Sarina Paris

Sarina Paris
Born December 22, 1973
Origin Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genres Dance-pop, electropop / synthpop, europop, eurodance, bubblegum pop
Occupations Singer
Years active 1995–2005 2011-
Labels Capitol Records

Sarina Paris (born December 22, 1973) is a Canadian dance-pop singer/songwriter of Italian descent, best known for her international dance-club hits, and "Look at Us" and "Just About Enough" in 2000/2001.

Contents

Music career

Born in 1973, Sarina grew up in Toronto, in a working-class family who were originally from Italy. She moved back to Italy in 1996 after her mom died to get in touch with her roots.[1]

In 1995, Sarina's debut track "Mystery Man" was released in Canada. In 1996, She was discovered by Italian manager/producer Vince Tempera (Kill Bill) and he invited her to become a member of the Gam Gam Project alongside producers Max MOnti and Mauro Pilato in Rimini, Italy which aimed at teaching Italian children to sing in English. A year later she moved to Milan where she worked as a receptionist at a CX music publishing and production where she was discovered by Charlie Marchino and Nico Spinosa of EMI's Italian division, and began her career as a recording artist.[2] Her initial single, "Look at Us", charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2001,[3] but did not reach the Top 40. The song did make it onto the Rhythmic Top 40. It also became a dance-club hit internationally.[4] As a result of the success, she was signed to the US label Priority Records. In 2001, she released her debut album, Sarina Paris, comprising all songs she co-wrote, with the exception of a cover version of Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors".[2] In an interview, she said the album was "nothing too intellectual—just music to make you happy and to make you feel good." I wanted to make an album that kids could listen to with their parents. Songs that were clubby for mom, but weren't x-rated so the kids could play and dance along with." [2] She would receive feedback from her 14-year-old niece as she wrote and recorded, and indeed the record label's target demographic was noted to be 12- to 25-year-old women.[2] The single "Just About Enough" was released as a club-exclusive single.[2] She released another dance track, "This Is My Life", found exclusively on a Canadian Dance Compilation "Euro Mix 5" through SPG Records. Also in 2000 "Do You Love Somebody" was released exclusively on the compilation "Dancemania x7" in Japan under Toshiba/EMI record label.

A remix of "Look at Us" (called "Look at Us (Daddy DJ Mix)") appears on the Konami dance simulation video game DDRMAX2.[5]

Paris toured with LaToya Jackson in various parts of Hawaii in May 2004. Her music career has since been mostly on hold, although she did release a new song, "You Are My Valentine", available only on EuroBeats Vol. 3. No new songs or album was released after this song.

In May 2011, nearly marking its tenth anniversary of "Look At Us", Sarina Paris released the single "Sophisticated" and she is currently working on new material for her album.

Reception

The Orlando Sentinel commented on the album's quantity of "catchy tunes bound to get you dancing."[6] The Washington Post, while suggesting that she is capable of more, wrote that the album provided evidence that, for now, Paris is "another mindless slave to pop fashion."[4] USA Today also gave the album an unfavorable review, calling it "cloying", despite "some moderately catchy tunes".[7] Most reviewers commented on the instrumental arrangements, including Liana Jonas of Allmusic, who wrote, "The thin music and arrangements on the 13 tracks are simply monotonous", in a generally negative review.[8] But Billboard wrote that she is "well-poised to please fans of Eiffel 65, Sonique, and Aqua."[9]

Paris was nominated for a Juno Award in 2001, for "Look at Us", in the category of Best Dance Recording.[10]

Discography

To date Paris has had only one self-titled album, released on June 23, 2001, which reached #167 on Billboard 200 in the US.[11]

Sarina Paris
No. Title Length
1. "Look at Us"   3:29
2. "You"   3:53
3. "So I Wait"   3:02
4. "Just About Enough"   3:45
5. "Love in Return"   3:08
6. "True Colors" (cover of Cyndi Lauper) 3:28
7. "Angel"   3:26
8. "Dreamin' of You"   3:15
9. "The Single Life"   3:33
10. "True Love"   3:19
11. "Romeo's Dead"   3:15
12. "All in the Way"   3:51
13. "I Love You" (Bonus Track) 6:20
Total length:
 47:36

Singles

Notes

  1. ^ Bonacich, Drago. "Sarina Paris: Biography", Allmusic. Retrieved May 12, 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d e Housman, Steven (April 21, 2001). "Dance single's success brings Sarina Paris her priority debut", Billboard 113 (16): 10.
  3. ^ Hay, Carla (June 2, 2001). "Popular uprisings", Billboard 113 (22): 31.
  4. ^ a b Joyce, Mike (June 8, 2001). "Sarina Paris: Sarina Paris", The Washington Post, p. T7.
  5. ^ "DDRMAX2 -music-". Konami.jp. http://www.konami.jp/bemani/ddr/jp/am/ddrmax2/music.html. Retrieved May 10, 2011. 
  6. ^ Tanzer, Emily (January 4, 2002). "Sarina Paris", Orlando Sentinel, p. 28.
  7. ^ Gardner, Elysa (May 22, 2001). "Tyrese shines with '2000 Watts'; forget synthetic 'Sarina Paris'", USA Today, p. D6.
  8. ^ Jonas, Liana. "Sarina Paris: Sarina Paris", Allmusic. Retrieved May 12, 2011.
  9. ^ Paoletta, Michael (May 19, 2001). "Look at Her", Billboard 113 (20): 43.
  10. ^ (March 4, 2001). "A sampling of Juno nominees", Toronto Star, p. D5.
  11. ^ "Sarina Paris - Sarina Paris". Billboard.com. http://www.billboard.com/#/album/sarina-paris/sarina-paris/477994. Retrieved May 10, 2011.