LARA FABIAN

Born: Etterbeek, Belgium, 9 January 1970

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Pure (1997)

Hit songs since 1990: "I Will Love Again"

At home in many languages and cultures, Lara Fabian gives an emotive touch to inoffensive ballads and uplifting disco tunes, making her one of Europe's top divas.

Fabian's mother is from Sicily and her father from Brussels. Her first language was Italian in a childhood spent shuttling between Italy and Belgium. However, she also quickly learned French and later became fluent in English through her studies. From the ages of eight to eighteen, Fabian studied at the prestigious Royal Conservatory of Brussels. There she received a solid classical music foundation and began writing songs. She began performing professionally at the age of fourteen.

Upon graduating, she moved to Montreal and worked with another Brussels expatriate, the writer/producer Rick Allison, on what became her first album, Lara Fabian (1991). The CD features French dance pop with the typical electronic beats and perky synths. However, Fabian's plaintive, strong voice and songwriting contributions made it clear that she was more than just another disco clone. The album sold 100,000 copies.

Fabian came into her own on Carpe Diem (1994), which still has up-tempo numbers but gives her more room to show off on ballads. The album sold 800,000 copies, further solidifying her status as an up-and-coming diva.

In 1996 Fabian was introduced to English-speaking Canadians in her performance of the orchestral ballad "Que Dieu Aide Les Exclus" ("God Help the Outcast") for the Canadian soundtrack to the Disney animated movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She also provided the voice of female lead Esmeralda for the movie's French-Canadian release. However, she put English crossover plans on hold in a bid to consolidate her stardom in French-speaking countries. The success of Pure (1997), which sold more than 2 million copies in France, proved that she was right to postpone her cross-over debut. She now had even more leverage with record labels looking to ink an English deal, and she was wooed by Sony Music's former chairman Tommy Mottola.

Fabian's English debut, Lara Fabian (2000), was given a May 30 release date that gave Sony time to promote the album before the typical pre-Christmas barrage of blockbusters. In an unusual gimmick, Sony even offered a money-back guarantee to dissatisfied listeners. The album's first single, "I Will Love Again," with its piercing, anthemic chorus, serves as a more upscale "I Will Survive" for the recently dumped. The song made number thirty-two on the Billboard Hot 100 but got all the way to number one on the dance charts. With swirling synths and busy percussion, it bears the stamp of the producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling, who worked with Cher and Enrique Iglesias. She croons seductively in Italian on "Adagio" and exudes class on the piano-based soft-rock tune "Part of Me." However, Fabian sounds a little too much like Celine Dion, making it difficult for casual fans to recognize her. Also, her lyrics suffer from blandness, as the following example shows: "When you look into my eyes / you get what you see." Fabian returned to French with Nue (2001) and cracked the Spanish-language market the same year with "Quédate," used in the Telemundo comedy/drama Uga Uga.

Fabian's clear voice can go from pure fire to a cool whisper as it traverses melodies most singers could only dream of. However, she has faced tough competition in the English-speaking market from other divas like Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, and Celine Dion.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Carpe Diem (Polydor, 1994); Pure (Polydor, 1997); Lara Fabian (Sony, 2000); Nue (Universal, 2001).

ramiro burr