Cupid’s arrow hits Luciana
It’s turning into something of a banner year for Luciana. After years of lending her signature ‘shouty’ vocal to a seemingly endless string of underground dance tracks, the UK’s reigning club queen has crossed over to the mainstream and carved out a niche as the go-to woman for dance music’s hottest producers.
In the past year Luciana has scored four big hits on the ARIA club chart, including her double platinum collaboration with Static Revenger and Richard Vission, I Like That. The prolific diva is still shocked by the song’s popularity in Australia.
“It got to number two or number three. We got platinum discs. It’s crazy,” she told Sydney Star Observer.
“Australia was the first place to take it and now America is just starting. So hopefully that will happen and England has just signed it as well.”
The local success of I Like That helped Luciana score a record deal with Interscope Records, the home of pop heavyweights like Lady Gaga and Gwen Stefani.
“The funny thing is we went to Interscope a year ago and nothing happened. I was like, ‘That’s a bit weird’. Flew us out there, wanted to meet me, nothing happened and now here we are. [I] just got signed and am working on an EP and writing for other artists.”
One of those artists is Australia’s favourite pop princess Kylie Minogue. Luciana wrote the track Cupid Boy for the pop icon’s latest album Aphrodite.
“Oh my god! I’m the ultimate Kylie fan! I absolutely love her. And I wanted to get on the last album and that didn’t happen,” she said.
“We got [Cupid Boy] from Sebastian Ingrosso from Swedish House Mafia and we were like, ‘This is such a fabulous backing track that we need to make sure that what we do over it is amazing’, and we worked and worked and edited and edited, and then right at the last minute they chose the song. Oh god, it was a moment.”
Luciana has even been called back to write songs for the impending re-release of Aphrodite.
“I’m actually writing with Sarah Harding at the moment from Girls Aloud. She’s down the studio. And she’s lovely. She’s got a great voice and we’re just writing some tracks together. And when we go to America we’re gonna do some stuff with Nicole Scherzinger.”
Given the way I Like That is catching on in America — already a top 40 hit on pop airplay and rapidly climbing the iTunes top 200 countdown — Luciana could be spending a lot of time stateside.
“I’m moving to LA for three months to write and hopefully promote the single. You know, depending on what’s happening,” she said.
“It just got added to MTV Hits, so that’s a really amazing thing. These little things are starting to happen but fingers crossed it’s going to work out.”
That doesn’t mean that Luciana has forgotten about her Australian fans. She is returning to Australia — for the fourth time in 2010 — for a tour in December and even plans to move here permanently.
“Yeah, what I’m thinking is, have an album out, then a child, then move to Australia. Put some flip flops on. Hang. It’s all good!”
info: www.luciana.com
By MIKE MRKIC
