Gioia Bruno
Encyclopedia
Gioia Bruno is an Italian
-born American
popular music
singer, most noted as a member of the vocal group Exposé
.
, Italy
. She was raised in New Jersey
. At the age of 16, she started singing in night clubs with bands, after being encouraged by her friend David Fields to make serious efforts with her musical career. After high school, she moved to Manhattan. In 1986 she auditioned for a group in Florida and relocated there. When performing at the Gee Wiz nightclub in Miami, Florida
, she was approached by Frank Diaz, of Pantera Group Enterprises, who offered her a role in Exposé. After over nine months of recruitment attempts, Bruno finally accepted the offer and ended up joining the group.
Bruno sang lead on the Exposé singles Let Me Be The One, What You Don't Know, and Tell Me Why. She toured with the group between 1986 and 1990, except for a short period where she was replaced by Julie Albers, while on maternity leave.
In 1990, a benign throat tumor
ended up putting her singing career on hiatus. An operation was considered but rejected by Bruno since it could permanently damage her vocal cords. She was forced to cut short the "What You Don't Know" tour in August 1990, just before Exposé was slated to perform at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis, Massachusetts
. She left Exposé in 1991, though fans in the Exposé fan club were not told until mid-1992, shortly before the release of the next album. She was replaced by Kelly Moneymaker
.
Bruno co-founded the West Broward Performing Arts Academy in Florida. She was unable to sing for a few years and even had to keep regular talking to a minimum. Finally, after about 4–5 years of healing, vocal retraining and development, she fully regained her voice, resumed her singing career. When Exposé reformed in 2006, she returned to the group for the first time in fifteen years.
As of July 2010, Gioia has rejoined Ann Curless
and Jeanette Jurado
, recording tracks for a new Expose' album to be released in the near future. This will be the trio's first album together since 1989.
For a few years, Bruno worked in the band Wet, with her friend John Thomas, performing lead vocals and co-writing several songs with the group. This group performed in local venues in Florida. She performed in the band for a few years, then left to work on a solo career. She worked on writing songs with Richie Supa. She then worked with Richie Sambora
, performing both background vocals and percussion for his solo tour.
Bruno's first solo single was "Free To Be", which topped charts across the U.S. and Canada
. Her second single, "From The Inside", was prominently featured on the prime time cable series Queer as Folk. Her third solo single, "Wrecking My Nerves", produced by Chris Cox
, saw similar success in the dance music community. In 2004, her first album, Expose This
, was released on Koch Records
. The album's two singles, "Be Mine" and "Incredible" , made the Top 50 on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts.
Bruno has also done projects with others. Bruno also co-produced and sang lead vocals on Will To Power
's 2005 remake of "Dreamin' (again)" which hit the #1 position on most US dance charts and dance radio stations, including WMPH
where it remained #1 for many months. She has also worked on solo music projects independently, including "Why Did You Call Me Again", co-produced by original Exposé producer Lewis Martineé
, and a remake of the Kenny Loggins
song "This Is It
", produced by Anila R. Monterrey and Eric Nunez.
In September 2006, Bruno temporarily stopped touring as a solo artist and reunited with Exposé with members Curless and Jurado after a 15 year hiatus. In the fall of 2007, she began devoting time to her solo career again while still touring with Exposé. A remake of Jackie Wilson
's 1967 hit Higher and Higher on Harlequin Records has been released and is being marketed to dance clubs.
In the summer of 2008, Gioia went into the studio to begin working on her second solo album. A couple of collaboration efforts are currently being promoted - "Kiss & Tell" with Win Marcinak and "Obama - Yes We Can" with Andy Fraser.
d two times. She has a daughter from her first marriage to Joseph Pastore, Brianna Pastore, who was born in 1988. In January 2006, Gioia acknowledged she is bisexual on the Q Television Network
show Brunch.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
-born American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
singer, most noted as a member of the vocal group Exposé
Exposé (band)
Exposé is an American vocal group. Primarily consisting of lead vocalists Ann Curless, Jeanette Jurado, and Gioia Bruno, the group achieved much of their success in the late 1980s and early 1990s, becoming the first group to have four top ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart from their debut...
.
Early life and career
Bruno was born in BariBari
Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. She was raised in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. At the age of 16, she started singing in night clubs with bands, after being encouraged by her friend David Fields to make serious efforts with her musical career. After high school, she moved to Manhattan. In 1986 she auditioned for a group in Florida and relocated there. When performing at the Gee Wiz nightclub in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, she was approached by Frank Diaz, of Pantera Group Enterprises, who offered her a role in Exposé. After over nine months of recruitment attempts, Bruno finally accepted the offer and ended up joining the group.
