Emanuela Bellezza

Early life

Bellezza was born in San Remo, a small town in the Italian Riviera (North of Italy) and started taking music lessons when she was three years old. At age seven she took her first piano lesson, at age fifteen her first guitar lesson and at age eighteen her first vocal lesson. She began songwriting as a teenager, and aspired to a music career in Los Angeles.

At age sixteen she wrote her very first song, which was in English and it was called Fly Away. She studied foreign languages in high school and she graduated at the University La Sapienza of Rome in Foreign Languages and Modern Cultures. During the high school and university years, she kept writing songs and she continued her musical studies. At age eighteen, Bellezza joined her first band and started having live performance experience. She participated to various Italian music competitions and festivals with her original songs and she was one of the finalists at Castrocaro and Singing for Life music contest.

In 2007, at age twenty-three, Bellezza decided to move to Los Angeles, California where she attended Musicians Institute and graduated for the Vocal Program in 2009.

Career

2007-09: Los Angeles and first single Strong

Emanuela's music career starts blooming when she moves to Los Angeles, in 2007. It is at Musicians Institute where she meets guitarist, music producer and videographer, Jean Luis Contreras, who did many collaborations with the artist, produced her songs, recorded her music videos and became the guitar player of her band.

They work together on her first single, called Strong, released in 2009. The music video was shot in Miami and was produced by Jean Luis Contreras and Pablo Pagan.

2009: Rain And Sunshine Of Heart

Later in 2009, Bellezza released her first EP, called Rain And Sunshine Of Heart.

The EP was produced by Troy Laureta (music producer and keyboard player of Ariana Grande, Jordan Pruitt, Jordin Sparks and brother of The Voice contestant Cheesa Laureta). The record includes all the R&B/Soul influences Bellezza had during her first 2 years living in The United States. Her single Stay With Me was nominated for the Hollywood Music And Media Awards as best song for the R&B/Soul category in 2009.

In the same year, Bellezza meets Beto Cuevas, ex-singer of the musical group La Ley. After listening to her CD, Beto describes Emanuela as "A glass of water in the middle of the desert, with the capability of immediately capturing the heart of the listener".

2010-11: Battle Of The Bands and the beginning of latin experience

In August 2010, Emanuela and her band were finalists at the competition called Battle Of The Bands, at the Hard Rock Cafe, in Las Vegas.

Perceiving the difference of cultures and traditions that Los Angeles embraces, in 2011 Emanuela feels the need of starting to write in Spanish, besides English and Italian. She started learning Spanish and writing her first songs in the new language generating the birth of a new album, called Matices De Amor.

2011: Matices De Amor and The John Lennon Songwriting Contest

Matices De Amor, literally translated as Shades Of Love was entirely produced by Jean Luis Contreras and was released in late 2011.

The album, that contains ten songs (seven in Spanish, two in English and one in Italian) has all the Latin influences that Emanuela absorbed during her Spanish immersion and experience and reflects Jean Luis' Latin origins (Venezuela). The title summarizes the meaning of the whole album which, with each song, describes all the different kinds all love. All the songs are based on Emanuela's life experience.

Emanuela made different paintings, each of them representing a different song of the album. Almost all of the songs in the album have a painting that represent them.

Biggest part of the album talks about the romantic kind of love, while the very last one, A Song For My Father, is a song that Emanuela dedicated to her father, when he died. It is a nostalgic song and she sings about all the things she could not say to him, since when he unexpectedly and prematurely died in Italy she was already living in Los Angeles and never had a chance to say "goodbye".

One of the songs of that album, called Esperanza De Amor, was finalist at The John Lennon Songwriting Contest, for the Latin category

2012-13: MTV Unplugged with Juanes, performance with Franco De Vita and opening for Jovanotti

In early 2012, Bellezza won the contest created by MTV Très in 2012 called Unplug with Juanes, where she had the opportunity to perform in duet with Colombian multiple Grammy winner Juanes at his MTV Unplugged. Juanes himself hand-picked Emanuela as the winner of his contest and they performed the song Fotografia, originally sang in duet by Juanes and singer Nelly Furtado.

Emanuela performed with Juanes a second time in Los Angeles and this time at the Nokia Theater. In one of his interviews, Juanes defines Emanuela as "a super-star with a great talent and with an extraordinary voice".

In Summer 2012, Emanuela opened for Italian pop star Jovanotti at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles.

Besides performing with Juanes, Emanuela also had the chance to perform in duet with Franco De Vita at the Gibson Amphitheater. The artists performed the song Tan Solo Tù, originally performed by Franco and Alejandra Guzman.

2013: Ella Se Va

During the time Bellezza was in Miami for the Juanes MTV Unplugged, she met multiple Grammy winner and producer Gustavo Borner. Back in Los Angeles, after Unplugged, they started working together towards an EP, that was later called Ella Se Va.

The EP includes three songs written by Emanuela herself and one song written by multiple Grammy winners Draco Rosa, George Noriega and Claudia Brant. It was recorded in Los Angeles and features the musicians Jimmy Johnson, Dean Parks, Aaron Sterling, Jon Gilutin and Jean Luis Contreras. The single Ella Se Va has been played on different radio stations in Venezuela, like La Romantica 88.9 and has been in the top 40 music charts in the same country.

The release of the EP was also featured on magazine People en Español, for the October edition.

Early that year, on February 18, Emanuela also made her appearance on RAI, the Italian national television channel, during the program "La TV Ribelle", on RAI Gulp.

Rumi Awards 2015

Emanuela Bellezza took part and performed at Rumi Awards 2016 in Las Vegas, where she won two awards: "Best Artist Europe" and "Best Duet Singer".

Present

Emanuela is currently working on her 4th album and producing it with notable music producer Darryl Swann.

She also keeps performing in the Los Angeles area.

Emanuela was recently featured in a single called "I Love To Dance", where she collaborated with notable bassist Nathan East and other musicians. The single was written and produced by Ferdinando Mongelli in Sanremo, Italy.

Studio Albums

EPs

Songs appearing in film and television

Television appearances

YouTube recognition

Because of her notability on YouTube, Emanuela Bellezza has been mentioned on Italian magazine Idea Web as "one of the most talented and beautiful musicians on YouTube".

Musical style and influences

Bellezza describes her music as a fusion of pop and soul. She cites Corinne Bailey Rae as an influence when she was young. Her work has been compared to Laura Pausini.