Jalisse

File:Jalisse Sanremo 1997.jpg

The Jalisse, winners of the 1997 Sanremo Festival

Jalisse (Italian pronunciation: [ʒaˈlis]) is an Italian musical duo consisting of spouses Alessandra Drusian and Fabio Ricci, who have been performing together since 1993.

In 1997 they won the Sanremo Festival, big category, with the song Fiumi di parole and took part in the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, ranking 4th.

Career

The beginnings

The two meet for the first time in 1990 in the studio of a record company. Alessandra in that period competed with numerous victories in musical competitions in Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia; Fabio was singer and keyboardist of a group called Vox Populi, with whom he had released a maxi-single entitled I'm So Bad and presented himself as a songwriter to the record companies.

From 1990 to 1993 Alessandra, after being launched by Pippo Baudo in the Grand Prix program, makes a series of appearances on television broadcasts. In 1992 he finds himself with Fabio: the two decide to work together and two years later they form Jalisse, taking their name from a character in the television series I Robinson. Jalisse, the poet Younis Tawfik later revealed, in Arabic means "diner who knows how to entertain in the tale of fables and music: sit, sit and listen".

In 1995 the duo participated in Sanremo Giovani with the song Vivo, finishing third in the second evening and acquiring the right to participate in the Sanremo Festival the following year, where they ranked sixth in the "New proposals" section with the song Set me free.

Victory at the Sanremo Festival

In 1997 they participate again in the Festival, once again by right, thanks to the rule, introduced two years before and present for the last time, which allows the non-winning finalists of the "New Proposals" section of the previous edition to compete for 4 places among the Champions". The song, Fiumi di parole, surpasses the selection and takes first place in the event by getting the Jalisse two prizes, the Golden Lion as winners of the Festival and the Silver Lion as authors (Alessandra Drusian and Carmen Di Domenico for the text, Fabio Ricci the music) [1] [2]. This is a victory that will prove to be among the most discussed in the history of the Festival, for the controversial aftermath that followed, winning among other things with an independent label distributed by Sony Columbia. He also had the resemblance of the song discussed with Listen to Your Heart by Roxette, but no provision was made in this regard precisely because plagiarism is non-existent. [3]

During the 1997 Sanremo week, the duo's debut album, The Magic Circle of the World, is released. The result in terms of sales (50,000 copies), certainly not exciting, was also due to the fact that the two come to the Sanremo victory practically from strangers and with an unreleased album.

Two months later they took part in the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin with the same song, obtaining the fourth place and there was also talk of boycott [4]. The following year they proposed to the commission of the Sanremo Festival the piece The tops of Tibet written and composed by Maurizio Fabrizio and Guido Morra, but they were discarded. In 2009, Gigi Vesigna, in his book Vox Populi, revealed how the defeat of the Jalisse at the event had been driven by Rai: if the Venetian duo had won, Italian public TV would have had to organize the 1998 edition by regulation, an operation deemed commercially disadvantageous given the scarce interest of the Italian public for this event [5]. Italy no longer participated in this musical competition until 2011.

Soon the duo is labeled as a "meteor" in Italy and mistreated by the mass media which, among other things, played on the alleged plagiarism of Fiumi di parole. In fact, thanks to the good placement at the Eurovision Song Contest, they begin a series of concerts and tours abroad, including the United States of America (Boston), Canada, Russia (Moscow) and Chile (Viña del Mar Festival) . In the meantime, the duo's record will be included in the programming of United Airlines airlines and chosen by Fred Bronson for Billboard, as one of the most interesting albums of 1997.

The two got married in 1999 and later had two daughters: Angelica and Aurora. The same year, on the occasion of the beatification of Padre Pio, they write the song Luce e pane, sung only during concerts and never put on the market until 2014. In 2000 they released a single, I'll Fly, distributed through the internet, which sees Alessandra soloist.

Return of Jalisse

The return

In 2001-2002 Alessandra debuted as an actress in the musical comedy Emozioni directed by Sergio Japino. In the meantime, the husband decides to leave the vocal parts of the songs to his wife and devotes himself to their small independent label, the Tregatti Produzioni Musicali.

In 2004 the single 6 desire is released, advertised with an innovative formula: it becomes the soundtrack of a Roman taxi company that inserts their voices and the engraving of the song in the call center. The poet friend Norman Zoia (also author of the portrait Madonna dei Maestri Cantori dedicated to Alessandra Drusian) writes the release "A taxi called desire" contributing to baptize the initiative "Taxi Music of the Jalisse".

In the spring of 2005 the album Siedi was released in Germany, Switzerland and Austria with the Siebenpunkt.com distribution "Edel", containing two unreleased tracks and some tracks from the previous album totally revisited, including a Spanish version of Fiumi di parole titled Rios de palabras dedicated to South American fans. The CD Siedi e listen is promoted in Northern Europe and some extracts from the album are included in compilations in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. In Sweden they get third place at the "Baltic Song Contest" in Karlshamn. The German magazine Für Sie distributes 600,000 copies with the single Jalisse in compilation attached.

After the announcement of San Marino's first participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, the Jalisse immediately said they were ready to return by representing the Titan, and subsequently presented a song for internal selection to San Marino RTV.

The two participate in the selections of the 2007 Sanremo Festival, but their song Linguaggio universale, written inspired by an essay by the Nobel Prize winner Rita Levi Montalcini, is rejected. In the meantime the second daughter Aurora is born on January 22nd 2007.

The album Linguaggio Universale comes out in September, containing 12 poems set to music by Jalisse and narrated by Valeria Ducato, plus the homonymous track and trembling wings of peace. Presented at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, the CD is attached to the book Education, key to the development of the Rita Levi-Montalcini Foundation published by BCD Editore.

