1996–2001: early music career Prior to her music career, Gala studied in art schools in
the United States, where she also recorded her first demo tape. In 1996, Gala was voted
Best Female Singer of the Year in Italy by the magazine
Musica e Dischi. In July 1997, she was awarded the
Italian Dance Award as the best pop-dance artist of the year. Gala achieved a
Diamond recording award in France, a
Platinum record in Benelux and a
Gold record in the United Kingdom. The same year she was nominated for the
Best Dance Act at the
Mobo Awards in the UK alongside
The Prodigy,
Chemical Brothers and
Orbital. In July 1997, she won
Best Foreign Artist of the Year at the
Midem in Cannes, France. Between 1995 and 1998, Gala performed on the UK's
BBC Top of the Pops, France's
Taratata, Les Années Tubes,
M6's Hit Machine, MTV Germany, as well as performing in venues such as
Bercy Stadium in Paris and
Las Ventas in Madrid. Her album
Come into My Life was released on 17 November 1997, with 4 singles charting in the Top 20 across Europe, selling over 6 million records worldwide by 1998. In 1998, while performing "
Let a Boy Cry" on
Taratata, she met
Prince's manager Steve Fargnoli who began representing her. That same year she signed with
Universal Records in Italy. After Steve Fargnoli's death from cancer in 2001, Gala broke her contract with Universal Records and returned to New York.
2005–2010 Settling in Brooklyn, Gala set out to redefine her sound, her life and her career, re-emerging as an independent artist. In 2005, "Faraway" was released in France and Greece by
EMI where it reached No. 1 on the iTunes chart and No. 6 in the national charts. "Faraway" was co-produced by
Cash Money Records musician/producer
Kevin Rudolf. It was featured in a Bod Man perfume TV advertisement, In 2005, Gala appeared on
Pink TV and on M6's Fan De. Sagi Rai made a cover from Gala's Freed From Desire for his album "Emotional Songs". In 2006, she performed in the Mega PANN party at the Central Studios in
Utrecht. In 2008, Gala formed the label Matriarchy Records, based in Brooklyn, New York. "Tough Love" is Matriarchy Records' debut album released digitally worldwide on 6 September 2009. Her album "Tough Love" included collaborations with a host of well known producers, including drummer
Deantoni Parks,
Marcus Bell and
Kevin Rudolf who in 2008 achieved a No. 5 Billboard (US) hit with his song featuring
Lil Wayne, "
Let It Rock". Gala also collaborated with
Tamir Muskat, founder of
Balkan Beat Box on her song "I Am The World, The World Is Me". More recently Muskat is responsible for the
Jason Derulo hit
Talk Dirty, which samples the same "Balkan Beat Box" production style. Gala independently produced four music videos for the "Tough Love" album. The video for the song "I Am The World, The World Is Me" was shot in collaboration with the Italian/Argentinean painter and writer
Sebastiano Mauri, incorporating his video installation
The Songs I Love To. In 2009, she performed two nights at the
Ethias Arena. In 2010, Gala performed at the Highline Ballroom in New York, at the
Palais des Sports and at the Antique Theater in Arles. The same year she was invited to perform as the headliner at
24h velo de Louvain-la-Neuve, second-largest beer event in Europe, organized by the students of the Belgian University of Louvain-la-Neuve. In 2010, "Tough Love" was featured in popular American television series
The Millionaire Matchmaker (USA). The same year "Freed From Desire" was used for a
Nissan television commercial in France and Spain.
2011–2012 In 2011, Gala performed the new single "Lose Yourself in Me" at the show
Dance in the Summer in Beirut, next to
Taio Cruz,
T-Pain,
Dev and
Dash Berlin. The event was organised by
MixFM Radio and "Lose Yourself in Me" reached No. 2 in the top 10 airplay charts before its release, later ranking at No. 1 in Lebanon RFX Radio for three consecutive weeks. The worldwide release of the "Lose Yourself in Me" single occurred in May 2012 through Gala's independent label Matriarchy Records. The song has been played, among other stations, on
Fun Radio and
Radio FG in France. It has been on high rotation on Impact FM and Radio Antipode, and entered the
new releases on Belgium's
Fun Radio. The "Lose Yourself in Me" music video was produced independently by Matriarchy Records in collaboration with The Masses. It was directed by Alistair Legrand, brother of
Beach House's Victoria Legrand. The video featured full LED suits and krump dancers from Los Angeles and was choreographed by Gala. After its release, the video was featured on the home page of
Dailymotion, Yahoo France, The Huffington Post, The Mediateseur, and
Vogue Italia.
2013 In 2013, Gala shot a video for the song "Taste of Me" choreographed by Benoit Swan, artistic director of New York's avant-garde dance company
Cedar Lake, and directed by New York-based French director
Alexandre Moors (
Kanye West's "
Runaway", Blue Caprice). Gala's video features the
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater trained Abdur-Rahim Jackson. The "Taste of Me" video appears as a one single lateral dolly shot that follows five dancers including Gala interacting in an organic dance that constantly moves forward. Inspired by her favourite director
Alfred Hitchcock, Gala wanted to shoot a video that felt like a single take. Another reference was
Eadweard Muybridge and his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion and in motion-picture projection. Different choreographers among Gala's favourites (
Parsons,
Bob Fosse,
Mark Morris) are also subtly referenced in the choreography. The "Taste of Me" video was featured as an exclusive with
Digital Spy, the most popular news and entertainment website in the UK. In Europe the video was revealed exclusively by
Fun Radio Belgique, sister station to
Fun Radio France, the largest group of FM radio stations claiming approximately 3.8 million listeners every day. The deluxe version of the EP includes the original production by
Marcus Bell and remixes by Bimbo Jones, Hoxton Whores, Starkillers and
Almighty Records. In Belgium the "Taste of Me" video was featured in major newspaper
Dernier Heure (online) and Gala appeared on
RTL morning and evening news to speak about her new single. In 2013, Gala's various new songs such as "Lose Yourself in Me", "Taste of Me" and "Love Impossible" were featured on MTV networks hit television shows
Best Ink,
Real World Ex-Plosion, and
Road Rules Extreme Challenge and "
Keeping Up with the Kardashians". "Freed From Desire" was sampled by German band Frida Gold. The song entitled "Liebe ist meine Rebellion" went to No. 4 in the German singles chart. "Freed From Desire" was also covered by
Nouvelle Star "Dana", live on French television and by Greek-Swedish pop star
Elena Paparizou at the
MAD Video Music Awards 2013.
