Lu Colombo was born into a family of art and music lovers. Encouraged by her mother and father, she began experimenting with music and painting as a young child, later pursuing classical studies and earning a degree in literature. In the sixties, she started singing and playing guitar, recording as a backing vocalist with the band Stormy Six and as a member of the trio Plastic Doves. In the seventies, she entered the theatre scene, writing and editing soundtracks, as well as working in a music and film editing studio and composing and performing advertising jingles. In the same period, she worked at a music magazine as a graphic designer and as an assistant to the photographer Giovanni Molino. In 1981, she released the single
Maracaibo on the Carosello label. In 1982, the song was mixed by Tony Carrasco and rereleased on Moon Records, along with her other single
Skipper. In 1983, she signed a contract with the Italian EMI label and released the single
Dance All Nite, performing it at the 1983 edition of
Festivalbar, a popular live-music performance television show, and winning the
Disco Estate song competition
. Dance All Nite and
Maracaibo were both featured in the soundtrack for the film
Vacanze di Natale (1983, dir.
Carlo Vanzina). In 1984, she returned to
Festivalbar, performing her new song
Aurora. In 1985, she was invited to
Festivalbar again, after winning the Saint Vincent Festival, with her song
Rimini Ouagadougou. In the late eighties, she slowly left the dance-music scene, and in the nineties, she moved abroad to dedicate herself to mural painting. In 2001, Lu released the album
Maracaibo 20th Anniversary for label Self Distribuzione, and in 2011 she released a reggae version of
Maracaibo for a
30th Anniversary album. In 2004 she returned to writing and performing original music, joining Maurizio Geri on the swing album ''L'uovo di Colombo
(Trimurti Records), as well as recording new versions of the songs Rimini-Ouagadougou
and Gina
. Lu premiered her new album at the Mantova Music Festival, at Midem, at Womex and at MEI. In 2008, she produced and performed 19 giorni e 600 notti
(cover of 19 días y 500 noches
by Joaquín Sabina) in Pan Brumisti’s album Quelle piccola cose'', presented at the Tenco Award. In 2009, she collaborated with the Brescian musical group The The on their album
Lupai, consisting of dance covers from the sixties and seventies. The album was distributed on newsstands, and proceeds financed humanitarian initiatives in Guatemala and Ghana. In 2012, she released the album
Molto più di un buon motivo (Artup Records), in which she interprets twelve songs by Joaquín Sabina, all translated into Italian by Sergio S. Sacchi of Club Tenco, including
19 giorni e 600 notti and an interpretation of
De purisima y oro. In 2014, Lu travelled to Barcelona, Spain, to join the group Tinta Roja for a concert in the program of Cose di Amilcaree, later meeting Joaquín Sabina in Madrid. Between 2010 and 2020, she performed in numerous events, concerts and projects, including a tribute to Gabriella Ferri recorded with the winds section of the alternative circus act Circo Paniko. She then composed the song
Bambu balla with the accordionist Jovica Jovic, winning fifth place at the 2014 edition of
Zecchino d'Oro, an international children's song competition. Lu also contributed to book/cd compilations
Mutifilter and
Ventanni di sessantotto for publisher Squilibri Editore, performing these songs in Florence and at the Palazzina Liberty in Milan. In 2016, she released the EP
Basta with four songs on the subject of violence against women, including a translation and interpretation of
I will survive by Gloria Gayner
. While writing and performing this album, she participated in various social and humanitarian initiatives related to the struggle to end violence against women. In early 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown in Milan, Italy, she composed, recorded, and published the song
Ali ali, dedicated to all health workers saving lives and the public services fighting the virus, performing it from her balcony. A second version of this song, entitled
Ali ali phase 2, was later recorded with Luca Pozzuoli. For 25 April 2020, the day of Italy's liberation and the end of
World War II, she wrote the song
Neve al sole in collaboration with Silvio Meazza, dedicating the piece to her father, who was a prisoner of war. Later that year she performed as percussionist on the song
Danza featuring Tony Esposito. Since late-2020 she Lu has been collaborating with dj’s Max Monti and Claudio Coveri on a dance remix of her 80s’s hit
Rimini Ouagadougou. It will be released in summer 2021. ==Discography==