Gioia Bruno

Gioia Bruno (born Carmen Gioia Bruno 1963 June 11, sometimes professionally credited as just Gioia) is a popular music singer, most noted as a member of the vocal group Exposé.

Bruno was born in Bari, Italy, during a vacation her parents took. She was raised in New Jersey. At the age of 16, she started singing in night clubs with bands. Sometime later, she decided to move to Florida.

When performing at the Gee Wiz nightclub in Miami, Florida, she was approached by Frank Diaz, of Pantera Group Enterprises, who offered her a role in Exposé. After over nine months of recruitment attempts, Bruno finally accepted the offer and ended up joining the group.

In 1990, a benign throat tumor ended up putting her singing career on hiatus. An operation was considered but rejected by Bruno since it could possibly permanently damage her vocal cords. She was forced to cut short the "What You Don't Know" tour in August 1990, just before Exposé was slated to perform at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis, Massachusetts. She left Exposé in 1991 (though fans in the Exposé fan club were not told until mid-1992, shortly before the release of the next album).

Bruno ended up co-founding the West Broward Performing Arts Academy in Florida. After much vocal retraining and development. She went back to singing, and for a few years was the singer in the band Wet, with her friend John Thomas. She performed in WET for a few years, then left the group to work on a solo career and song writing. She worked on writing songs with Ritchie Supa. She then worked with Richie Sambora, performing both background vocals and percussion for his solo tour.

Her first solo single was the Anthem "Free To Be" Topped charts across the U.S. & Canada. Her second single "From The Inside" was prominently featured on the prime time cable series "Queer As Folk." Bruno gained more new fans and success after it was featured on one of the QAF soundtrack. Her third solo single "Wrecking My Nerves", produced by Chris Cox, saw similar success in the dance music community. After several years of trial and error, in 2004, her first album, Expose This, was released on Koch Records. The albums two singles, "Be Mine" and "Incredible" , making the Top 30 on the Billboards's Hot Dance Music/Club Play. Expose This sold moderately among dance music lovers and fans of Exposé. Bruno also co-produced and sang lead vocals on Will To Power (band)'s 2005 remake of Dreamin' (again) which hit the #1 position on most US dance charts and dance radio stations, including WMPH 91.7 where it remained #1 for many months.

In January 2006, she admitted to being bisexual on the Q Television Network show Brunch. [1][2]

In September 2006, Bruno stopped touring as a solo artist[3] and reunited with Exposé with members Curless and Jurado after a 15 year hiatus. She continues to release solo music projects independently, including singles such as "Why Did You Call Me Again", co-produced by original Exposé producer Lewis Martinee, and a remake of the Kenny Loggins song "This is it", produced by Anila R. Monterrey & Eric Nunez.

Bruno has been married and divorced three times. She has a daughter from her first marriage to Joseph Pastore, Brianna Bruno, who was born in 1988. In January 2006, she admitted to being bisexual on the Q Television Network show Brunch. [4][5]

External links

• Gioia's Official Web Site
• Gioia's MySpace Entry
• Official Press Release Stating Return of Exposé -- Includes downloadable Podcast featuring Bruno
• Part one of Gioia Bruno Interview with Lydia Marcus of AfterEllen
• Part two of Gioia Bruno Interview with Lydia Marcus of AfterEllen
• Part one of Gioia Bruno Interview with John R. Troy of Exposé Epistle
• Part two of Gioia Bruno Interview with John R. Troy of Exposé Epistle

This article is based on a GNU FDL LGBT Wikia article: Bruno Gioia Bruno

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