Bruno sang lead on the Exposé singles Let Me Be The One, What You Don't Know, and Tell Me Why. She toured with the group between 1986 and 1990, except for a short period where she was replaced by Julie Albers, while on maternity leave.
In 1990, a benign throat tumor
Tumor
A tumor or tumour is commonly used as a synonym for a neoplasm that appears enlarged in size. Tumor is not synonymous with cancer...
ended up putting her singing career on hiatus. An operation was considered but rejected by Bruno since it could permanently damage her vocal cords. She was forced to cut short the "What You Don't Know" tour in August 1990, just before Exposé was slated to perform at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis, Massachusetts
Hyannis, Massachusetts
Hyannis is the largest of seven villages in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Also it is the commercial and transportation hub of Cape Cod and was designated an urban area as a result of the 1990 census. Because of this, many refer to Hyannis as the "Capital of the Cape"...
. She left Exposé in 1991, though fans in the Exposé fan club were not told until mid-1992, shortly before the release of the next album. She was replaced by Kelly Moneymaker
Kelly Moneymaker
Kelly Susan Moneymaker is a popular music singer, who is most noted for replacing Gioia Bruno in the music group Exposé.Moneymaker was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska...
.
Bruno co-founded the West Broward Performing Arts Academy in Florida. She was unable to sing for a few years and even had to keep regular talking to a minimum. Finally, after about 4–5 years of healing, vocal retraining and development, she fully regained her voice, resumed her singing career. When Exposé reformed in 2006, she returned to the group for the first time in fifteen years.
As of July 2010, Gioia has rejoined Ann Curless
Ann Curless
Ann Curless-Weiss is a popular music singer, most notable for being a member of Exposé.-Education:Curless was raised in Miami Beach, Florida and attended school there...
and Jeanette Jurado
Jeanette Jurado
Jeanette Livier Jurado is a member of the popular girl group Exposé. She was born on November 14, 1965, in Pico Rivera, California, a suburb of Los Angeles.Jurado is a member of Exposé, along with Ann Curless and Gioia Bruno, then later Kelly Moneymaker...
, recording tracks for a new Expose' album to be released in the near future. This will be the trio's first album together since 1989.
Solo Projects
Bruno's return to the charts was a release by Mayday Records. She did a demo track for them called Make That Move, which was released to dance clubs under the pseudonym G-Spot and was sold via the Exposé Fan Club, marketed directly to members in 1995. The single ended up reaching 21 on the Top Dance-Club Play charts of Billboard. A remix version was released and sold via the fan-club as well.For a few years, Bruno worked in the band Wet, with her friend John Thomas, performing lead vocals and co-writing several songs with the group. This group performed in local venues in Florida. She performed in the band for a few years, then left to work on a solo career. She worked on writing songs with Richie Supa. She then worked with Richie Sambora
Richie Sambora
Richard Stephen "Richie" Sambora is an American rock guitarist, producer, musician, singer, and songwriter who is the longtime lead guitarist of the rock band, Bon Jovi. He and frontman Jon Bon Jovi form the primary songwriting unit of the band...
, performing both background vocals and percussion for his solo tour.
Bruno's first solo single was "Free To Be", which topped charts across the U.S. and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Her second single, "From The Inside", was prominently featured on the prime time cable series Queer as Folk. Her third solo single, "Wrecking My Nerves", produced by Chris Cox
Chris Cox (DJ)
Chris Cox is a dance music producer, remixer, and DJ from USA and has worked on over 400 records. He has had a total of 40 Billboard dance chart number ones as part of the hitmaking remix team Thunderpuss, and others with Pusaka and as a solo artist. He was nominated for a Grammy in 2004 for his...
, saw similar success in the dance music community. In 2004, her first album, Expose This
Expose This (Gioia Bruno album)
Expose This is the solo debut by Gioia, a member of Exposé. The album includes the two Top 40 Hot Dance Music/Club Play hits, "Be Mine" and "Incredible.""I Was Made For Loving You" is a Kiss cover.- Track listing :...
, was released on Koch Records
Koch Records
E1 Music , the primary subsidiary of E1 Entertainment LP, is the largest independent record label in the United States. It is also distributed by the Universal Music Group in Europe under the name E1 Universal...
. The album's two singles, "Be Mine" and "Incredible" , made the Top 50 on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts.
Bruno has also done projects with others. Bruno also co-produced and sang lead vocals on Will To Power
Will to Power (band)
Will to Power is the name of an American dance-pop group that originated in southern Florida in the mid-1980s. The group recorded a number of hit singles on the Billboard dance and pop charts in the late 1980s and early 1990s, most notably "Baby, I Love Your Way/Freebird Medley", a medley of 1970s...
