Gioia

There are multiple artists who use this name. 1) Carmen Gioia Bruno (born June 11, 1963 in Bari, Italy and raised in New Jersey) is best known from pop group Exposé. Bruno's first solo single was "Free To Be", which topped charts across the U.S. and Canada. Her second single, "From The Inside", was prominently featured on the prime time cable series Queer as Folk. Her third solo single, "Wrecking My Nerves", produced by Chris Cox, saw similar success in the dance music community.Recorded after a long hiatus due to a throat tumor, her solo material - including her debut solo album entitled Expose This - is often credited simply as Gioia. The albums' two singles "Be Mine" and "Incredible" reached the Top 50 of the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. In 2005, Gioia scored her third #1 hit with the song "Dreamin' (Again)". As of Summer 2008, Gioia has started work on her second solo album. Gioia is active as both a solo artist and with Exposé. 2) Gioia Gerber, a Swiss singer born on May 9, 1992. Her debut album, Lady Sunrain, was released in 2010. 3) http://gioiamusic.ch/ Influenced by artists such as Seal, Adam Lambert, Madonna and John Legend, Gioia bridges modern pop and dance music. Currently, Gioia is wrapping up his sophomore album entitled Flawless (scheduled to be released in summer of 2010). This album reflects all of his musical influences through a dance-pop sound, which is also fused together with various other modern genres and a range of various subject matters which personally affect his life on a direct and also indirect level. These topics range with everything from life, death, the environment, and an underlying love toward humanity with a sense of global unity that exists beyond distinctions of race, color, or creed. Production is being done entirely by Marc Soucy of AudioMusicVoice (El Kapitan and David Hull- bassist for Buddy Miles, The Joe Perry Project, rock trio Fahrenheit, James Montgomery, and live fill in for Aerosmith), and Surefire Music Group (MTV's Making of the Band featured artist-Makio, MTV's featured artist-Brooke Hogan and River Dance lead singer-Hayley Griffiths) Hailing from the historic ‘North End’ of Boston, Massachusetts, Gioia grew up as the product of an Italian family centered on strong cultural values and an exemplary work ethic towards all endeavors. “I was always taught that nothing would be handed to me,” recalls Gioia. “So if I wanted anything in life, then it was up to me to figure out how to attain it and then make it happen.” Gioia was involved in singing at a young age and then, at the age of twelve, he attended a sold out concert with his big sister by the famous rock group ‘Kiss.’ At that moment, he recalls enthusiastically “I was hooked!” Gioia continues, “ I remember it clear as day; the lights, the fire, the elevating stage, the crazy, screaming fans, the costumes and the blaring, ear drum piercing music. For me, that was it. I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to be when I grew up….A ROCKSTAR!” After staying involved with music throughout college, performing in various on-campus shows and graduating with a B.A. in communications, Gioia landed a job at Club Med Florida, as a scuba instructor and vocal performer. After a few months, he then relocated to Orlando where he hoped to launch his career as a pop star. He worked as a waiter and recorded a demo of pop dance music. Gioia was hell bent on succeeding, and being very aggressive with his music career he invested thousands of dollars into a business deal that his producer was undertaking to launch an indie record label. Unfortunately, the deal turned out to be a scam and the producers lending partner was arrested by the FBI for fraud. At that point Gioia recalls, “I was very disappointed and jaded. I just had my life savings stolen from me with no possibility of recouping it. I was broke, my friends were pursuing reliable careers, and my parents were telling me to ‘get a real job.’ Without being able to play a musical instrument, I had reached a dead end and my passion for singing was wavering. So I caved in to all the surrounding circumstances and made the commitment to a full time professional job. I worked for a restaurant franchising company called “Pasta Lovers” as a training manager. After the restaurant openings were all completed, I moved back to Boston, landed a job as a restaurant manager, got married and started a family.” As Gioia’s family became his top priority, the idea of pursuing a successful music career eventually faded away; until one night when the unexpected happened. As Gioia was driving home from a late night of work, he began to doze off and got into an accident which flipped his car over seven times. At the crash scene, Gioia claims to have experienced a supportive spiritual presence. He later spent 3 days on life support. The entire event was a wake-up call for Gioia to be grateful for his life, but it also reignited his gift of music from within, inspiring him to write the song “Angel on your Shoulder”. Gioia had now come full circle. (For more details, read “The true story behind the track ‘Angel on your Shoulder’” at http://www.myspace.com/gioiamyspace.) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.