 her first single Sleeping in your hand was released, while the album Pipes & Flowers, produced by Corrado Rustici, came out on September 22nd that year, reaching double platinum status in Italy shortly afterwards.
The album Pipes and flowers (1998) produced three singles: Sleeping in your hand, Labyrinth and A feast for me. Elisa won the Premio Tenco and the PIM (Italian Music Prize) as best new act. She also proved to be an extraordinary live performer in her appearance at the Heineken Jammin’ Festival at Imola and as a special guest in Eros Ramazzotti's European tour. In October she cut the single Cure Me - produced by Darren Allison (Skunk Anansie, Spiritualized) – which was included in the re-released version of the Pipes & Flowers CD.
On May 5th, 2000, she released her second album: Asile’s World (Asile is just Elisa written backwards), which was previewed by the single The Gift, a song dedicated to her mother. The album was produced by Darren Allison, Howie B (U2, Bjork), Roberto Vernetti, Mauro Malavasi and Leo Z, and spawned two more singles: Happiness Is Home and the title track Asile’s World.
In 2001 she made her first song in Italian: Luce (tramonti a nord est), written in December 2000 and produced by Corrado Rustici. The Italian version of the song was translated from the original English lyrics by Elisa and her mother with the help of Zucchero. It was with this song that Elisa won the 2001 edition of the Sanremo Festival, accompanied by the strings of the Solis String Quartet. The prestigious panel of judges, headed by Gino Paoli, invented an award especially for her: best performer of the festival.
Elisa sang in Bologna to a crowd of twenty thousand at the opening event for Futurshow, in Genoa at Goa Boa, alongside other international stars including Manu Chao and Tricky, and at the Christmas concert at the Vatican.
On November 9th, her third album 'Then comes the sun' was released and that same evening she was voted best Italian artist at the MTV European Music Awards in Frankfurt. On November 26th she won three prizes at the Italian Music Awards for best female act, best single and best musical composition. Heaven out of hell – a song dedicated to her mother, like Gift from Asile’s world – was the first single from the album Then comes the sun. Alessandro D’Alatri directed the video for the track, which features the ice skating world champions Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio and the actors Stefania Rocca and Fabio Volo (who starred in the film Casomai, also directed by D’Alatri).
At the end of February 2002, Elisa sang the Italian national anthem – rearranged by Michele Centonze (Jovanotti, Pavarotti) in a jazz key – during the closing ceremony of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics
(USA). The performance marked the handover of the Olympic torch to Turin, where the next Winter Olympics were to be held in 2006. In spring, she sang at the Mayday Festival in Piazza San Giovanni and in Pavarotti & Friends, where she performed a duet with the Maestro in the song "Voglio vivere così (col sole in fronte)". This was another successful year for Elisa at the PIM awards (Italian Music Prize): where she won the categories best female artist and best single, naturally for the multiple award winning Luce (tramonti a nord est).
The album Then comes the sun went double platinum in Italy and was released in over twenty countries, including the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Holland. This was the best selling of all three of Elisa's albums. Rainbow was the second single from the CD Then comes the sun. The third track, "Dancing", featured in two movie soundtracks: A time for dancing by Peter Gilbert and Casomai by Alessandro D’Alatri. In October, Elisa debuted at the Teatro Massimo theater in Palermo as the leading actor in “Ellis Island”, a musical on the theme of immigration directed by Marco Baliani with music by Giovanni Sollima and lyrics by Roberto Alajmo. In December she was nominated three times at the Italian Music Awards: best female act, best album and best tour. For the second year in a row, she performed at the Christmas concert at the Vatican.
She went back to singing in Italian in 2003: performing an evocative cover of "Almeno tu nell’universo" by Mia Martini as the theme of the soundtrack for the movie Ricordati di me by Gabriele Muccino. The video for the track was directed by Richard Lowenstein, who is also known for having worked with U2. "Almeno tu nell’universo" was released on February 14th simultaneously with the movie and immediately shot to number one. The CD single contained the previously unreleased "Lullaby" and the track "Rock" from the album "Then comes the Sun".
Elisa featured as a guest artists on the album "Poco mossi gli altri bacini" by Avion Travel (in the track "Vivere forte") and on the Tiromancino album "In continuo movimento", singing with Federico Zampaglione and Meg from 99 Posse on the single "Nessuna certezza".
In spring 2004 Elisa set off for Los Angeles to start the studio work with American producer Glen Ballard for her new album Pearl Days, which debuted on October 15th. The album was previewed by the single "Together", a powerful and provocative track with a precautionary message emphasized in the video produced by Glen Ballard's own company Aerowave. On November 26th the second single from the album Pearl Days was released, titled "The Waves", an intense ballad accompanied by a video directed by Andrew Bennet and Aaron Haye, set in a dreamlike world created in part in the Cinecittà studios in Rome. On December 10th, Elisa performed in concert at the FilaForum di Assago theater as a special preview of the Pearl Days Tour.
The Pearl Days Tour began on February 5th 2005 in Padua. The tour, produced by Friends & Partners with Asile Management – E.M. Corporation, saw Elisa perform across Italy at the country's most important sports stadiums. On April 15th 2005, the new edition of the album Pearl Days was released, which included “Una poesia anche per te”, a track with an evocative mood marking Elisa's return to singing in Italian. In June Elisa recorded an extraordinary duet with music legend Tina Turner: “Teach me again”, a track created in a project by Caterina Caselli Sugar for the film "All the Invisible Children". The movie focuses attention on the children who have been made 'invisible' by situations of severe social disadvantage and who need immediate help, and is intended to raise public awareness on the topic of children's rights. In addition to writing the song, Elisa also oversaw its artistic production. The video for "Teach me again", directed by Stefano Veneruso with photography by Vittorio Storaro, was produced by Mk Film Productions.
In 2006 the album SOUNDTRACK ’96 – ’06 was released, containing the most significant songs from a decade of career. SOUNDTRACK ’96 – ’06 is a collection of Elisa's songs including "Labyrinth", "Gift", "Broken" and "Luce (tramonti a nord est)", and a number of new tracks produced by Corrado Rustici, including "Gli ostacoli del cuore". The latter is a duet with Luciano Ligabue, and was the first time that Ligabue wrote music and lyrics for another artist. In addition to this extraordinary song, the other new tracks on the album are: “Eppure sentire (Un senso di te)”, “Stay” and “Qualcosa che non c’è”. Soundtrack ’96 – ’06, which hit diamond status with 600 thousand copies sold, was also released as a special edition, with a bonus DVD containing Elisa's best videos - "Sleeping in Your Hands", "Together", "Almeno Tu Nell’Universo" and "Teach me Again". On November 16th the “Soundtrack live ‘96/’06” CD+DVD was released, Elisa's first live album, which also came with a DVD of the sold out concert at Forum di Assago in Milan from the “Soundtrack live tour” in 2007.
2008 opened with her first ever performance at the legendary Joe's Pub in NYC. The concert was to promote the CD "Dancing" released on the Sugar/Universal label on June 17th, a collection of the most moving songs from Elisa's career and intended to make a name for her in the US and Canada.
