Music / Giulietta

I cast a spell on you...

Giulietta Russo (born 12 November 1992), known as just Giulietta, is an Australian dance-pop and R&B singer from Melbourne. She is also a dancer, actress and model who previously trained at NIDA.

She first came to prominence in 2008 after contributing vocals to the Marcus Knight club track "Dirty House Music". The song peaked at number four on the Beatport charts and entered the Australian ARIA Dance Charts twice. While she continued to sing on other club tracks such as "Venus", "Save Me", "Take Your Mind There" and "Give It Up", it was "Dirty House Music" and its underground success that caught the attention of US producer David Kershenbaum (a producer for artists such as Duran Duran, Tori Amos, Tracy Chapman and Cat Stevens as well as being responsible for signing Janet Jackson and Bryan Adams) — leading him to produce nine tracks for her debut album Ascension, released in 2010.

In November 2009, a little way from the album's release, Giulietta won ‘International Pop Artist of the Year Award’, ‘Producers Choice Award’ and a ‘Hollywood Walk of Fame Award’ at the Los Angeles Music Awards which took place in Hollywood. She later became the first Australian unsigned artist to reach the top 20 of the Billboard dance charts with the album's sole single, "Vertigo", which peaked at #16.

Apart from releasing her debut album in 2010, Giulietta supported Lloyd Banks (fom 50 Cent's posse G-Unit) while he was doing shows in Melbourne and also opened for the likes of Akon, Ja Rule, Ciara, FloRida, Stan Walker and Travie McCoy in the Melbourne leg of the Australian R&B and Hip-Hop festival Summerbeatz. She also contributed scratch vocals on demo tapes for a possible Ciara album.

Her second studio album, a free set distributed through SoundCloud titled 911: Code Pink, was released in July 2012. Her third album, XXVI, was released in early 2015 (though good luck trying to find it). Her fourth album, Bandit, was released in November 2016. New music has been in development since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Singles discography:

• Dirty House Music (2008)
• Vertigo (2010)
  • Skynet Remix featuring E.Cov (2010)
• Like a Ghost (2011)
• Pixelated (2011)
  • Jeremy Word Remix (2012)
• When December Comes (2011) (a Christmas song)
• VooDoo (2012)
• Pretty in Pink (2012)
• @2AM (feat. Raz B) (2012)
• No Where (feat. Tay Dizm) (2013)
• No De$$ert (2013)
• Not Enough (2014)
• Uptown (2014)
• Over (2014)
• She Ain't Like Me (2015)
• Real 1 (2015)

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Other music videos:

• Compliments (2011) (Kevin McCall cover)
• How to Love (2011) (Lil Wayne cover)
• Save Me (2011) (Nicki Minaj cover)
• Who You Are (2011) (Jessie J cover)
• H.Y.F.R and Doing It Wrong (2012) (Drake cover medley)
• Drunk On Love (2012) (Rihanna cover)
• Never Again (2012) (Trey Songz cover)

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Albums discography:

• Ascension (2010)
• 911: Code Pink (2012)
• XXVI (2015)
• Bandit (2016)

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This musician contains examples of:

