Dolcenera nel paese delle meraviglie
Encyclopedia
Dolcenera nel paese delle meraviglie is the fourth studio album
by Italian singer Dolcenera
, released on 18 February 2009. It is her first album released on Sony Music Italy
. The album spawned three singles: "Il mio amore unico", "La più bella canzone d'amore che c'è" and "Un dolce incantesimo".
. The singer revealed in an interview that she wrote more than 70 songs for the album, and that she spent two months to define the final tracklist of the album.
In December 2008, it was announced that Dolcenera would participate in the 59th Sanremo Music Festival, competing in the section "Artisti" with the song "Il mio amore unico". She later revealed that the song was not initially intended to be sung during the popular singing contest; since the album was ready to be published in the days during which the Festival took place, her recording label suggested her to promote it through the Festival.
The title of the album was revealed in early February 2009 and the first single from the album, "Il mio amore unico", was performed for the first time on 17 February 2009, when it opened the competition in the San Remo Music Festival.
The digital version of the album was released on 18 February 2009, while the Compact Disc
edition was published two days later.
On 26 January 2010 the album was re-released in a pocket DBS version.
's novel
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
. Moreover, the cover of the album represents the singer with several body painting
tattoo
s, representing characters from the popular novel, such as the White Rabbit
, and related symbols, including the four French playing card
suits
and a clock.
However, the title of the album was also inspired by Jeanette Winterson
's book Written on the Body, published in 1992: in an interview, Dolcenera explained that the book contains the sentence "Love is Wonderland" and, since the album is mostly about love, she decided to title her album Dolcenera in Wonderland.
The album's artwork shows a significant change in Dolcenera's look: she explained that her dark-style make-up became a mask, because it represented her previous unease, but when she found out her peacefulness, she decided to stop using it.
about love", considered both as the feeling between two partners, and as a general feeling that could be able to save people, driving them to fight and to keep hoping. Talking about the album, Dolcenera also claimed that love could be the feeling able to help the Western world
to find out ideas to save itself from the late-2000s crisis.
The first single from the album, "Il mio amore unico", talks about a ménage à trois, but it is also a song about a great love between a woman and an unfaithful man, described as a boy whose appearance reminds Kurt Cobain
's one.
The album has a pop
-rock
sound, with influences from the music of the 1970s. The songs are recorded with an orchestra, in order to soften their sound.
The track "Giorni d'estate" is a cover of the song "Right Next to the Right One" by Tim Christensen
.
At the same time, the song "Il mio amore unico" can not reach the fifth place ranking of digital singles sold, with as many as 318,000 digital copies in one week. In this way, "Il mio amore unico" becomes the single most successful Dolcenera entire career, and is subsequently certified platinum for selling, on average, more than 60,000 copies. Moreover, in the fifth week of the permanence of the singles on the radio broadcast over Italian, Dolcenera up from third place, who had maintained for four non-consecutive weeks, the first position, which will keep for six consecutive weeks. In this way it can banish from the top of the single "Sincerità" by the Genoese singer Arisa, who was at the top for the past five consecutive weeks.
Dolcenera becomes the woman who had a greater number of weeks spent by individuals in the most listened to Italian radio, records will be beaten in July 2010 by Shakira, who with "Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)", the song that will be transmitted over the radio for nineteen consecutive weeks.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by Italian singer Dolcenera
Dolcenera
Dolcenera is an Italian singer, songwriter and actress.Among other recognitions, Dolcenera was awarded to the Venice Music Award for Best Voice and served as a spokesperson for UNICEF's global campaign "Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS".- Early life :Emanuela Trane was born in Galatina and...
, released on 18 February 2009. It is her first album released on Sony Music Italy
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
. The album spawned three singles: "Il mio amore unico", "La più bella canzone d'amore che c'è" and "Un dolce incantesimo".
Background and release
Dolcenera started working on the album in 2006, and the 12 tracks were recorded between June and October 2008 in PratoPrato
Prato is a city and comune in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato. The city is situated at the foot of Monte Retaia , the last peak in the Calvana chain. The lowest altitude in the comune is 32 m, near the Cascine di Tavola, and the highest is the peak of Monte Cantagrillo...
. The singer revealed in an interview that she wrote more than 70 songs for the album, and that she spent two months to define the final tracklist of the album.
In December 2008, it was announced that Dolcenera would participate in the 59th Sanremo Music Festival, competing in the section "Artisti" with the song "Il mio amore unico". She later revealed that the song was not initially intended to be sung during the popular singing contest; since the album was ready to be published in the days during which the Festival took place, her recording label suggested her to promote it through the Festival.
The title of the album was revealed in early February 2009 and the first single from the album, "Il mio amore unico", was performed for the first time on 17 February 2009, when it opened the competition in the San Remo Music Festival.
The digital version of the album was released on 18 February 2009, while the Compact Disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
edition was published two days later.
On 26 January 2010 the album was re-released in a pocket DBS version.
Title and artwork
The title of the album, Dolcenera nel paese delle meraviglie (in English "Dolcenera in Wonderland") is clearly inspired by Lewis CarrollLewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
's novel
English novel
The English novel is an important part of English literature.-Early novels in English:A number of works of literature have each been claimed as the first novel in English. See the article First novel in English.-Romantic novel:...
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...