In November 2009 the duo collaborates with the Greek site Oikotimes.com analyzing the songs of the JESC (Junior Euro Song Contest) of that year. Also in 2009 they interpret themselves in the film Ex di Fausto Brizzi, performing the song Fiumi di parole in the film.

In 2010 they launch the project Crescere together with L'Aquila which involves schools and local artists in writing songs and brings them in concert on June 8 at the Stadio Tommaso Fattori in L'Aquila. In this project emerging and well-known artists work alongside children in compulsory schools in the writing of songs and present them to the Aquila schools with the Province of L'Aquila, the SIAE, the MEI, the AFI, the IALS (Training Workers' Training Institute) and private radio stations. The project was conceived in 2005 to highlight pupils' creativity in schools, having their texts written and music by professional musicians and had already involved numerous schools in the province of Treviso. [6]

In 2011 they took part in the international Human Rights Tour 50th exhibition in Monselice with a new musical formation that also saw the Paduan guitarist and singer Carlo Zannetti, also known as Poetasternote, on stage. Always with him in 2011 begin a series of concerts and an important collaboration. On the stage of Amnesty International, in addition to "Jalisse & Carlo Zannetti", Enrico Ruggeri, Eugenio Finardi, Raul Cremona, Chiara Canzian and Andrea Mirò also performed. [7]

In 2012 the single Tra rose e cielo [8], written together with the Italian-Iraqi poet Younis Tawfik, escaped from the regime of Saddam Hussein. The song is about a love story of a woman for a man left for a peace mission. The single is accompanied by a colorful video directed by the young director Massimo Toniato and arrives in Iraq on the Christian television Ishtar which broadcasts it in Italian with Arabic subtitles. Two other singles come out later: And if the voice returns in March 2013, linked to the laboratories with prisoners from the San Vittore prison in Milan with the Mike Bongiorno Foundation and on June 14 Where you are with artists from the Czech Republic.

On 26 March 2014 Alessandra presented herself to The Voice of Italy but without being chosen by any of the coaches. [9] Also in 2014 they won the "Mondragone Città" Career Award at the Mondragone Festival, the Campania Festival Award, the Alessandra Corà Award in L'Aquila, the Gift of Humanity Award. They also launch the Song of the Knight, a literary competition for World Knights' Day which took place on September 20th in Fornovo di Taro. The text that he won is written by Andrea Cappabianca, the alchemist forever your knight, and speaks of love as the only alternative medicine that can save a child from his illness; is awarded during the 7th European WILDE prize at Nola. The song is included in the theatrical performance Try to tell me, and in Dado Martino I's film wanna be the testimonial released in Italian cinemas in 2015.

In 2015 they launch the international Light Song Contest 2015 for the UNESCO-sponsored International Year of Light and “Faro de Estrellas” was born, presented at Meridas in Mexico.

In 2016 they make a tour in Kazakhstan of three dates all soldout. [10]

In December 2016, The Best of Jalisse comes out with all the duo singles made, promoted throughout 2017.

In 2018 they meet the artistic and record producer Gianni Errera for One Music Publishing and begin an art project in progress that will see a song soundtrack of the film Niente di personale with Claudia Cardinale, scheduled for release in September 2018. The film is presented in May at Cannes Film Festival out of competition.

In the same year, I am among the competitors of the TV program Ora o mai più, on Rai 1 and conducted by Amadeus, a program of four episodes of which they win the third [11], and overall they come second, after Lisa. The unprecedented launch is called Ora and is distributed on digital stores and on the Sorrisi Canzoni Tv compilation produced by Rai com, the video is shot by Marko Carbone in Holland at Vieland and Amsterdam, during the Jalisse tour organized by OGAE Holland for the Eurovision Song Contest.

In the autumn of 2018 Alessandra Drusian takes part in the eighth edition of the Tale program and which show and the seventh edition of the program Tale e che show - The tournament, ranking second in both broadcasts.

On May 3, 2019, the single 'White Horse' was launched in 1976 by Matia Bazar with the collaboration of the co-author and co-founder of the band Carlo Marrale on all digital music distributors. The video is made by cartoonist director Andrea Princivalli and is previewed on May 11th on Tg1 Rai at 1.30pm by Vincenzo Mollica for DoReCiakGulp

I am currently on tour with 'ORATOUR 2019' and the dates are visible on the social networks of the duo: FB https://www.facebook.com/jalisseofficial/ - YT https://www.youtube.com/user/Jalisseduo and IG https : //www.instagram.com/jalisse_official/

Albums

• 1997 - Il cerchio magico del mondo
• 2006 - Siedi e ascolta
• 2009 - Linguaggio universale
• 2016 - The Best Of

Singols

• 1995 - Vivo
• 1996 - Liberami
• 1997 - Fiumi di parole
• 1998 - Le cime del Tibet (inedito)
• 1999 - Luce e pane (inedito)
• 2000 - I'll Fly
• 2004 - 6 desiderio
• 2006 - Fede dell'amore (inedito)
• 2007 - Un giorno a Napoli
• 2009 - Siamo ancora qui
• 2009 - Non voglio lavorare
• 2009 - No quiero trabajar
• 2011 - Ritornerà il futuro
• 2012 - Tra rose e cielo
• 2013 - E se torna la voce
• 2013 - Dove sei
• 2014 - L'Alchimista, per sempre tuo Cavaliere
• 2015 - Faro de Estrellas
• 2018 - Ora
• 2019 - Cavallo Bianco cover Matia Bazar

Television

Title	Year	Notes
Eurovision Song CZ	2018	International jury member