Photo by Carolina Leal for Gentemusic Management.
Audio By Carbonatix
When Laura Pausini laughs, you can hear the warmth of someone who has loved deeply, lost profoundly, and sung through it all. At 51, the Italian superstar still radiates the sincerity that first captivated audiences when she was a teenager, winning Sanremo with “La Solitudine.” Now, three decades later, she’s being honored with the Billboard Icon Award, a recognition that surprises even her.
“It’s an incredible honor,” Pausini says, smiling through the screen. “I didn’t expect it. Especially in a year when I’ve been recording a tribute album for the songwriters who inspired me throughout my 32 years traveling through Latin America and Spain. To receive this award now, when I’m thinking only about Latin music, it feels like destiny.”
The award crowns a whirlwind year. In February, she co-hosted Premio Lo Nuestro with effortless charm. She performed “Se Fue” with Rauw Alejandro in Rome, lent her voice to FIFA’s first official anthem “Desire” alongside Robbie Williams, sang with Alanis Morissette, and, on September 7, opened her own museum in her hometown of Solarolo, Ravenna.
A Museum of Memories
Pausini insists turning her childhood home into a museum wasn’t her idea. “I’m not that egocentric,” she laughs. “It was my father’s dream. He’s been president of my official fan club for 30 years, and with more than 30,000 members, they convinced me to open our home, the place where I was born and raised.”
Inside the Museo Laura Pausini, visitors wander through rooms filled with handwritten lyrics, childhood diaries, and the letters she wrote to “Marco,” the mysterious first love immortalized in “La Solitudine” and “Se Fue.”
“My parents found things in the attic I hadn’t seen in decades,” she says. “Old dresses, stage scripts, fan letters… We even turned the kitchen into a room displaying my outfits from TV shows and tours.”
Another room showcases the trophies she has earned over her storied career, including a space reserved for her new Billboard Icon Award. “I want people to touch them,” she says softly. “When I win something, I never want to keep it for myself. It belongs to everyone who has shared this journey with me.”
The Songs That Made Her
Each song marks a chapter, a love lost, a lesson learned, a rebirth. Her first hit, “La Solitudine” (“The Loneliness”), remains the foundation of everything. She was 18 when she sang it at Sanremo, trembling before a national audience.
“It was a true story,” she recalls. “My first boyfriend had left me, and I was devastated. That’s why people felt it was real.” When she translated the song into Spanish, everything changed.
“I had sung Gloria Estefan songs with my father in piano bars, so I already loved the language,” she says. “I asked the label to let me record a whole album in Spanish. That decision changed my life completely.”
“Se Fue” became an anthem for broken hearts across Latin America. “People tell me they cried to that song,” she laughs. “And I tell them: me too! I had to live everything I sang.”
Last year, she revisited it with Rauw Alejandro. “We had so much fun,” she says. “Now I sing it with gratitude instead of sadness.” Then came ‘En Cambio No’ (2008), written with her now-husband Paolo Carta after the death of her grandmother.
“She waited for me to come home,” Pausini says. “When I held her hand, she said my name and became an angel. That song helped me understand grief and love in a new way.” For Pausini, its message transcends music. “It’s an invitation,” she explains. “Don’t wait to tell people you love them. Speak, even if it’s hard. Hiding emotions helps no one.”
Few cities have meant as much to Pausini as Miami, the city where her Latin journey truly began. “I won my first Premio Lo Nuestro there,” she recalls. “I had no stylist, no makeup artist, no hairdresser, nothing! But I learned that what matters is the song, not the dress.”
Since then, Miami has become her second home. She served as a coach on La Banda, bought a house in the city, and will celebrate her 52nd birthday here next May during her Yo Canto World Tour at Kaseya Center.
“I’ll be performing on May 16, my birthday!” she beams. “I wanted to celebrate it here, where I have so many friends.” The tour kicks off in March 2026 with stops in Spain, Latin America, the U.S., and Brazil before returning to Italy for massive stadium shows.
“Live concerts are the soul of what I do,” she says. “Each show is a meeting between my heart and the audience. After thirty years, I still feel nervous before I walk onstage.”
For Pausini, Latin America isn’t just a market, it’s home. “When I sing in Spanish, I feel free,” she says. “That audience taught me what honesty and emotion really mean.”
It’s no coincidence she’ll share the Billboard stage this October in Miami with Gloria Estefan, the artist who first inspired her to learn Spanish. “Gloria is the reason I fell in love with the language,” Pausini says. “When I finally met her, she treated me like family. We’ve sung together many times since, and every time it feels like coming home.”
From Golden Globes to Gratitude
Her humility remains intact even after achieving the unimaginable. In 2021, Pausini won a Golden Globe and received an Oscar nomination for “Io Sì (Seen),” written by Diane Warren for the Sophia Loren film The Life Ahead.
“I never dreamed of fame,” she says. “To be nominated for an Oscar, for a song in Italian, was unthinkable. But Sophia Loren herself called me. That was surreal.”
As she prepares to receive the Billboard Icon Award, Pausini reflects on growth, not just as an artist, but as a woman. “When you’re young, you express feelings simply, maybe without the right words,” she says. “But as you grow, life gives you depth. You learn from people, from love, from loss. And you realize the only thing that matters is staying curious.” She smiles.
“My eyes are still curious after 32 years,” she says. “That’s how I know I’m alive.”
Billboard Latin Music Awards 2025. 8 p.m.Thursday, October 23, at James L. Knight Center, 400 SE Second Ave., Miami; 305-416-5970; jlkc.com. Tickets start at $44 via Ticketmaster. Broadcast live on Telemundo and Peacock.
