Elisa

Born in Trieste and closely connected with the Friuli-Venezia Giulia scene, Elisa Toffoli has established herself from the late 1990s with a writing primarily in English, a rarity in Italian pop at the time. Her first album, Pipes & Flowers (1997), established a register blending pop rock, acoustic songwriting, and alternative tension, before Asile’s World (2000) widened her palette toward more electronic textures. In 2001, Elisa gained visibility by winning the Sanremo Festival with Luce (tramonti a nord est), her first major Italian-language title, while continuing a career shared between the two languages. Her discography shows this constant circulation between pop, melodic rock, ballads, light soul, and more organic or intimate forms, with albums such as Then Comes the Sun (2001), Lotus (2003), Pearl Days (2004), Heart (2009), L’anima vola (2013), On (2016), Diari aperti (2018) and Ritorno al futuro/Back to the Future (2022). Elisa has also developed regular work for cinema and the stage, notably collaborating with Ennio Morricone, Tina Turner, Ligabue, Francesco De Gregori, Calcutta, or Andrea Bocelli. Present in theatres as well as arenas, festivals and European and North American tours, Elisa has maintained since her beginnings a trajectory where singer-songwriter writing, cross-disciplinary collaborations and constant attention to live formats coexist.