Contact: Steve Levesque, Chrissy Sutphin
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VINCE GELONESE IS BRINGING THE MUSIC
THUNDER FROM DOWN UNDER!
THE POPULAR AUSTRALIAN INDIE ARTIST IS
LIVING OUT ‘EVERY DREAM,’ MAKING INROADS
IN THE U.S. WITH HIS DEBUT SINGLE THAT
HIT THE TOP 5 AND HAS SPENT MORE THAN 20
WEEKS ON BILLBOARD’S HOT SINGLES SALES CHART
The Italian-Born, Classically Trained Singer’s Thematic
Stage Shows – Expansive Productions That Draw On His Rock Roots
And His Passion for Euro-Latin Pop – Have Been Popular Over
The Past Decade Everywhere From His Hometown of Canberra
To Sydney and Melbourne
You know that great song you wrote a few years ago but tossed aside because you got too busy being successful doing other things? Early in 2013, Australian indie artist Vince Gelonese discovered one of those gems in his own stash, got it to the right people in the U.S. and is now living “Every Dream”—making an explosive smash Stateside with his infectious and romantic debut single.
Truly living up to its title, “Every Dream” was an immediate sensation this past summer, ultimately reaching #4 on Billboard’s Hot Singles Sales chart. It has remained on the chart for more than 20 weeks and is still in the Top Ten several months later.
Gelonese’s track is building similar momentum on Adult Contemporary radio, and the 400 spins a week it has been receiving have propelled it into the Top 50 on the FMQB AC40 Chart. The Italian-born singer-songwriter, who started out as a rocker in high school and later took private classical and opera training, just wrapped shooting his first music video for the song.
Capturing his heart-felt emotions, Gelonese says, “When I wrote the first verse, the song could have taken either of two directions,” he says. “When you first meet someone you don’t know if ultimately it will be love or sin, at that point I decided to go with the way I was feeling….and went with love.”
As the only Australian adult contemporary artist currently on the U.S. charts, Gelonese is primed to follow in the footsteps of other musical greats who emerged from that country, like The Bee Gees, Kylie Minogue and Air Supply. Interestingly, while Gelonese is quickly becoming known as an artist in the U.S., he is still relatively under the radar back home.
While Gelonese’s radio and sales accolades have been an unexpected surprise for the experienced live performer, the singer already has a batch of follow-up singles in the works. His marketing consultant, Steve Pina of Los Angeles based Omni Entertainment, quickly hooked him up to collaborate in the studio with veteran songwriter/producer Ronnie King, who has worked with everyone from 2Pac, Snoop Dogg and Mariah Carey to The Offspring, Kottonmouth Kings and the Hawaiian rock band Pepper.
Gelonese will be releasing his next single, a ballad about a broken-hearted guy called “The Loser,” in December. The tune has unique origins, with the singer’s lawyer friend Ian Marjason giving him compelling lyrics that laid the foundation. “I liked his concept,” Gelonese says, “but some of the words were kind of harsh, so I softened them, and then wrote a beautiful melody.” Singer Shayna Gee adds emotional poignancy by duetting with Gelonese on the last part of the song–providing what he calls the “female response.”
Gelonese’s plan is to roll out four or five singles in the coming months that will be included on his eventual full length debut album, “so that when people get the album they can enjoy many songs they are already familiar with.”
The inspirational story behind Gelonese’s breakthrough with “Every Dream” is as poignant and emotionally compelling as his songs. Long established as a stage performer in his adopted homeland, Gelonese had performed the lead in musicals like “Grease” but found his niche by starring in large stage productions centered around different musical themes—from Latin Rock, Country Rock, pop and various revues centered around the music of the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s.
The shows featured large band ensembles, female dancers and choreographed scenes. Gelonese’s wife Melissa co-produced and choreographed the shows. They have been performed throughout New South Wales at concert halls, casino showrooms and auditoriums everywhere from the singer’s hometown Canberra (the country’s capital city) to Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney. Drawing on his dynamic Italian family background, Gelonese also became a popular attraction singing in Italian at various festivals throughout the region.
Gelonese and his performing and production crew jaunted to Las Vegas several years ago to launch a production of one of the revue shows called “Walking in Memphis.” While visa extension problems left them short of establishing the show at a hotel or resort, it got a good deal of traction on the corporate event circuit.
“I finished writing ‘Every Dream’ during this time and recorded a demo of it that I gave to a music industry contact in the U.S. I was working with, who loved it and introduced it to some people she knew at Columbia Records,” he says. “She told me these executives thought it could be a number one hit, and I just laughed. I didn’t take it seriously, because I was so focused on doing the ensemble shows. When you grow up playing music in Australia, the opportunities for becoming a successful artist are limited so I just wasn’t thinking in those terms.
“At some point, I just put the song away and forgot about it,” Gelonese adds. “Then this past February, I had my iPad on random play, listening to songs from my iTunes catalog. I was listening to Beyonce, Bon Jovi, Keith Urban amongst other great artists, then ‘Every Dream’ came on and it felt like I was listening to it from an outsider’s perspective for the first time. It just hit me that the song was as good as anything else I had been listening to. So I rang my contact and told her maybe it was time we did something with it. I sent her a copy, which she sent to Steve Pina. One thing led to another, and by June it was released in the U.S. and hitting the charts. Ironically, it’s not as well known in Australia, but I did a local interview at a radio station in Canberra recently and the response has been good, and to my surprise a friend called to tell me they heard it played on the radio in Sydney recently.”
Although Gelonese had given up pursuing music professionally for a number of years because of the need to support his family, he says he never stopped writing songs or performing on weekends in the years leading up to establishing himself as a live show performer.
“Being a recording artist with a song on the charts has been a unique experience that has opened my mind to new possibilities for myself and to the ways a song can impact people’s lives,” he says. “I have loved performing other people’s songs for years, but knowing that people are listening to my original tunes on the radio is a great blessing and very surreal to me still. As I become more established as an artist, I want to begin helping other artists receive the exposure they deserve. As I just found out, you just never know where a song can take you.”