's 2005 remake of "Dreamin' (again)" which hit the #1 position on most US dance charts and dance radio stations, including WMPH
WMPH
WMPH is Delaware's first high school radio station, located in Wilmington. The Brandywine School District Board of Education owns the license granted by the FCC. The call letters WMPH stand for Mount Pleasant High and offered several program formats including Top 40, progressive rock, dance and...
where it remained #1 for many months. She has also worked on solo music projects independently, including "Why Did You Call Me Again", co-produced by original Exposé producer Lewis Martineé
Lewis Martineé
Lewis Antonio Martineé is a freestyle music producer and former DJ based in Miami, Florida. In addition to founding the girl group Exposé in 1984, he also wrote and produced all of the songs on its first two albums, Exposure and What You Don't Know . He also contributed to the group's third...
, and a remake of the Kenny Loggins
Kenny Loggins
During the next decade, Loggins recorded so many successful songs for film soundtracks that he was referred to as, King of the Movie Soundtrack.He began with "I'm Alright" , "Mr. Night", and "Lead the Way" from Caddyshack...
song "This Is It
This Is It (Kenny Loggins song)
"This Is It" is a song by Kenny Loggins, from his 1979 album Keep the Fire. It reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 17 on the Adult Contemporary chart. "This Is It" was also successful on the soul chart, reaching number 19....
", produced by Anila R. Monterrey and Eric Nunez.
Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr. was an American singer and performer. Known as "Mr. Excitement", Wilson was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. He was known as a master showman, and as one of the most dynamic singers and performers in R&B and rock history...
's 1967 hit Higher and Higher on Harlequin Records has been released and is being marketed to dance clubs.
In the summer of 2008, Gioia went into the studio to begin working on her second solo album. A couple of collaboration efforts are currently being promoted - "Kiss & Tell" with Win Marcinak and "Obama - Yes We Can" with Andy Fraser.
Relationships
Bruno has been married and divorceDivorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
d two times. She has a daughter from her first marriage to Joseph Pastore, Brianna Pastore, who was born in 1988. In January 2006, Gioia acknowledged she is bisexual on the Q Television Network
Q Television Network
Q Television Network was an American cable television channel which aired programming targeted to the lesbian, gay, and bisexual audiences. It was owned by Triangle Multimedia. The channel aired a mix of film, documentary and music programming, along with a number of original talk and information...
show Brunch.
Albums
- Shelter (Lead Vocals, by the group Wet) 1996
- Expose ThisExpose This (Gioia Bruno album)Expose This is the solo debut by Gioia, a member of Exposé. The album includes the two Top 40 Hot Dance Music/Club Play hits, "Be Mine" and "Incredible.""I Was Made For Loving You" is a Kiss cover.- Track listing :...
2004
Singles
| Year | Song | U.S. Club/Dance Hot Dance Club Play The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs... |
U.S. Dance Airplay Hot Dance Airplay Dance/Mix Show Airplay is a monitored electronic dance music radio chart that is featured weekly in Billboard magazine. The chart came about as a result of the small but influential impact of electronic dance music on the radio in the United States and the stations that program it... |
U.S. Dance Singles Sales Hot Dance Singles Sales Hot Dance Singles Sales is a chart released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States, established in 1985. It measures the sale of commercially released singles that deal with dance music and remixes... |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | "Make That Move" (as G-Spot) | 21 | - | - |
| 2001 | "Free to Be" | 1 | - | - |
| 2003 | "From the Inside" | 1 | 1 | - |
| 2004 | "Wrecking My Nerves" | 3 | 8 | - |
| "Be Mine Be Mine "Be Mine" is a song by Wild Orchid, released as their first single from their second album, Oxygen. After scoring modest pop success with singles like "Talk to Me" and "At Night I Pray", the single was released and was heavily promoted by RCA records which hoped that Wild Orchid would finally score... " |
34 | - | - | |
| 2005 | "Dreamin'(again)" | 1 | 1 | - |
External links
- Gioia's Official Web Site
- Gioia's MySpace Entry
- Official Press Release Stating Return of Exposé -- Includes downloadable Podcast featuring Bruno
- Part one of Gioia Bruno Interview with Lydia Marcus of AfterEllen
- Part two of Gioia Bruno Interview with Lydia Marcus of AfterEllen
- Part one of Gioia Bruno Interview with John R. Troy of Exposé Epistle
- Part two of Gioia Bruno Interview with John R. Troy of Exposé Epistle
- Kiss & Tell - WIN featuring Gioia Bruno Press Release
- Gioia Bruno IMDB.com