2014 Gala headlined at the
2014 Winter Olympics at
Medals Plaza in
Sochi. The performance was broadcast live on
Europa Plus TV, the largest musical channel in Russia . She performed a one-hour set and debuted her new single, "The Beautiful". Despite the controversy surrounding the Olympics, Gala opened her performance with her 90s hit, "Let A Boy Cry", in support of her gay following. On 20 November InHouse Records label in New York released Gala's EP "The Beautiful", a collaboration with legendary House DJ/ producer
Todd Terry, and a Deluxe EP followed, released on Gala's label Matriarchy Records, which includes remixes by
Todd Terry, Hoxton Whores, Lodge 21, Ryan and Smitty, Midnight Magic and
Lauren Flax.
2015 Gala made a cameo appearance at
Youssou N'Dour's concert for Dakar Ne Dort Pas in
Dakar, Senegal on New Year's Day. The event was televised by Tele Future Media. Through her indie label Matriarchy Records she released the album "Singles V1", a collection of her 2012–2015 singles alongside three some previously unreleased songs. The album contains remixes by
Todd Terry amongst others.
2016 In 2016, Gala recorded an acoustic version of "Freed from Desire" at Les Studios Saint Germain in Paris, for the movie "
Un homme à la hauteur" directed by
Laurent Tirard with
Jean Dujardin (Academy Award Winner for Best Actor 2012 in
The Artist) released in May 2016. In May 2016, a
Wigan Athletic supporter uploaded on YouTube an adaptation of "Freed from Desire" titled 'Will Grigg's on Fire', in recognition of the recent goal-scoring feats of
Will Grigg, a Wigan player. At
UEFA Euro 2016, fans from Northern Ireland, Ireland, Wales and France made their own version of the song for their players. Since then, the song has become a viral football chant.
2017–present Throughout 2017 and 2018, Gala headlined the 'Love the 90s' tour in Spain, with shows for over 20.000 people at the
Palau De Les Arts Reina Sofia in
Valencia, the
Bizkaia Arena in Bilbao
Palau Saint Jordi in Barcelona, the
Wiziink Centre in Madrid, Parque Hermanos Castro in
Gijon La Alcazaba in
Badajoz and Can Fusteret in
Mallorca. In that same year Gala also headlined the
Gay pride party at Teatro Barcelo, as part of the
WorldPride festivities in Madrid in July, and the Highway Festival in Fribourg, Switzerland in December 2017 On 30 June 2018, Gala headlined the Gay Pride concert held in the main square
Plaza De España in Barcelona. Gala wrote and composed two original songs alongside Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Jesse Ruben and Kyle Patrick, "Happiest Day of My Life" mixed by Miles Walker and "Nameless Love" with co-production and mixing by
Andros Rodrigues, for the movie Favola (Fairytale). The movie, a surrealist comedy about gender identity and liberation from social constraints in 1950s America, was written and directed by Sebastiano Mauri and featured
Filippo Timi and Lucia Mascino. The costumes are the result of the collaboration with Fabio Zambernardi, the director of design of
Miu Miu and
Prada. Premiering at the 2018
Torino Film Festival, Favola was screened at the prestigious 45th annual
Flaiano Film Festival in
Pescara in June, where it won the Flaiano Award for best "Opera Prima" The movie soundtrack was released in June 2018. Gala's indie label, Matriarchy Records is releasing the original songs "Happiest Day of My Life" and " Nameless Love" as individual singles on 15 September. Gala has performed at the last game for the qualifications for the
UEFA Euro 2020 (Belgium-Cyprus) live streamed worldwide and was honored by
Eden Hazard on behalf of the National Belgian Football Team, THE RED DEVILS with a national team jersey after her live performance. In 2021, Gala released the song "Parallel Lines". The video is a collaboration with American animator, TED speaker, and free culture activist Nina Paley. Paley is the creator of the animated musical feature film
Sita Sings the Blues, which has been screened in over 200 film festivals and won over 35 international awards (
Berlin International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Independent Spirit Award, New York Critics pick). Her adventures in our broken copyright system led her to produce a series of animated shorts about intellectual freedom. "Parallel Lines" explores the relationship of two lovers who are drifting apart while living under the same roof. A short documentary "Behind The Song" was released soon after shot by Francesca Pagani whose work has been published on
Vice.Us. The documentary speaks about the creative process behind the songwriting and the reason why Gala felt the urge to release the song during current pandemic times. It features parts of Parallel Lines's music video, and of Nina Paley's other award-winning animations. In March 2021, Gala was interviewed by
Rolling Stone Italy and
Rolling Stone Mexico. Both articles discussed her new release and featured the video of "Parallel Lines". Gala performed "Freed from Desire" at the
women's football final at the
2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. In 2025, she performed it during
EXIT Festival's opening ceremony in support of
student-lead protests. ==Other work==