Musician, vocalist and songwriter Alessia Tondo is considered one of the most important voices of Italian folk music. Born in Apulia in 1991, in southern Italy, she began singing when she was 6 with her family in a folk music band. She started her career when she was very young, collaborating with the famous Italian reggae band named “Sud Sound System” in the song “Le radici ca tieni”. This song won the prestigious Tenco Award as best album in dialect.
When she was 12, Alessia joined “La notte della taranta”, the popular Italian world music festival, working with its orchestra. She participated in sixteen editions of this festival, collaborating with important directors as Ludovico Einaudi, Goran Bregovic, Phil Manzanera, Ambrogio Sparagna, Mauro Pagani, Giovanni Sollima, Raphael Gualazzi.
Alessia performed as a duo with international musicians such as Bombino, Angelique Kidjo, Luciano Ligabue, Carmen Consoli, and Massimo Ranieri.
In 2006, she founded a band called Triace. Their latest album was produced by well known Italian folk singer Elena Ledda. In the meantime, Alessia continued her collaborations with many international reggae artists. From 2006 to 2011 she joined Orchestra Popolare Italiana working with Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome.
In 2008, Alessia recorded “Yara”, a song that appeared in Radiodervish‘s album called “L’immagine di te” produced by Franco Battiato.
In 2012, she wrote and performed the lyrics for the song “NuvoleBianche”, composed by Ludovico Einaudi, which received millions of views and streaming on Spotify and YouTube. They performed “Nuvole bianche” in many special occasions such as BT River festival in London, organized for the Olympics Games in 2012 and at “Old vic tunnel” in London for Ludovico Einaudi’s showcase.
In 2014, Alessia debuted in the opera “Katerirades il naufragio” composed by maestro Admir Skurtaj, at the contemporary Italian music festival La Biennale Venezia.
Since 2015, Alessia is the singer of the award-winning Italian contemporary folk band Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino. Indeed, she is one of the authors of many songs of the band. As part of the ensemble, Alessia has travelled extensively, performing at the most important world music festivals, sharing her traditions and dialect.
In 2021, Alessia released “Sita”, her first solo album. She said: “Sita is my personal narration of the healing rite. All healing rites in all traditions are accompanied by a narration, a tale, music. The narrative helps to exorcise evil. Sita is a Woman, she recovers her ancient nature as a healer, reconnects to her essence and heals. It also means “pomegranate” (in Italian) and has a symbolic meaning: it is one of the fruits common to the peoples of the Mediterranean, it is given as a gift to wish fertility, healing, abundance, fulfillment of desires. In the Middle East, it seems that the arils of the fruit symbolize people who embrace as brothers and sisters within the world, represented by the fruit itself. A union of peoples.”
“Sita is my good wish so that everyone will find their own narration of the healing rite, that each can tell each other that they can heal and take the path that from shadow and darkness will lead to light and healing. And it is a wish so that distances are broken down, and we feel united”.
(headline image: Alessia Tondo – Photo by Ilenia Tesoro)
Discography:
Sita (Ipe Ipe Music, 2021)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.