Marina Rei

by Aurelio PasiniItalian smooth singer and talented percussionist Marina Rei (real name: Marina Restuccia) was born in Rome June 5, 1969. Her father, Vincenzo "Enzo" Restuccia was the drummer in Ennio Morricone's orchestra, while her mother Anna Giordano was a violist.
Grwn up in a very musical environment, at the age of 18 Marina started playing live in the Rome club scene, and in the meantime she debuted as a backing vocalist and a dancer in some tv shows. Between 1991 and 1995 she released under the name of Jamie Dee several singles and two dance-oriented albums -- Different Moods (1991) and Don't Be Shy (1994) -- that sold pretty well, especially in Japan. Nonetheless, in 1994 Marina decided to start singing in Italian, and adopted the name of Marina Rei. After signing with Virgin, in 1995 she released her first single of the second phase of her career, "Sola", soon followed by "Noi" and by the album Marina Rei, who revealed an artist strongly influenced by acid jazz and soul music. Re-released the following year with "Al di Là di Questi Anni" -- the song with which she took part to that year's edition of the Sanremo Music Festival - - the album ended up selling more than 100,000 copies. The following year Marina returned to the Sanremo festival with "Dentro Me", included in her sophomore album, Donna, whose success surpassed the predecessor thanks to the massive airplay gained by the singe "Primavera", an Italian rendition of The Real Thing's "You to Me Are Everything". Donna is also the title of an anthology released in the same year in Spain including tracks from both her albums plus some unreleased songs. Animebelle followed in 1998, led by yet another popular single, T'Innamorerò.
1999 saw Marina return to the Sanremo festival with "Un Inverno da Baciare", included as a bonus track in all the subsequent versions of Animebelle. The song, which reached the first positions of the Italian singles chart, showed a new interest in electronic sounds and arrangements, who would show up again, blended with a strong rock feeling, in 2000's Inaspettatamente, which included the successful single "I Miei Complimenti". The artistic and human relationship with musician and producer Daniele Sinigallia led to the making of L'Incantevole Abitudine, released in 2002 by BMG. Sinigallia would later produce also 2005's Colpisci, which included also a vocal appearance by Marlene Kuntz's Cristiano Godano on the title track. Meantime, in 2004 Marina had written the song "And I Close My Eyes?" for the soundtrack of Alessandro Colizzi's movie Fino a Farti Male. Then in 2007, after the release of her first live album, Al di Là di Questi Anni, she started a tour that saw her sharing the stage with Paola Turci and Max Gazzè.