Hit Week 2012 – 6th Edition
Hit Week is a multi-city festival celebrating Italy’s burgeoning musical creativity. It is returning to the U.S. to shine a light on the country’s fresh sounds, bringing arena-packing headliners and thoughtful new acts to the U.S. and Canada.
From DJ sets to full-on rock shows, Hit Week showcases the full variety and local flavor of some of Italy’s most creative, engaging musicians—from dancehall-loving songstresses from Apulia to the hottest rock and pop bands on the Italian charts. The festival brings also two up-and-coming Italian performers, winners of Hit Week’s annual contest, to North America for their debut tour.
OFFICIAL WEBSITE: hitweek.it
SUBSONICA
Subsonica is formed in Turin in 1996 by underground producer and Africa Unite guitarist Max Casacci and singer Samuel Romano, who also enrolls keyboardist and long time friend Boosta, together with Ninja and Pierfunk to complete (on drums and bass respectively) a straight forward and top notch rhythm section, for what is immediately nicknamed “an unidentified musical object”. The eponymous debut album comes in ’97, shortly followed by a stunning performance, the opening for the U2 on MTV Day main stage. Their first album includes a collaboration with iconic pop singer Antonella Ruggiero: the cover version of her Per un’ora d’amore becomes a radio hit, and paves the way for the album, which sells over 200k copies. The follow up album comes in 1999: for Microchip Emozionale (winner of the Italian Music Award), Vicio becomes the band’s new bass player. The buzz around Subsonica is huge, but still most “official media” seem not to care about the band. Until they decide, surprisingly, to compete at the following year’s Sanremo Festival with an explicit and uncompromising track, Tutti i miei sbagli, in which they mix house-beats with furious electric guitars. Subsonica are now definitely on the map both for the critics and the mainstream audience.
NEGRITA
Negrita start their musical career in 1992 as Pau, Mac and Drigo hang around the same places and schools in the provincial town of Arezzo (Tuscany) with a wild love for rock and blues. Their debut album, Negrita (Polygram/Mercury), is released in 1994 and reveals immediately the essence of the band: irresistible guitar riffs, “stainless” rhythm section, powerful bass grooves and incisive vocal lines. Since then each album rises the attention of the media and the public alike thanks to a constant growth and experimentation. They soon tour beyond the national borders in Switzerland, France, Belgium, Spain ,Turkey , Uruguay, Chile and Brazil.Though keeping their unmistakable style, they achieve to express themselves in many genres: from the authentic blues vein of XXX (recorded in the U.S. in 1997), to the hard rhythms and electronic sounds of Reset (1999, platinum award in Italy), through the new rock/funk/blues vibrations of Radio Zombie (with a great tour following it) and the multi-cultural sounds & lyrics of L’uomo sogna di volare (2005).
EMMA RE
Emma Re’s husky, expressive voice gives the sought-after singer the flexibility to sing everything from vintage pop to jazz standards. With an extensive following in China — she was one of the few Western singers invited to perform during the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics—Emma Re knows how to smolder in an epic torch song, or to front a lush orchestral arrangement with grace.
HOWARD THEATRE
620 T ST, NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
TICKETS
$35 in advance, $40 the day of the show
DOORS OPEN AT 6:00 PM
BUY TICKETS: HERE
MAIN SPONSORS