Gala

Gala was born and grew up in Milan. Her name was inspired by Salvador Dali's wife's name, and at the same time by the famous Russian dancer Gala Ulanova. She attended a very strict high school in Italy. Then, as she was very curious, she traveled round Europe.

During her stays in various European places, she studied Flamenco in Madrid (at the "Amor de dios" dance school"), she was assistant photographer at the Super-studio for a time, she also studied at the Laban Center in London. Finally, she arrives in New York, where she lives now. She stills come from time to time in Madrid.

In New York, Gala didn't stop studying. She went to the Tisch School of Arts, within the New York University. That school is known as a crossroad of artists of different cultures ; Spike Lee also studied there. At the university, Gala lived in an atmosphere of "melting pot", which is very interesting when you are a student because you meet a lot of people.

Gala liked Art from the very beginning, and since then she tried everything she could to know everything concerning Dance styles and music instruments, from ballet to African dance (under the guide of Babekar M'Baye from the National Ballet of Senegal), and from drums to voice via the guitar. She is looking for all the possible connections among the different forms of art and is open to all the possible "contaminations": she finds out about her original passion for singing while directing a pop video for a well known Italian singer and it is with the "taking pictures of a deejay", that this deejay accidentally hears her voice. This is how her first song XS came out on the album "Originale Radicale Musicale".

Her own first single Everyone Has Inside has been one of the hits of the winter '95 and also one of the most played records from the most important Italian radio stations, reaching the top of the sales charts: n° 1 position for a few weeks consecutively.

She had the real consecration, with her second single Freed From Desire. After having the n° 1 position for 4 weeks in the Italian sales charts, she became a European reality : Spain, France (# 1 for 6 weeks), Belgium (# 1 for 8 weeks), The Netherlands, Germany (# 14), Scandinavia, Greece, Israel (# 1 for 2 weeks in Israel) and even United Kingdom (where she sold over 500.000 copies and reached # 2 and 15th best selling single of 1997) were the countries where the song had the major success! Gala entered on the list of nominations for the "Best Dance Act" of the "1997 Mobo Awards", together with artists like : Prodigy, Blue Boy, Chemical Brothers and Orbital. Soon this very big hit was also officially released in Japan and in the U.S.A. were it ranked # 1 in US Billboard Dance.

Gala was awarded the best female artist of 1996 by the official monthly magazine Musique et Disques, the best pop-dance artist of 1996 in France (where she sold almost 2 million copies - diamond record !), the female singer of 1997 in Israel, and the Italian revelation of the European market. In July 1997 she was again awarded with the "Italian Dance Award" as the best pop-dance artist of the year and also the producers Molella and Phil Jay receive their award for the "Best Producers of the year". In the whole, the single sold 5 million copies worldwide

In January 1997 the third single Let A Boy Cry was released, pop-dance style, for which she received a platinum record in Belgium. It peaked and remained #1 for 3 weeks in Israel, # 12 in UK, # 1 in France and Belgium. This single sold 3 million copies worldwide. It was followed by her 4th single Come Into My Life, released worldwide on the 4th of November 1997. It reached # 4 in Israel, # 1 in Italy, # 38 in UK, and # 5 in US Billboard Dance Chart.

Also the album, with the same title, followed on the 18th of November 1997, containing 10 magnificent tracks. On one of the songs, called Summer Eclipse, she worked with the famous guitarist Tonino Baliardo of the Gypsy Kings. With this album, a very original creation, Gala proved again to be a great artist, always looking for new creative ways of interpreting her music. The video clips of Freed From Desire, Let A Boy Cry and Come Into My Life kept on being played on the music channels in Europe (MTV and M.C.M.).

The 5th single to be released was Suddenly : it was not as successful as the previous ones but did # 2 in Israel and # 4 in Italy anyway.

Gala writes herself the texts of her songs. Nowadays she lives in New York and feels good there. She likes young men. She is always dressed in black because it catches less the dirt, and she always wears pants because she finds it more practical. She feels the joy of living since she almost died of an allergy to antibiotics. She likes when it is calm but she needs to have always someone nearby (for example her best friend).

1998 : it is said that a Remixes CD album was released.

2000 : Gala is back with a remix of her first hit Everyone Has Inside. The remix was done by Eiffel 65.

2004 : during a broadcast on the French TV channel M6, about the biggest record sellers of all time, Gala was said to have stopped all artistic activities after the death of a beloved.

2005 : Motivated by a web fan petition asking for her return (signed by almost 1000 fans from all over the world wrote great messages from Brazil to Germany to UK and Italy, Russia, and Spain) and after almost 8 years of silence, Gala came back with a new single entitled Faraway. Gala's new music is not dance anymore but pop with live guitars, bas and drums mixed to more produced sounds. once a gain a mix of USA sound and European backgrounds. I Faraway had success in Israel Lebanon and entered the top 100 il France at #71. This new record was all self produced and signed to her own independent label Matriarchy , NY based independent label.

2006 : Faraway went n 1 in Greece. Also a cover in Greek called Ftais was released by one of the most famous Greek artists.Gala appeared on the 10th June, at the MegaPANN-Party at 22:30 at the Central Studios in Utrecht (Netherlands).
Faraway also appeared in a national commercial in the USA for over 3 years. Gala went through a law suit because her song was used without permission.

2008 Her new single and album will be released by EMI Greece and other independent labels all over the world this summer , the name is : TOUGH LOVE with a new video shot in NY in a real prison. Pop Rock R & B electro. This record is a new amazing collection of unique and eclectic original songs
written by Gala and produced by different NY producers.