History - Charts - Official Music Video
In early 92, Sabrina co-hosted the show Bellezza sulla neve. In an interview for the magazine Sorrisi e canzone, she announced that she was going to work on a new album in the next months, after a break. So that summer, when she disappeared almost completely from media attention, her fans thought that she was probably back in studio to record some new material. But it was absolutely not the case. In fact Sabrina entered the most trying time of her career. Indeed, she had decided to part from her manager as she couldn't bear the pressure she was working under anymore. She also didn't like the songs she was "suggested" to record anymore: she wished to turn to more personal and more ambitious music. So, her manager instituted proceedings against her and the legal battle that followed prevented Sabrina from working in Italy during several months.
In spite of moments of discouragement, Sabrina didn't lose her enthusiasm and began to work with new authors, abandoning Dance music for a pop-rock sound. During this period, she thus collaborated with Tony Fenelle, the lead singer of Ultravox - the group had been reformed in 1992- and the English composer and producer Rod Gammons (Now is the time, Don't want to be falling in love, You lie to me) and also with Satch Hoyt (Maybe your love, Brand new way) who had co-written in 1992 the single 7 day weekend for Grace Jones. Sabrina who always lacked of musical credibility was taking her revenge. She also teamed up with 3 very good Italian authors and composers, Sandro Zane, Moreno Barbazza (Mama said, Yes), F. Busoni (Goodbye baby) as well as her French ex-boyfriend, Pierre Cosso (Shooting the red light). Moreover, Sabrina was fully involved as songwriter. She wrote Skin on skin on her own and co-wrote several other tracks. She also recorded Stay awhile, a song by Kim Wilde (from her 1983 album Catch as catch can) and covered in English a song by Zucchero (from his 1987 album Blue's) : Solo una sana e consapevole libidine became No matter what you say.
During the spring and summer of 1993, Sabrina made some new appearances on television in Spain in Italy. She used the opportunity to declare that she was working with new producers and a new team. Besides, she announced that a single was planned for summer. She added that an album would be released in September, an album more personal than everything she had done until then. But all those great projects were finally postponed. However, on July 19th, on the set of Bellezze al bagno, Sabrina performed Mama said, a brand-new song with a typical American rock sound. But this potential single had no follow-up and it was necessary to wait several months to see Sabrina again on Italian TV. She thus made her official comeback in March, 1994 on the set of Domenica In, performing her new Dance-single, Rockawillie, planned to be released on April 15th. Sabrina did quite a lot of promotion for this new single and she announced in an interview for Boss magazine in May, 1994, that her album would be titled Rockawillie and would be released in September, featuring, besides the title track, 10 new songs among the 50 she had recorded during the album sessions.
On television, she didn't only promote the single Rockawillie but also a few songs taken from her forthcoming album: Skin on skin on the set of Roxy Bar in May and Stay awhile in July at Il Tappeto volante. It was the same in Spain where Rockawillie was out in summer and which allowed Sabrina to sing Stay awhile, You lie to me, Maybe your love, Skin on skin giving a taste of her new album. This promotion of new songs was probably a way to test them on the audience and possibly interest a record company.
It seems that Goodbye baby was planned to be the second single taken from her new album (after Rockawillie). Indeed, a video clip was shot in studio, showing a very happy Sabrina, having fun with two little girls. The second part of the clip had a lot of similarities with Cher's music video for The shoop shoop song. But Sabrina's clip remained unpublished for a long time. If an extract would be broadcast in 1996 (?) when Sabrina was a guest on the British Channel 4 TV show Eurotrash, it was show in its entirety only by the end of 2009 when Sabrina posted it on YouTube.
For some reasons, the release of the album Rockawillie, first postponed to November, was finally cancelled - it would however be edited in 2008 on the CD 2 of the album Erase / Rewind - which didn't prevent Sabrina from singing again some of its songs in December on the set of Il tappeto volante: Stay awhile (a piece of "romantic rock" she liked a lot), Maybe your love and Now it's the time.
Disappointed but not discouraged, Sabrina did not admit defeat and announced that she was working on a new album, in Italian, with Massimo Riva. But did this new project really go to see the day? The fans had all the reasons to doubt it. But, for once, things went as planned and Sabrina dedicated herself to the recording of her new album as the promotion of the winter-single Angel boy was quickly canceled in Italy.
In February, she announced in a very enthusiastic way the release of the entitled album Maschio dove sei for April as well as her participation in the musical Il cavalieri della tavola rotonda from October on.