. Moreover, the cover of the album represents the singer with several body painting
Body painting
Body painting, or sometimes bodypainting, is a form of body art. Unlike tattoo and other forms of body art, body painting is temporary, painted onto the human skin, and lasts for only several hours, or at most a couple of weeks. Body painting that is limited to the face is known as face painting...
tattoo
Tattoo
A tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...
s, representing characters from the popular novel, such as the White Rabbit
White Rabbit
The White Rabbit works for the Red Queen, but is also a secret member of the Underland Underground Resistance, and was sent by the Hatter to search for Alice...
, and related symbols, including the four French playing card
Playing card
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic, marked with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games...
suits
Suit (cards)
In playing cards, a suit is one of several categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. Most often, each card bears one of several symbols showing to which suit it belongs; the suit may alternatively or in addition be indicated by the color printed on the card...
and a clock.
However, the title of the album was also inspired by Jeanette Winterson
Jeanette Winterson
Jeanette Winterson OBE is a British novelist.-Early years:Winterson was born in Manchester and adopted on 21 January 1960. She was raised in Accrington, Lancashire, by Constance and John William Winterson...
's book Written on the Body, published in 1992: in an interview, Dolcenera explained that the book contains the sentence "Love is Wonderland" and, since the album is mostly about love, she decided to title her album Dolcenera in Wonderland.
The album's artwork shows a significant change in Dolcenera's look: she explained that her dark-style make-up became a mask, because it represented her previous unease, but when she found out her peacefulness, she decided to stop using it.
Composition and themes
Dolcenera nel paese delle meraviglie is defined by Dolcenera as a "concept albumConcept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
about love", considered both as the feeling between two partners, and as a general feeling that could be able to save people, driving them to fight and to keep hoping. Talking about the album, Dolcenera also claimed that love could be the feeling able to help the Western world
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
to find out ideas to save itself from the late-2000s crisis.
The first single from the album, "Il mio amore unico", talks about a ménage à trois, but it is also a song about a great love between a woman and an unfaithful man, described as a boy whose appearance reminds Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
's one.
The album has a pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
-rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
sound, with influences from the music of the 1970s. The songs are recorded with an orchestra, in order to soften their sound.
The track "Giorni d'estate" is a cover of the song "Right Next to the Right One" by Tim Christensen
Tim Christensen
Tim Christensen is a Danish singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, bass guitar, drums, Mellotron, harmonium, keyboard, piano and organ...
.
Track listing
Commercial performance
The album debuted at the thirteenth position in the ranking of best-selling albums in Italy, with 142,000 copies in its first week of sales, and becoming the album Dolcenera to have more sales in its debut week, beating the records that will be later 2011, when Dolcenera release his fifth album "Evolution of the species." Five weeks after the album, it has been certified platinum.At the same time, the song "Il mio amore unico" can not reach the fifth place ranking of digital singles sold, with as many as 318,000 digital copies in one week. In this way, "Il mio amore unico" becomes the single most successful Dolcenera entire career, and is subsequently certified platinum for selling, on average, more than 60,000 copies. Moreover, in the fifth week of the permanence of the singles on the radio broadcast over Italian, Dolcenera up from third place, who had maintained for four non-consecutive weeks, the first position, which will keep for six consecutive weeks. In this way it can banish from the top of the single "Sincerità" by the Genoese singer Arisa, who was at the top for the past five consecutive weeks.
Dolcenera becomes the woman who had a greater number of weeks spent by individuals in the most listened to Italian radio, records will be beaten in July 2010 by Shakira, who with "Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)", the song that will be transmitted over the radio for nineteen consecutive weeks.
Charts
| Chart (2009) | Peak position |
Certification |
|---|---|---|
| Italian Albums Chart | 13 | Platinum |
Personnel
- DolceneraDolceneraDolcenera is an Italian singer, songwriter and actress.Among other recognitions, Dolcenera was awarded to the Venice Music Award for Best Voice and served as a spokesperson for UNICEF's global campaign "Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS".- Early life :Emanuela Trane was born in Galatina and...
– pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, voiceSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, producer, arrangementArrangementThe American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
s - Roberto Vernetti – producer, arrangements, mixing
- Roberto Gualdi – drums, arrangements
- Antonio Petruzzelli – bassElectric BassElectric bass can mean:*Electric upright bass, the electric version of a double bass*Electric bass guitar*Bass synthesizer*Big Mouth Billy Bass, a battery-powered singing fish...
, arrangements - Stefano Brandoni – guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, arrangements - Francesco Sighieri – guitar, arrangements
- Filippo Martelli & Oversea Orchestra – stringsStrings (music)A string is the vibrating element that produces sound in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family. Strings are lengths of a flexible material kept under tension so that they may vibrate freely, but controllably. Strings may be "plain"...
, arrangements - Saverio Lanza – bass, guitar, programming, arrangements
- Paolo De Francesco – artwork
- Leonardo Baldini – photos
- Laura Masoni – photos (assistant)
- Andrea Carbone – body Painting
- Susanna Ausoni, Nicolò Cerioni – stylists
- Giovanna Cirillo, Diego Canicattì – hairstyle
- Just Cavalli – clothes
- Maria Grazia Bonarelli – make up
- Andrea Benassi – recording
- Francesco Baldi, Francesco Nisi – assistants
- Mike Marsh – mastering