While Italian rock group Belladonna did not do too well initially in their country of origin – Italy, the band has managed to develop something of a cult following beyond the Boot’s borders. How did they do this? Easy, thanks to the world wide web! And a little help from a rock god.
Some have hailed Belladonna as creating a new musical genre with their debut Rock Noir album. Sounds like yet another example of Italian creativity doing its thing.
Helped along their way by over 1,000,000 views on MySpace, Belladonna has been rocking away since 2005, and Belladonna still rocking along very well thank you. Here is the band’s most recent album: Shooting Dice With God“, which, according to the Belladonna website comes out on April 18th. That’s a little weird, as the CDbaby website says the album came out in 2011! Maybe the 2013 version is a re-mastered version?? Confused? Me too!
Helping Belladonna on the road to rock success is the fact that they sing in English – this has helped make their music more accessible to a much wider audience. It has also helped them gain recognition in Italy too.
This tactic does appear to have worked, and the band. Rolling Stone magazine had this to say about Belladonna:
“They’ve created a mysterious, romantic, erotic world”
And Belladonna even managed to attract the interest of rock god Bruce Dickinson of rock legends Iron Maiden. Dickinson gave Belladonna’s visibility a boost by championing their music.
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
Receiving the seal of approval from Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson does seem to have worked. In 2010, Belladonna ended up working with English composer Michael Nyman which resulted in the single Let There Be Light.
Here for you to watch is the video of Belladonna track Karma Warrior from their new, I think, Shooting Dice With God album:
[youtube width=”556″ height=”469″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9jYkVV58CI[/youtube]
More of Belladonna’s music can be found on the band’s YouTube channel here: Belladonna on YouTube
Italian bands which sing in Italian can, as Belladonna have shown, achieve success well beyond Italy’s borders, but generally only in nations which like Latin style music. Belladonna’s tracks could not be even remotely compared to a Latin sound, so singing their tracks in English was a shrewd move.
If you would like to know more about Belladonna – check out their website: Belladonna – where you’ll also find upcoming tours dates and venues.