• Age-Inappropriate Art: Barely. She was singing about clubs when she was only slightly too young to get in one. Giulietta herself even said that there were only a few venues she could perform at early in her career because they were restricted to either those over eighteen (in Australia) or those over twenty-one (in America). However, iLounge in Orange County, California did let her perform a set at their venue when she was sixteen.
• Auto-Tune: Giulietta herself isn't really subject to this, but a few of her collaborators in 911: Code Pink are — most noticeably Raz B in "@2AM".
• Be Yourself: "Pretty In Pink", "Unbeatable" and traces of "Ascension". "Unbeatable" also overlaps with Pep-Talk Song (to both herself and the audience).
• Boastful Rap / Badass Boast: Billionare's rap in "Audio Slave", and both Giulietta and Mick Stillz's verses in "Zombie".
• Book Ends: The video for “Vertigo” (officially) begins and ends in the same dining room.
• Break Up Song: "Vertigo", "Pixelated", "Walk Away", "Here We Go Again", "No Where".
• Call-Back: The intro to 911: Code Pink features a snippet of the Dave Audé remix of "Vertigo".
• Cannot Spit It Out: The song's subject in "Lemme Know".
  • Also, Giulietta herself in "Excuse Me" exhibits shades of this.
• Cluster F-Bomb: There was mild swearing on her debut, but she goes to town with it on 911: Code Pink.
• Cool Shades: She's been known to don dark sunglasses, especially in her photoshoots.
• Cover Version: Of Nicki Minaj's "Save Me" (not to be confused with one of Ascension's bonus tracks) and Jessie J's "Who You Are".
  • The Cover Changes the Gender: Her covers of Kevin McCall's "Compliments", Lil Wayne's "How To Love" and a medley of Drake's "HYFR" and "Doing it Wrong".
  • "Venus" samples the song by Shocking Blue (later covered by Bananarama) and "Give It Up" samples the KC and the Sunshine Band song of the same name.
• Darker and Edgier: Though Ascension was by no means kiddie-pop, 911: Code Pink managed to be this to its predecessor.
• Eating the Eye Candy: "Girlfriend Button", "S.M.W.Y.G".
• Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: She wears loads and loads of jewellery. It's pretty much an integral part of her image.
• Exhort the Disc Jockey Song: "Hands Up".
• Fangirl: Is very sweet on Chris Brown. Also, judging by this reaction to a certain tweet, it seems she's also one of Mariah Carey.
• Fiery Redhead: From 2008-2011.
• Flipping the Bird: Has done this a lot over the course of 2012, like when posing for photos on Instagram and such.
• Freaky Fashion, Mild Mind
• Green-Eyed Monster: She's acting like one in "Girlfriend", and she sings about those who envy her in "Zombie".
• Heartbeat Soundtrack: In "VooDoo".
• Incredibly Long Note: In "Take Your Mind There".
• In Da Club: "Dirty House Music" has the looped lyric about rocking a disco, and "Save Me" has one about wanting to be saved on a dancefloor.
  • In "Girlfriend":
  If I was your girlfriend/imagine rocking all up on me on the dancefloor all night
  • In "Here We Go Again":
  She can teach you a thing or two or even three/just know that she will kill the club
  • This is pretty much the entire subject of "Hands Up" and "@2AM". "Zombie" takes place in one.
• Intercourse with You: "Girlfriend Button", "No De$$ert", implied in "Audio Slave".
• Looped Lyrics:
  I love dirty dirty house music, I-I rock a disco, I-I-I rock a disco, disco...
  Save me on the dancefloor, save-save-save...
• Lyric Swap: In the acoustic version of her single "Vertigo", she swaps the lyric "time to tell the truth" for "learn to tell the truth".
• Melismatic Vocals: Uses melisma in her songs a lot. She also cites Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Céline Dion as early influences.
• Music Video Credits Sequence: At the end of "Vertigo".
• Rambunctious Italian: And HOW.
• Record Producer: David Kershenbaum worked with her for the majority of Ascension, while Australian producer Simmy assumed this position with 911: Code Pink.
• Re-release the Song: "Soldier", which featured on both XXVI and Bandit.
• Rock-Star Song: "Ascension", though it overlaps with the "I Want" Song and Follow Your Heart.
• Silly Love Songs: "Excuse Me" (where the protagonist sings about trying to be cool around her crush), "Press Rewind" (about trying to make a relationship work), "Bandit".
• Singer Namedrop: The MC drops Giulietta's name in "Lemme Know", "Excuse Me" and "Hands Up".
  • In the mixtape there's also namedropping in "Planet X" and "Audio Slave".
• Spelling Song: "Zombie":
  Z.O.M.B.I.E
  You envy me!
• Spoken Word in Music: There is a distorted male voice in "Vertigo" and "Pretty in Pink" while "Planet X" begins with a robotic female voice.
  • "Owh!" ends with a spoken soundbite of her praising and comparing herself to Katy Perry.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She's Ice onstage, Sugar offstage.
• This Is the Part Where...: Sung word-for-word in "@2AM":
  This is the part where the beat breaks down
  The beat breaks down and the crowd goes wild
• Three Minutes of Writhing: Five in the case of the videos for "Vertigo" and "Pixelated".
• Title Track:
  Make some room for me, cos this is my ascension...
  • “Bandit” is the one for its parent album.
• Trailers Always Spoil: A few days before the release of 911: Code Pink, Giulietta stated on her Facebook and Twitter profiles that there would be a hidden bonus track with a surprise guest. In her "Thank You" video (meant to act as a trailer) posted to YouTube the night before the album's release, she said that the album's bonus track was a remix of "Pixelated" by Ron Carroll.
• Uncanny Valley Makeup: Probably in an effort to become Australia's answer to Lady Gaga. This is especially noticeable in the video for "Vertigo".
• Unplugged Version: Her YouTube channel is full of acoustic versions of covers and originals.
• Video Full of Film Clips: Her video for the acoustic version of "Ascension" contains clips of her doing appearances, recording, etc.
• A Wild Rapper Appears!: A random unnamed MC appears in "Lemme Know", "Excuse Me" and "Hands Up".
  • E.Cov and Mr. Focus also contribute verses to the Skynet remix of "Vertigo".
  • Heck, 911: Code Pink is made of this trope. It features appearances fom Raz B, Dall Diamond, Mick Stillz, Mr Focus, Envy, Billionare and Tay Dizm (who also features in "No Where").

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