featuring the promo-only single:
I love you

Release History
& Discography

Lyrics & Videos


Discography

An album (only) released in Italy and Spain...

Italian cassette


Italian CD
(detail available by clicking on the cover)


Spanish CD
(detail available by clicking on the cover)




Album chronology

A flower's broken
1999

A FLOWER'S BROKEN
Release history - Discography

 

Even if a lot of fans recognized the quality of the album Maschio dove sei / Numeri, many of them hoped that Sabrina would go back soon to her (and their) roots: the Disco dance. Between an album of quality but serious and a light but commercial record, the choice was quickly made. They thus welcomed the upcoming release of a dance album in English announced by Sabrina in November, 97 on the set of Il tapetto volante.

Sabrina herself was not really satisfied with her Italian pop-rock attempt. On one hand, these songs had given her a certain musical credibility in particular from a vocal point of view and her interpretation had doubtlessly allowed her to get her first role in the musical I cavalieri della Tavola Rotonda, a theatrical experience which really satisfied her. But on the other hand, the distribution problems of the album had strongly discouraged her. Besides, this album in Italian had completely taken her away from her international audience and made her too dependent of the Italian show business from which she always tried to escape.

Sabrina wanted to provide the means to make her comeback successful. But there were two absolute necessities: she had to have the right material and find a record company which would really support her. As the doors of the Majors seemed definitively closed to her, Sabrina signed again with an independent label, RTI Music, which held the rights of the ex Five Records (the label which had published her first album) and had just distributed the album Remix 96 and the re-issue of her first album newly titled Boys. Moreover, the television subsidiary of the RTI group had produced the sitcom Tutti gli uomini sono uguali in which Sabrina played and which would be broadcast in the autumn of 98.
With Enrico Monti, Sabrina appealed to Massimo Bonsanto, who had co-written all the hits featuring on her first album, including Boys, and who had just worked on the Remix 96 album. Sabrina also worked with a young team to produce her new album inspired in particular by the sound of the 80s.

In the first half of the year, the Sabrina was back in studio and the first album sessions began. In June, she recorded the song I love you (co-written by Bonsanto) which would become the lead single. She sang it for the first time during the Cocco di mamma last show -in which she had participated as dancer and singer during that summer- at the end of September. On this occasion, she announced a first release date for October. But, as often, Sabrina just had to announce a release date so that it was immediately delayed. The release of the album was thus postponed to January 99 and Sabrina (as her fans) had to be patient and contend with the release of the movie Jolly Blu and the broadcast of the sitcom Tutti gli uomini sono uguali in autumn, 98. But finally, in late December, the promotion of the forthcoming album started on Italian TV and, to a lesser extent, in Spain where on December 31st she performed I love you as well as another song from the album: Jimmy (also co-written by Bonsanto). In January 99, Sabrina gave several interviews and the album A flower's broken went out finally in Italy on January 28th. The same day, she was a guest at La vita in diretta to promote this release.

The long-awaited album thus included 10 tracks (Flowers broken also featured as ghost track) which, as in the heyday, included previously unreleased songs and cover versions. The 6 original songs (Shalala, Jimmy, I love you, I want you, Flowers broken and Russian lover) were all co-written by Sabrina but also by Enrico Monti (except Jimmy) and a team of Italian authors. The album also featured three cover versions in different styles: Alanis Morissette's You oughta know -which allowed Sabrina to go back to a rock style she always liked- Love is all there is which had been co-written by Anthony Smith for Dana International -strangely her album went out after Sabrina's- and Never too late, by Sabrina's debut team Rossi/Bonsanto/Cecchetto, which had been originally recorded in 1987 by Tracy Spencer.
Last but not least, Diamonds in the sand, a good song but which, being published by Warner Chappell as Love is all there is, suggests that it may have been a cover version. In any case, this song was probably not originally written for Sabrina.

The album was inspired by the 80s Bubblegum pop (Shalala, Jimmy, I love you) but not only: Flowers broken was clearly inspired by Madonna's album Ray of light and her single Beautiful stranger (but was significantly less successful); Eurodance was again present, in particular through the song Russian lover (with a featuring of Dimitri Kusnitzof); and the 90s sound wasn't left behind with two nice ballads (I want you and Love is all there is).
Besides, Sabrina who had always defended the gay cause appeared for the first time as a real icon on the picture sleeve, an image strengthened by the lesbian kiss of the clip I love you and the outfit she had chosen for the promotion of the single and the album: a very sexy metallic armor made by the sculptor Alessandro Pica.

Sabrina strongly promoted the album between January and March, announcing that it had been released in several European countries (France, Scandinavia, Russia ...) which was exaggerated as it was only available in Italy and Spain, where it was distributed almost simultaneously by the same record label, RTI Music. Sabrina, however, promoted I love you on the English TV show Eurotrash. Despite all these efforts, the album did not chart in Italy and Spain. But it is necessary to say that RTI was sold to Sony in July 99 and the album was not any more supported by the label and so wasn't re-stocked in stores. As a result, the project of summer tour with the songs of the album and the remixes of her older hits was canceled.
In January, 2000, Sabrina however promoted the song I want you on Dutch TV but no label of the Benelux countries seemed interested enough to distribute the album.
The flop of the album strongly disappointed Sabrina who had put a lot of hope in her comeback on the international market. As a consequence, she would be clearly less present in the Italian media in the early millennium, re-appearing in 2002 with a new compelling theatrical experience, Emozioni, and then as Sexy Bond for the TV show Matricole e Meteore. On the musical plan, a long period of silence and aborted attempts began and would only come to an end with the unexpected release of the album Erase / Rewind Official Remix in 2008, almost 10 years after A flower's broken.