Spagna

Spagna, whose real name is Ivana Spagna, is an Italian singer, songwriter and writer born on 16 December 1954 in Valeggio sul Mincio.

She began her career singing in English: her first dance single, Easy Lady (1986), was a success across Europe. In 1987 her second hit, Call Me, reached number one on the European Top Chart, number two on the UK singles chart (the best performance ever by an Italian female artist in that country) and number 13 on the Billboard Dance Chart.

That same year her debut album Dedicated To The Moon, which included both singles, was released; it sold 500,000 copies and won an international award for being the best-selling CD album of the year.

After the dance-rock album You Are My Energy (1989) and a minor UK hit with Every Girl and Boy, Spagna, supported by Sony Music, moved to the United States around 1990. She lived in Santa Monica and worked on the disco-pop album No Way Out (1991), which features a Diane Warren-penned song, There's A Love, and the US singles Love At First Sight and Only Words.

In 1993 she returned to Europe and recorded Matter Of Time, considered by many her best album, blending eurodance rhythms with ballads. In 1995, after releasing the European single Lady Madonna, she began singing in Italian.

She has participated several times in the Festival di Sanremo and placed third with Gente Come Noi, which became the biggest hit of the year in Italy. From that period Spagna released numerous successful albums in Italian.

In 2003 she left Sony Music to sing again in English; she joined the Swiss independent label B&G and recorded Woman, a dance-pop album containing eight new songs in English, two in Spanish and one in French. In 2004 a new remixed version of Easy Lady was released and played on radio stations across Europe.

Her fourteen albums have sold a total of 10 million copies worldwide. In February 2006 she participated in Sanremo with Noi Non Possiamo Cambiare, and in May 2006 she finished third on the Italian reality show Music Farm. During her career she also used several pseudonyms, notably Yvonne Kay, Helene, Trisha Stevens, Kalimba (5) and Fancy (9).