Lory Bianco (born August 19, 1963) is an American singer and actor from the United States. She started her career in humble surroundings at the age of 10 performing in musicals, fairs, convalescent homes, hospitals, conventions, and beauty pageants. She was managed by Sam Gino and her mother Helen Bianco.
| Lory Bianco | |
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Bianco in Warnemünde, 2001 |
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| Born | August 19, 1963 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
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Lory sang solo and sang duet with her sister Holly and the two of them recorded their first single, "Give me a Minute". Later at 15, Bianco received her first professional break with Hal White and Mark Gibbons, who released a single on RCA records, "Teenager in Love". At eighteen Lory was discovered by two producers from Italy, Guido and Maurizio De Angelis. They held a talent search in New York, Texas, San Francisco and Hollywood. This was a dream come true; Lory used to dream of going to Italy. The De Angeles brothers signed her to a management contract and became her record label Kangaroo Records/Polygram for five years. Also they changed her name to Bonnie Bianco.
In 1983 she landed the female leading role in the film–mini TV series Cinderella 80 or Cindy. The series was a renewed adaptation of the fairy-tale "Cinderella". She starred along with French actor Pierre Cosso, known from his movie La Boum 2 with Sophie Marceau. Bianco, who played a singer in Cinderella 80, also recorded the soundtrack for this TV series. The soundtrack album included a duet with Pierre Cosso, the hit single "Stay". Her album went gold in Germany.
From 1983 to 1985 Bianco was featured and sang and danced in the famous prime time Saturday Italian variety show Al Paradise. She became an overnight success in Italy. Her film Cinderella 80 was also released at the same time in the movie theaters and this as well gave her instant success as an actress in Italy.
In 1987 the two-hour film, that had 2 additional hours of film footage, was turned into a TV series and finally was aired in Germany and was a huge success. The duet "Stay" went straight to No. 1 on the Billboard German charts and stayed there for several weeks, and the album was in the number 2 spot for several weeks.[1] The single became a Top 3 hit in Switzerland and Austria too.[2] Cosso and Bianco became overnight sensations in Germany. Bianco also starred in a second TV mini series, Molly O, released only in Italy.
After going on a trip to Israel, Lory painfully contemplated not to renew her contract with the De Angelis Brothers' record label, as she was signed exclusively to their label and was not able to work with other writers. She decided to explore other career opportunities. This was a very hard decision, but nevertheless she decided to take a risk.
After several months of rest she signed with Christian De Walden and Steve Singer in a 1/3 business partnership. They signed a new record deal for the European market with Metronome Records. The first single off the album "Miss You So" was an instant Top 10 hit on the German charts. It was produced by Gunter Mende (Alexis, Falco) and Candy DeRouge (who scored a worldwide No 1 hit with Jennifer Rush's "The Power of Love" in 1985). Lory and Christian De Walden had different ideas on the vision of Bianco's career and both came to a decision to break away.
She managed to get out of her contract with Metronome after a battle of seven months and signed a new deal with the German record company WEA (Warner-Elektra-Atlantic, belonging to Warner Bros records). They produced a new album, True Love, Lory, as they mutually agreed to gradually fade away from the name "Bonnie". The record company stated that she had become famous by the name "Bonnie Bianco" and people would not know who Lory Bianco was. The album failed to continue the Top 10 success of the 2 previous albums, it even failed to reach the German Top 40. Moreover, neither of the two singles off that album cracked the German charts. German hit producer Dieter Bohlen (formerly of the 80s pop group "Modern Talking") was doing the soundtrack for a TV series and persuaded Bianco to sing one of the songs, "A Cry In The Night", which finally was another hit single for Lory "Bonnie" Bianco, but couldn't help the album to climb the charts.
For the second album with WEA, Lonely Is The Night, Lory wanted to challenge herself and go a little more pop, with a touch of dance. She is known for her ballads and this was a huge risk; also dropping the name Bonnie, didn't help make it any easier, it took a lot of courage. The album was produced by international top-notch producers, such as Klarmann/Weber (who also worked with Tracie Spencer, Chaka Khan or Jamie Stevens), one of America's most successful songwriters Diane Warren, and Jeff Lorber (successful from his work with Karyn White and Sheena Easton). Lonely Is The Night became a huge flop due to a lack of promotion and wrong singles choices.
Bianco spent some more time in Israel, reflecting on her life, contemplating her career. She has led a very full life, but found herself homesick. Lory has been living in Europe for 10 years, she's left everything to follow her career, her home in the States, her family, and friends. She became weary of living out of her suitcase, not ever being able to establish a permanent home for herself in Europe due to the laws and regulations, etc. Bianco had come to a very painful decision again and it was to leave WEA records. She had to agree to walk away from at least $300,000.00 that was guaranteed to her as an advance if she would make two more CDs. She had systematically stopped her career. She has been offered several contracts since then, but has not found the right team.
In the year 2001 she managed to take a risk and produce and release a new album on her own. She recorded the album On My Own ... but never alone and distributed it through the internet and the biggest independent record online store, CDBaby. Because of her loyal fan base she even managed to promote her new album on German television in 2001.
After completing her trip to Germany, she returned on the night of September 10, and the next day, September 11, the World Trade Center in New York was bombed by terrorists. This event had a devastating impact on Lory that she decided not to record pop songs anymore, but only sing Christian music.
Lory Bianco still has a loyal fan base and her own international fan club from many parts of the world. She has a close connection to all of her fans and encourages them to go forward in their dreams and to never give up. Perseverance creates character.
Bianco currently resides in the Pacific Northwestern United States and is working on a hymn CD-project, called Jesus paid it all.
Lory is hoping to release her new CD "Jesus paid it all" very soon (traditional, Christian-worship and meditative music)