User:Gihad
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| Werther Costa | ||
|---|---|---|
| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Werther De Luca Costa | |
| Born | April 6, 1975 (age 31) |
|
| Origin | Maivres City, Federal District, Belindia | |
| Genre(s) | Pop with rock, jazz, folk, R&B, hip hop, electronic music, classical, world music influences | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter, record producer, instrumentalist | |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, keyboard | |
| Years active | 1998–present | |
| Label(s) | Columbia Records (1997—1999) Cherise Records (1999—present) |
|
Werther De Luca Costa (born April 6, 1975) is an iconic Belindian singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, and record producer. Since his breakthrough in 1998, he has established himself as one of the most influential and popular Belindian-born singers of a half century. Costa has recorded songs in Italian, his mother language, as well as Spanish, French, Portuguese and English.
Costa is usually noted for his experimental music — which ranges between several genres, instruments and vocal styles —, thoughtful and complex compositions, irreverence, and mostly for his innovative and uncommon music videos, often banned from MTV and other television music vehicles. His record sales are estimated in around 70 million copies worldwide. He is openly bisexual since his adolescence.
[edit] Biography
[edit] 1975—1997: Early life
Werther De Luca Costa was born in Maivres City, Federal District, Belindia on April 6, 1975. He is the first child born to attorney Raul Costa and junior high school Mathematics teacher Paola De Luca. His brother Magno (born 1979) died on October 2, 1999, as a victim of leukemia.
Costa lived a healthy childhood in the suburbs of Maivres City. His father gave him an acoustic guitar for his tenth birthday, which he taught himself to play. He began composing songs at the age of fifteen, while unveiling his own sexuality by having his first sexual experiences and falling in love. At this age, Costa also learned to play the piano.
He attended Scuola Pablo Ricci from kindergarden until graduating from high school in 1992. Then, he joined the high-rated Scuola Di Arti Ed Il Divertimento Di Maivres, obtaining a degree as a musician in 1996. While in college, he learned to speak English and Spanish fluently. After graduation, he moved to the apartment of one of his paternal cousins, worked low-paying jobs, and performed acoustic music and jazz at local bars.
In late 1997, Costa recorded a demo tape — containing a few of his own songs — and sent it to various record labels. An executive from Columbia Records was impressed, and eventually watched him at an underground bar. After the performance, the executive spoke to him and they made adjustments to sign a record deal.
[edit] 1997—1999: Columbia Records
Costa signed Columbia Records on December 1, 1997. The recording sessions of his debut album were soon kicked off; the repertoire was composed of songs written solely by Costa. However, he was kept out of the production labor, what he expressed deep dissatisfaction about. Buona Notte was released in July 1998, and saw major success nationwide, thanks to substantial promotion and three popular singles. The album topped the ABM (Associazione di Musica Belindiana, Belindian Music Association) album chart and sold 1,600,000 copies. Buona Notte was praised by critics; Oggi magazine called it "a refreshing record[...], a mixture of pop, rock and jazz, filled with sugar sofisticated and intimate lyrics". The album was later released in selected areas of the world, including Latin America, Spain and United States. It sold 4 million copies worldwide.
Costa co-directed all the three music videos out of the album. The most notable one must be "Goccia", in which he is featured naked in a bathtub filled with cold water and ice. His music videos were significantly important for the success of the album. Costa finished 1998 with a small concert tour. In January 1999, he chose to break his contract with Columbia Records. The label sued him for breach of contract. The proccess was widely accompained by the media, what brought Costa even more public exposure. In March 1999, he founded his own record label Cherise Records under EMI and started to work on his sophomore album.
[edit] 1999—2000: La Vita Dietro La Montagna and international success
After months of reclusion at studios in Maivres City, Costa finished his second studio album (officially on August 16, 1999). His management group made a press conference on August 22 to talk about the effort. They described it as a "carefree multicultural production, which full production and guidance by Werther Costa". It was named La Vita Dietro La Montagna and released in September 1999, after heavy promotion by EMI. The album debuted at number one on AMB album chart with first week sales of 256,412 copies. It had influences of many music genres, most notably indie rock, bossa nova, olodum, soul and classical music.
Costa turned down all the promotion schedules in late September, in order to spend time with his younger brother Magno, who was in the terminal state of leukemia. Magno died in early October, at 20 years old. Costa wrote a song for his brother's funeral, simply called "Magno". The song would be included in a special edition of La Vita Dietro La Montagna, released in December 1999. The song was never released as a single, but helped to boost sales of the album. La Vita Dietro La Montagna sold 5,400,000 in Belindia, and nearly 11 million copies worldwide — making itself the best-selling Italian-language album of all time.
