Paola Turci made her debut in 1986 at Sanremo under the IT label of Vincenzo Micocci, a record executive and talent scout of singer-songwriters like De Gregori, Venditti, and Rino Gaetano. Since then, 35 years have passed during which Paola Turci’s career has gone through various artistic phases, each reflecting a personal journey. Her discography tells this story: from her early successful singer-songwriter experiments — Ragazza sola, ragazza blu, Paola Turci, Ritorno al presente, and Candido — to more ambitious albums like Ragazze and Una sgommata e via (featuring the title track composed by Vasco Rossi), released before achieving major public success with Oltre le nuvole and Mi basta il paradiso.
In the 2000s, she returned to more intimate artistic expressions with two albums: Questa parte di mondo (which included a collaboration with J-Ax, with whom she co-wrote and performed the track “Fuck You”) and Tra i fuochi in mezzo al cielo, interspersed by the live album Stato di calma apparente and followed by a trilogy dedicated to love, the female universe, and her worldview: Attraversami il cuore, Giorni di rose, and Le storie degli altri.
She has participated in the Sanremo Festival eleven times, won three Critics’ Awards (’87, ’88, and ’89), and took first place in the “Emergenti” category with “Bambini” in 1989.
She won the Cantagiro in 1991, along with numerous other awards and gold and platinum records, and has performed hundreds of concerts across Italy. Paola is also committed to humanitarian causes, working with Emergency, the Francesca Rava Foundation, and Amnesty International (her song “Rwanda” earned her the prestigious 2006 award from Amnesty International Italy and Voci per la Libertà), supporting projects for children worldwide. She is the author of a novel (Con te accanto, co-written with journalist Eugenia Romanelli and published by Rizzoli) and an autobiography (Mi amerò lo stesso, published by Mondadori).
Following the success of the anthology album Io sono (Warner Music, 2016)—which reached the top 10 best-selling albums—featuring 12 rearranged songs from her past in an acoustic-electronic style, three new tracks, and a tour across Italy, Paola debuted a monologue inspired by her autobiography Mi amerò lo stesso at the Teatro Menotti in Milan.
In 2017, Paola Turci returned to Sanremo with “Fatti bella per te.” The single anticipated the album of new material Il secondo cuore, released on March 1 of the same year.
The Il secondo cuore tour followed, visiting Italy’s most prestigious theaters. For two consecutive years, Paola Turci served as a special juror at the Venice Soundtrack Stars Award, a collateral prize of the Venice International Film Festival held at the Lido.
In 2019, she returned to the Sanremo Festival with “L’ultimo ostacolo,” written and produced alongside Luca Chiaravalli, the lead single from the album Viva da morire.
After two special concerts in Rome and Milan in 2019, her latest theatrical tour covered major Italian cities.
From November 2022 to March 2024, she has been performing a new version of her monologue Mi amerò lo stesso (produced by Stefano Francioni and F&P), with the script rewritten together with author Alessandra Scotti and directed by Paolo Civati.
