Dalbello

Lisa Concetta Dal Bello (born 22 May 1959), also known as Dalbello, is a Canadian musician.

At the age of 14, Dalbello made her 1974 recording debut with a 4-song EP that was recorded for CBC Radio, Canada's national broadcaster.

The record was produced by Jack Budgell.

The EP featured four songs written and composed by Dalbello: "Mourning In The Morning", "The Old Man", "Come Sun Days" and "Human".

In 1975 Dalbello was featured on a Christmas compilation by the CBC Radio, where she performs the traditional Christmas carols "Deck The Halls" and "O Come All Ye Faithful" and a medley together with Dianne Brooks and Roy Kenner.

These records were not commercially available, and airplay was legally restricted to the CBC only.

She released three albums in the pop and pop/rock genre in her late teens, from 1977 through 1981 under her full name.

Signing with MCA Records out of L.A. when she was 17, Dalbello's self-titled debut album in 1977 was produced by David Foster and featured the then-unknown Toto members Mike Porcaro, Jeff Porcaro, Steve Lukather, David Paich and David Hungate.

She also collaborated with Jay Graydon, who is featured on guitar.

The album won a 1978 Juno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year.

Despite her win, however, MCA dropped her from the label because the album's production had been too expensive.

During these sessions Dal Bello recorded a song for Jay Graydon called "You're My Day".

Written by Graydon and Harry Garfield, the song is not featured on the album.

Pretty Girls received her second Juno nomination in 1979 in the category of Female Vocalist of the Year.

The album was later reissued by Capitol Records.

Later in 1979, Melissa Manchester covered the song "Pretty Girls"; released as a single, the track hit the US top 40.

This marked Dal Bello's first international success as a songwriter.

Dalbello received a Juno nomination in 1980 for Female Vocalist of The Year and in 1983 was again nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year.

She told Billboard, "I felt there was no point in making records if I hadn't found a sense of how I fitted in musically, and how to express myself. I hadn't yet learned how to convey my musical ideas to the people I was working with."

During this time, David Bowie's former Ziggy Stardust guitarist Mick Ronson saw her in a CBC Television documentary on Canadian music while working at Phase One recording studio in Toronto and convinced her to record another album.

That album, whomanfoursays (a homophone for "human forces"), was co-produced by Dalbello and Ronson.

It was also her first album recorded as Dalbello, and marked her transformation into an edgy rock artist.

The transformation worked – the album was even more successful on the Canadian pop charts than her earlier albums had been.

The album spawned the hit singles "Gonna Get Close to You", later covered by Queensrÿche, and "Animal", which was covered by Heavens Gate.

whomanfoursays garnered four Juno nominations: two for Dalbello herself as Producer of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year, one for Lenny De Rose for Recording Engineer of the Year and one for art director Heather Brown and photographer Deborah Samuels for Best Album Graphic.

Dalbello, signed to Capitol Records, released her third album Drastic Measures in 1981.

Dalbello collaborated with Bryan Adams and Tim Thorney on the album.

After Drastic Measures, she took a break from recording to re-evaluate her creative and personal priorities and to work on her poetry.

In 1984, she re-emerged as Dalbello, with an edgier brand of alternative rock.

Born to Italian and British parents, Dalbello grew up in Weston, Toronto, and then with her family moved to Vaughan.

At age 11, she began playing guitar and writing her own songs, performing at the Mariposa Folk Festival and the Fiddlers' Green club in Toronto.

The first song she wrote was reportedly a protest song called "Oh, Why?"

Lying about her age, at 13 she joined a government-sponsored educational music program, Summer Sounds '71, which auditioned students at various southern Ontario middle and high schools, with the objective of selecting 30 singers, songwriters, musicians and performers who would receive the opportunity to spend the first month north of the city of Toronto at a summer camp.

The students would collaborate creatively, forming small music groups and bands for which they rehearsed and built a full show that toured and performed at various events throughout Ontario for the second month.

In her early teens Dalbello was featured on a record by St. Margaret Mary Church Singers, where she performed two covers of traditional church songs: "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Amazing Grace".

In 1985, Dalbello was nominated for a seventh Juno in the category of Female Vocalist of the Year.

In 1986, Dalbello wrote and recorded the songs "Black on Black" and "I Do What I Do" for the 9½ Weeks soundtrack.

Although included in the film, Dalbello's recording of "I Do What I Do" was not on the soundtrack album, which instead featured a recording by John Taylor of Duran Duran; her recording of "Black on Black" did, however, appear in both the film and the soundtrack album.

The song was later released on a 2006 compilation album by Graydon, titled "Past To Present - The 70s".

Mike Porcaro played bass on her next album Pretty Girls released independently via Talisman Records.