Giuni Russo

Giuni Russo (born Giuseppa Romeo, 10 September 1951 – 14 September 2004) was an Italian singer who specialised in experimental music after a short successful stint as an art-pop singer in the early 1980s.

With her five-octaves range, she could produce extremely high notes and experimental sounds.

She sang in Italian, English, French, German, Chinese, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian and Latin.

Giuni Russo was born in Palermo, Sicily, on 7 September 1951.

Busy with several family matters (Giuni is the eighth of nine siblings) her father Pietro Romeo registered her three days later, on 10 September.

As a child, singing was more important to Russo than playing or studying.

She was often asked to perform at school.

Her teacher offered her own desk to Giuni to be used as a stage, but Giuni was so shy she preferred to perform while hiding behind the classroom door.

Her first public appearance was on a small stage actors from the Politeama Theatre in Palermo.

Without her family's knowledge, Russo took singing lessons from Master Ettore Gaiezza, paying him with the money earned from her local shows.

At age 15, she sang at the Castrocaro festival, reaching the semifinal.

The following year she won the festival by unanimous vote, singing "Hurt" by Timi Yuro and "A chi" by Fausto Leali.

The following year she competed in the Sanremo Festival under the name of Giusy Romeo, singing "No amore".

She released two singles during 1968, "No amore" and "L'onda".

After her participation at Un Disco per l'Estate, Cantagiro and Festivalbar with the song "L'onda", she recorded the cover version of "Smoke in your eyes" and the cover of "I Say A Little Prayer" of Aretha Franklin in 1969.

That year, she moved to Milan to collaborate with musician and songwriter Maria Antonietta Sisini.

In the 1970s, Russo began with several participations as chorist for many artist's publications.

In 1972 she sang in the choirs of Balletto di Bronzo's Ys.

In 1974 she signed a contract for the German label "BASF", which gave her the pseudonym of Junie Russo.

The following year her first LP, Love is a woman (sung in English) was released.

In this period she also collaborated with Sisini as songwriter for other authors.

Meanwhile, many singles were published such as "Everything is gonna be alright", a cover by PP Arnold.

The last single recorded as Junie Russo, "Mai", was released in 1976 for the Durium.

In the meantime, Giuni and Maria Antonietta were appreciated as music composers for other artist's songs.

In 1978, she was renamed Giuni Russo and recorded a single for WEA (Italian arm of Warner Music Group), "Soli noi" (it), which became a surprise hit in France, leading to the French branch of RCA to offer her a recording contract, an offer she turned down when she decided to remain in Italy.

In 1979 she met the Sicilian singer-songwriter Franco Battiato, who produced her second LP, entitled Energie for the label CGD, released in 1981, containing the work of musicians such as Sisini, Franco Battiato, Giusto Pio, Alberto Radius and others.

In 1982 Giuni reached the peak of her popularity with the hit "Un'estate al mare", which went Gold Disc.

She participated in the "Festivalbar", "Vota la voce", and many other events and broadcasts singing.

In 1983 she released the LP Vox, followed by her last work for that label LP Mediterranea (1984).

After divergences with the label's producer, Caterina Caselli, who wanted more commercial works, in 1986 she moved to label Ricordi, for which she released the LPs Giuni (1986), ALBUM (1987) and the more experimental A casa di Ida Rubinstein (1988), which featured influences of classical music.

Giuni and her life companion, Maria Antoinette Sisini, began to undergo a religious conversion and became practicing Catholics.

Many of her works subsequently developed a religious nature such as "La Sua Figura".

Giuni became devoted to St. Ignatius of Loyola and especially St. Teresa of Ávila.

In the 1990s Russo devoted herself to World Music and music-theater.

In 1992, she released Amala, an album with sound of world-music, Arabic.

In 1994, she released a new album, Se fossi più simpatica sarei meno antipatica.

The title is inspired by Ettore Petrolini's monologue Fortunello.

This album marked Russo's return to Emi, her first record company.

After two very much participations to the 'Premio Tenco' in 1994 with "Ciao amore", a cover by Luigi Tenco, and in 1995 with a minishow.

In 1997 Russo published the single "Gabbiano", with the label ; a CD was supposed to follow but that never happened because of different point of view of the label manager.