It’s been over a week since the nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards were unveiled. The Academy has revealed the ceremony will take place at both Union Station in Los Angeles and the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. The Academy even leaked that there will be no hosts this year (don’t get us started on that mistake). But with the ceremony less than five weeks away, how can Laura Pausini, one of the world’s biggest recording artists, not heard from this year’s Oscars producers about performing her nominated song on the telecast?
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Pausini is hardly a household name in the United States, but the Grammy winner has sold more than 70 million records over her 25-year singing career. She’s still racking up no. 1 albums in Italy and has fans everywhere across the world except English language markets. Now, after winning a Golden Globe last month, Pausini and Diane Warren have been nominated in Oscar’s Original Song category for “Io sì (Seen)” from the Netflix drama, “The Life Ahead” starring another Italian legend, Sophia Loren.
Pausini jumped on the phone this week to discuss her musical collaboration with Warren which went beyond the expected lyrical translation for Edoardo Ponti’s melodrama, the differences between the English and Italian versions, and more.
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The Playlist: Congratulations on the Oscar nomination. Where were you when you found out?
Laura Pausini: Thank you very much. First of all, I was my home here in Rome where I’m living and with my husband and daughter, and I was shocked. I’m still dazed. And so I’m really grateful first of all and I’m really glad. I don’t know what to say, this dream is a great achievement that probably I didn’t dream in my life before. I’m smiling all the time and all of a sudden I’m crying. I feel like a little girl in front of the big news of the world which is actually.
The Academy sent out correspondence to all the nominees informing them that if you want to accept your Oscar, you need to travel to Los Angeles. Are you planning on coming to LA for the Oscars?
Yes. I’m planning. I’m waiting for the visa to arrive and I’m hoping to fly to LA next week or the week later.
I know you probably can’t give things away, but is there a chance that we might see you being performing on the telecast?
I don’t know already, but I absolutely hope so because music is part of the movie and I know the Academy love and respects so much the music. And so even like trembling. Yeah. The idea to be performing there. I can not imagine without singing for you guys. So crossing fingers and hope to sing for all of you.
Knowing that you recorded it in five different languages, should I assume they’ll ask you to sing it in English? I hope not.
Well, first of all, I’m very proud to be nominated with a song in Italian, which is the very first time the whole song in Italian and written by an Italian woman with Diane Warren, of course, but I wanted to do the five languages version because my fans, since 28 years ago when I started, they are used to listen to my voice singing many languages. So, I wanted them to understand very deeply the meaning of the song, which is the same of the movie of corse, “The Life Ahead.” And when Netflix listen to the Italian version they loved it so much. And they decided to put in the [movie], in Italian, in all the countries of the world. And this has made me feel so proud. But if the Academy wants me to sing in five languages, I mean anything they want. [Laughs.] I don’t know anything.
I read that you spent a couple of weeks translating, Diane’s original lyrics to Italian. I don’t speak Italian, so when listening to the English version and the Italian version I can’t tell the difference. Were there specific lines, specific moments in the Italian version that were not the direct translation of what Diane had originally written?
Look for me, the title of the song is everything because it is a very short word, which is the meaning of the entire movie [that word is “seen”]. And that makes me feel crazy because it’s not possible to translate this word with a word in Italian. We needed a sentence, we need a larger metric and fanatical way to express this concept. So, I was obsessed by that. I wanted to translate in this little space, and this is why it took so much time. I was a little bit frustrated, but at the very end, the fact that they wanted me to leave the emotion. And I decided just to adapt the song, the lyrics in Italian following the same meaning, but I couldn’t translate it. I just have to adapt. And the meaning is exactly the same now, but “Io sì ” is not “you’ll see.” It means “I do.” And, but the sentence I’m singing, says that all the people that are invisible. They have to be seen. They have to feel they are seen and exactly the same [message] that Diane wanted to write. And I want to respect her because I love her, I admire her. And not only me because Edoardo Ponti, the director, wanted us to feel like a family group. So from the very beginning that we started working on the song, he was by our side. And every step I mean, [it’s] the very first time that a director of a movie follow[ed] my way of singing. Usually, I record myself by myself, and this time Edoardo was listening on the telephone from LA while I was in Italy, performing for the song. And he said to me, “Please be softer in this part, in the sentence. And the first stanza you need to give me a little bit more breath.” It was very strange and funny and very interesting for me, especially because I’m singing for 28 years, and it was absolutely amazing. It was an adventure that I will never forget.
Yeah. I’m surprised [as] this kind of music is a typical song for a movie. But especially now, which is the music industry [pushes] more uptempo song [than] something like this. And so, yeah, we were surprised and happy about it. And also just discovered that today we are number 17 on the radio chart for Adult Contemporary in the US. So I’m dancing! I mean, today is a very beautiful day. I’m very excited.
Which version is on the charts? Is it the English version or the Italian?
We did an Italian/English version of the song. Because Diane, she’s amazing, she wanted to respect the original version in Italian. And of course, let people in America understand in English what the song is talking about. So it’s a very nice mix between the two languages. It’s beautiful. The funny thing is that I decided in 2020 to stop for a while, because as you know, in Italy, we suffered a lot. We still suffering because actually we are in this moment right now, we are locked down all the country, again.
I saw. I’m sorry.
I thought I wasn’t able to write more songs and to perform, and I had to stop. And so in a way this song, this movie opened my heart again, opened my mouth again, and gave me the goosebumps that I needed to start again. And from January, I started composing again. So I don’t know, I don’t have a date, but for sure, I’m preparing and [new music] maybe for next year, I don’t know. But I’m very lucky because I have the freedom to choose by myself when I’m ready to go out with a new album. In this moment, I’m concentrating on “Io sì” and the magical life I’m living right now.
“The Life Ahead” is available on Netflix worldwide. “Io sì (Seen)” is available on all streaming services and iTunes.