This is a tribute page to the wonderful Italo disco singer and performer 'Valerie Dore', real name 'Monica Stucchi'.
Valerie Dore was initially more of a musical project featuring main vocals by Dora Carofiglio - Read on . . .
Information from Wikipedia
Monica Stucchi (born 28 May 1962), best known as Valerie Dore, is an iconic entertainer of French and Italian descent, born in Monte Carlo. She rose to fame during the mid 1980s as part of the Italo disco-New wave project of the same name.
Early career
Stucchi was a fashion model when she was discovered at the age of 22 by the famous music family Nicolosi (Lino, Pino and Rossana Nicolosi) and Roberto Gasparini in order to serve as the performer of their project "Valerie Dore", and its first song "The Night". "The Night" was considerably influenced by a new sound of Italo disco that Gazebo and Savage had introduced as "Romantic Dance". The song was actually sung by the iconic Italian singer Dora Carofiglio and Valerie Dore was initially to become of Carofiglio's many pseudonyms. Stucchi lip-synched the song, which became an unexpected hit in the European charts and sold over 1,500,000 copies. Apart from Carofiglio's excellent vocal skills, the success was also driven by Monica's eccentric stage persona, impressive looks and Kate Bush-like style and image.
In 1984 she won the prestigious "Vota la Voce" as Best New Artist of the year, and a year later the "Azzuro" of 1985. Her follow-up "Get closer" (which combined the voices of Dora Carofiglio and Monica Stucchi), though sharing identical arrangements with "The Night", also made it to the European Top 10. The romantic dance trilogy completed with Dore's 3rd single "It's so easy" (leading vocalist Dora Carofiglio) which became her third consecutive top 10 in Italy and Switzerland, but was a moderate hit in Germany where it peaked at 51. At that time Valerie Dore was regarded along with Gazebo, the most successful Italo disco solo act.
Dore as lead vocalist
In 1986 after the release of a vinyl-medley of her first three songs summarizing the first chapter of Valerie Dore, the initial team of Carofiglio, Nicolosi was replaced with Simona Zanini (Lyrics, backing vocals), Tansini (music) and Stucchi now leading vocalist. The result of this partnership was the first of its kind (in the Italo-disco genre) concept album dealing with the legends of King Arthur.
"The Legend", Dore's debut, is considered to be the best Italo disco album and one of the best to be released in the 1980s. With one foot in her early romantic-synth sound and with the other "embracing" a new seductive and dark formula, enriched with live instruments and Celtic folklore elements. Zanini's lyrics are also pure poetry, considerably adding positive elements to the artistic part of this album. The first single to be released "Lancelot" became Dore's trademark song and a gigantic hit in Italy thanks to its catchy chorus. Its follow-up "King Arthur" was a moderate hit outside Italy. In 1987 internal conflicts considering the future of the project resulted to its end. In 1988 Dore went as a solo act to London in an effort to escape the limited borders of Italo disco and make a true career in the European music market.
"Wrong Direction", released by the independent Dore, Mauro Zavali and MGM, produced by Ralph Ruppert, made it to number 23 in Italy despite limited promotion, but went nowhere outside the Italian charts. "Wrong Direction", an early example of Grunge music, a style that will storm the charts at early 1990s, is considered to be Dore's best song and one of the most underrated songs of the 1980s.
New directions
In 1991 the Dore travelled to Madagascar and remained there for seven months in order to record the material for her long awaited second album. She worked with a famous local folklore band, in what would come to be a complete turn to her musical career.
In 1992 the ZYX label released Dore's The Legend retitled The Best of Valerie Dore with bonus tracks the extended versions of her dance hits "The Night", "Get Closer" and "It's So Easy", plus two remixes of "The Night" done by DJ Oliver Momm. In 1993 Valerie joined the French euro disco group Excess which made new house-techno versions of her biggest hits "The Night" and "Get Closer". The project was unsuccessful.
Further information:
Information on Valerie Dore from 'EuroDanceHots' website
Information on Valerie Dore from 'Last FM' website
