Cristina Donà

Who is Cristina Donà?

Cristina Donà is an Italian singer and songwriter.

She developed a passion for music since she was a teenager, her favorites singers being, among others, Bruce Springsteen, Sinéad O'Connor, Joni Mitchell, Michelle Shocked, Tom Waits, Lucio Battisti, and Beatles. She studied at Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milano, where, during a student protest in 1990, she met Manuel Agnelli, leader of the Italian indie rock band Afterhours. Later she started her own singer career opening Afterhours’ concerts in their During Christine’s Sleep tour.

Besides the live performances in clubs in Milano and surroundings, Donà, encouraged by Manuel Agnelli himself, began working on her own songs, and released her first album, Tregua, in 1997. The album was an immediate success. Robert Wyatt included it among his favorites of the year in Mojo. The music critic Charlie Gillett broadcast some songs on BBC radio.

In the meanwhile Donà performed live in an Italian tour, and opened concerts for Ben Harper and David Byrne.

In 1999 she dueted with the songwriter Eric Wood in his album Illustrated night, and started working on the second album, Nido. Robert Wyatt contributed to this album with the arrangements in the song Goccia and with the participation to a videoclip, shot on the East Coast of England, and released on the Goccia EP. In 2001 Donà was invited to the Meltdown Festival, where she performed the same night as Anja Garbarek and Mark Eitzel. Davey Ray Moor, attending the concert that night, was very much impressed by Donà’s performance, and this was the starting point of a long-lasting collaboration between the two artists. While working with him on the third album, in January 2002 Donà was invited to participate in the Eurosonic Festival in Groningen.