IRENE GRANDI

Biography

The recording career of Irene Grandi has always been accompanied by an intense live activity and numerous collaborations. Alongside some of the most influential Italian songwriters and performers — including Vasco Rossi, Jovanotti, Pino Daniele, Francesco Bianconi, Telonio, and Saverio Lanza — she has also shared the stage and recording studio with internationally acclaimed artists such as Youssou N'Dour, Patti Smith, Hector Zazou, and James Reid.
She has been the protagonist of major television appearances, large-scale events, and theatrical tours, captivating audiences with her natural charisma and powerful, unmistakable voice.
Irene discovered and cultivated her talent during a long period of musical growth within the Florentine and Tuscan music scene.
She made her debut at the age of twenty-four at the Sanremo Music Festival 1994 in the “New Proposals” category with the song Fuori, written in collaboration with musician and songwriter Telonio. That same year, she released her debut album Irene Grandi, featuring not only the Festival song but also T.V.B., written by Jovanotti and Telonio, and Sposati! Subito!!, co-written with Eros Ramazzotti.
The following year saw the release of In vacanza da una vita (1995), containing important songs such as Bum Bum, Dolcissimo amore, the title track, and Il gatto e il topo, written by Pino Daniele, who also invited her to join his tour that year. Their duet Se mi vuoi, included in Daniele’s album Non calpestare i fiori nel deserto, became particularly successful.
In 1997 she released Per fortuna purtroppo, the third chapter of her artistic partnership with Telonio, who co-wrote all the tracks with her. The album experimented with soul, ethnic-tribal sounds, and electronics, offering the first clear sign of Irene’s free-spirited and exploratory artistic nature.
Her fourth album, Verde rosso e blu (1999), featured La tua ragazza sempre, written by Vasco Rossi and Gaetano Curreri, which she performed at the Sanremo Music Festival 2000, finishing in second place. This marked the beginning of a long-standing artistic partnership between Vasco and Irene. The year 2000 also saw her participation in Pavarotti & Friends, where she duetted with Luciano Pavarotti on a classical-swing reinterpretation of Guarda che luna.
In 2001 she released her first greatest hits collection, Irek, featuring the new tracks Per fare l’amore and Sconvolto così. That same year she performed in front of one hundred thousand people at the Heineken Jammin' Festival, opening for Vasco Rossi. Their collaboration continued with Prima di partire per un lungo viaggio, included in the 2003 album Prima di partire.
The album Indelebile (2005) featured the hit Lasciala andare, while the 2007 collection Irenegrandi.hits included Bruci la città, written by Francesco Bianconi of Baustelle, which became one of Irene’s most beloved songs, alongside È solo un sogno, written with Paolo Benvegnù.
In 2008 she released Canzoni per Natale, introducing the international Christmas album tradition to Italy. That same year, Mondadori published her first official autobiography, Diario di una cattiva ragazza.
She returned to Sanremo in 2010 with La cometa di Halley, again written by Francesco Bianconi, which anticipated her seventh studio album, Alle porte del sogno.
In 2011 Irene wrote Paura non ho for Tiziano Ferro. The following year she released Irene Grandi & Stefano Bollani, born from her twenty-year friendship and collaboration with celebrated pianist Stefano Bollani. The voice-and-piano project reinterpreted songs spanning Brazilian music, rock, and Italian songwriting.
At the Sanremo Music Festival 2015, she presented Un vento senza nome, a song she wrote herself and the title track of her tenth album.
In 2018 she explored video art with Lungoviaggio, a multidisciplinary project created with Marco and Saverio Lanza, featuring contributions from astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, writer Tiziano Terzani, Vasco Rossi, and Cristina Donà.
To celebrate twenty-five years of career, she released Grandissimo (2019), an album that perfectly embodied her dual artistic soul: popular rock performer and refined interpreter. The record included collaborations with Sananda Maitreya, Carmen Consoli, Fiorella Mannoia, Stefano Bollani, Loredana Bertè, and Levante.
Throughout her career, Irene Grandi has moved effortlessly through rock, jazz, bossa nova, singer-songwriter music, and soul, always remaining true to herself and to her artistic freedom — freedom of expression, experimentation, and independence.
With this spirit she returned to Sanremo in 2020 with Finalmente io, written for her by Vasco Rossi alongside Roberto Casini, Gaetano Curreri, and Andrea Righi, and arranged by Celso Valli.
In 2021, after the pandemic pause, she returned to live performance with the project IO in Blues, revisiting blues classics, songs by artists influenced by blues such as Pino Daniele and Lucio Battisti, as well as her own hits in new blues arrangements. The project was enthusiastically received by both audiences and critics.
Accompanied by her trio and Hammond organ virtuoso Pippo Guarnera, Irene received awards from Rai Radio Live and the MEI - Meeting delle Etichette Indipendenti.
In April 2023, IO in Blues Live was released as a collectible double vinyl edition.
On 17 May 2024, Irene announced the release of her new single Fiera di me, anticipating the Fiera di Me Tour, celebrating thirty years of her career.