Italian pop star
Alice (also known as
Alice Visconti) was born Carla Bissi in Forli, Italy in 1954. She began her career as a piano-playing singer/songwriter in 1971, gaining more recognition in 1981 when she won the Sanremo Music Festival. A series of albums, singles, and tours unfolded over the next several decades and saw
Alice branch out in unexpected stylistic directions, moving through phases of classical, jazz, ambient, and electronic experimentation. Perpetually embracing new forms of sound,
Alice released albums as diverse as 1999's God Is My DJ (which found her interpreting spiritual works by
Popol Vuh and
Gavin Bryars, among others) and 2012's Samsara, which found her in a cinematic folk-pop mood with some new agey synth touches.