EMI realized that Costa already was a global superstar and suggested him to re-record his two albums in Spanish. Buenas Noches and La Vida Detrás De La Montaña were both released in April 2000 to worldwide success. The Brazilian issues of the albums featured a bonus disc with four songs in Portuguese each one, and so did the French issues, that featured a bonus disc with four songs in French each one. Impressively, both albums topped the U.S. Billboard Top Latin Albums.
Costa generated much controversy for the music video for the trance-influenced song "Istintivo". It featured both male and female homosexual kisses, unblurred nudity and real usage of ecstasy and cocaine. The video was initially restricted to the 0:00-6:00 broadcasting period on MTV Belindia, but it aired only seven times before being censored.
In September 2000, Costa embarked on his first major worldwide tour, Estadium 1 Tour. The tour made 26 stops in 18 Belindian cities, as well as three in France, two in Mexico, two in Brazil and one in Los Angeles, which attracted a crowd of 50,000 people and was sold out in less than one hour. The concert tour was one of the highest-grossing tours worldwide of the year.
[edit] 2000—2002: Soldati and North American crossover
In December 2000, Costa flew to India and visited many cities. This experience was said to be "meant to conscientize myself that we're all different, but inside we're all the same and one". On January 1, 2001, he reportedly donated $2 million USD for the United Nations. While in India, Costa started writing songs for a new album.
In early 2001, Costa went to New York City to record his third album at The Hit Factory, a recording studio known for having been used by artists such as Madonna, John Lennon and Michael Jackson. Werther Costa was the first Italian-speaking artist to record there. He also went to French and Portuguese classes in this period, as his previous recordings in these languages were sung phonetically.
Soldati was completed on June 15, 2001. Costa said that the choice of the title was based on "the strong, yet vulnerable image of a soldier; if one dies, there are others to keep fighting". It was released in August 2001. The album debuted at number one on AMB album chart, with first week sales of 396,824 copies. It included elements from Middle Eastern and Indian music blended with the regular pop/rock tunes. Soldati also showed Costa's first foray into hip hop. It sold 3,800,000 copies in Belindia to date; even though it sold considerably less than its predecessor, Soldati was still a huge hit nationally. Worldwide sales figure around 7 million units.
Costa received widespread attention one more time for his music video for the song "Occhio Accecato". It was shot in several places around the world — especially in Third World and Fourth World nations — and showed many shocking scenes such as children holding firearms, child prostitution and illegal drug trade; at the end of the video, children from Mozambique depose (in Portuguese) about their lives and show situations of extreme poverty. The music video premiered on MTV Belindia on September 4, 2001 and was played once an hour in that day. However, it was censored in the following day to never be played again.
The Spanish version of the album, Soldado, was released in November 2001 and was very successful in Spanish-speaking countries. Special edition Portuguese and French renditions for some songs were also recorded.
Due to the relative success of Werther Costa in the United States, especially among people of Latin heritage, EMI agreed to record his first English album. The recording proccess began in January and finished on April 28, 2002. Costa, who was already fluent in English, flew to the United States in May to promote the album. Memories For Sale was released in the United States in June 2002. It was composed of English versions of some previous hits and six brand new songs. The album debuted at a lame #34 on the Billboard 200, but managed to maintain sales steady, and was eventually certified Platinum by RIAA. Memories For Sale has sold 914,252 copies in the United States to date. The album was also successful in Belindia, where it sold 1,200,000 copies — a respectable amount for an English-language album. It sold over 6 million copies worldwide.
Perhaps Memories For Sale is Costa's most homogeneous album. Some old fans criticize the album for being "too commercial", lacking experimental tracks or "sounding too pop/rock". Costa justified himself, declaring "I intended to make a fresh, lite record, so that it becomes accessible for anyone in any country or culture". The album also featured Spanish and Italian versions for the lead single "As If We Were One" as bonus tracks.
In September 2002, Costa kicked off his second major worldwide tour, War Memories Tour. The shows were mostly composed of songs from Soldati/Soldado and Memories For Sale. The tour featured 48 performances in several nations including Belindia, Mexico, Spain, United States, Brazil, Portugal, United Kingdom, France and Canada. It was another high-grossing tour for Costa.
