Madonna: The Toughest Audience

Over the years, Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini has played for some tough audiences, from the sacred to the secular, such as Pope John Paul II and Barbra Streisand.

“I had the strangest adventure with Madonna, who wrote a song for me. She didn’t know my music, but one of my producers proposed me for this project. I felt happy and scared, because she wanted me to translate her English song [‘Like a Flower’] into Italian and Spanish. But it doesn’t sound so beautiful in those languages. So I had to alter her lyrics. I felt scared that I would not be able to [write] at her level. But the idea that she supported me, that she gave me the song and she believed in me, was amazing. I admire her so much.”

Pausini transformed “Like a Flower” into “Mi Abbandono a Te” for her disc, “Resta in Ascolto” (2004), which she re-recorded in Spanish as “Escucha.”

Source: Chicago Sun-Times