On May 16th, on the set of Seconda serata she performed the song Maschio dove sei for the first time. The music change announced in the past years was finally becoming reality. The promotion of the upcoming album then quickly focused on Fatta e rifatta the lyrics of which were ironical but not autobiographical like Sabrina specified. A promo maxi CD was then released, featuring 2 other excellent tracks: Cuore - a song she interpreted twice on TV that summer - and Non va.
The album was planned to be released in September and Sabrina performed another song on TV in July: La porta e' sempre la. It seems that Sabrina's new label, NAR, believed in the potential of Fatta e rifatta since a juke-box 7" and a 12" were released, featuring 3 remixes produced by Elvio Moratto who had co-written My chico, Gringo and some songs from the album Over the pop. But the release of the album was a long time coming. Indeed, what was the point in promoting songs that the audience couldn't get? But everything accelerated in late September when the radio stations received a new promo maxi CD: Maschio dove sei. Its title (Male, where are you?) forced Sabrina to specify several times with humor that she had nothing against men and that the text was only ironical.
The long-awaited album, produced by Massimo Riva and Enrico Monti, was finally out in early October. In both form and content, Sabrina and her team tried to do something completely different. Indeed, she was seeking music credibility: the photo used for the picture sleeve was a portrait, not a pin-up like for the Super Sabrina release; besides, her full name "Sabrina Salerno" appeared for the first time on the front cover to prove that she was an artist and not a "product" anymore. This rock album, which means "serious" compared with Sabrina's early work, featured 10 tracks, some of them being Italian cover versions of material previously recorded in English by Sabrina. You lie to me became Tango italiano, Maybe your love became Gioco perverso, Stay awhile was translated into Alice rivivrá. Besides, Cuore turned out to be the cover of Deep water as the album Erase / Rewind showed it in 2008. 6 other tracks were cosigned by Massimo Riva (Maschio dove sei, La porta é sempre la') or written by the tandem Sandro Zane/Moreno Barbazza (Palpito d'amore, Fatta e rifatta, Non va, Messico).
This album produced by Enrico Monti and Massimo Riva, in collaboration with Vasco Rossi, got a lot of positive reviews for the very first time in Sabrina's career. Several articles hailed her performance, while her voice had been often criticized in the past. But did the album please the fans? Not immediately. Many were at first horrified by the rock style of the songs but finally recognized that it was an excellent album. Did Sabrina manage to conquer a new audience? Nothing is less certain because, due to distribution problems, the album couldn't meet success. However she promoted it till the premiere of Il Cavalieri della Tavola rotonda (which held in December) and then in 96 and early 97.
If the release of an album in English (featuring some songs initially recorded for the album Rockawillie?) was planned in 95 and 96, this idea was then abandoned like the project to participate again in the San Remo Festival. Indeed, Vasco Rossi had written a duet for Sabrina and Pino Scotto, an Italian hard-rock singer who declined the offer. Finally it was only decided to re-release Sabrina's last album in June of 97 but with a different title, Numeri, which was also the title of the (only) new song featuring on this release and which was written by Massimo Riva. In this occasion, Sabrina completely changed her look which provoked a new shock to her fans: she had her hair cut! With this hairstyle and the rather masculine outfit she was often wearing, Sabrina erased everything of the image which had made her successful. After the music change, the look : did it mean that the fans had lost THEIR Sabrina forever?
Fortunately, after the short promotion of Numeri, Sabrina announced that autumn that she was working on a pop-dance album. The rock interlude was definitively over …
The songs of the Maschio dove sei album (without Numeri) were however re-issued in February of 1999 under the title Fatta… rifatta by the label Go! Music, probably in order to benefit from the release of Sabrina's fifth album: A flower's broken.
Until then, Sabrina had built her international career by singing in English. Did the change operated with Maschio dove sei limit her to the peninsula or did it reconnect her with a massive European audience? Indeed, singers such as Laura Pausini and Eros Ramazzoti had a huge success abroad with songs in Italian. This is probably the reason why the album Maschio dove sei was distributed in some European countries. But unfortunately it didn't meet success.
In June, 96, it was released in Portugal, a country where Sabrina was quite successful from 87 to 89. In Spain, Maschio dove sei was released in the summer of 97 and Sabrina promoted it on TV, singing the title track and Boys 95. If she had planned to record this album in Spanish in 95, this project, as many others, had been abandoned.
The same year the album was also published in Lithuania. The CD is very rare nowadays even if Sabrina promoted it.
In the end, the songs of the album were released in France on the mid-price compilation Boys in 2001, a CD which also featured Boys '95 NYDP Mix.
The flop of the album in Europe probably explains why Sabrina didn't re-record some of its tracks for her comeback album Erase / Rewind in 2008. Moreover, she always considered that singing in Italian was a mistake, either for Siamo donne or Maschio dove sei.