title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: In 2010, British author Alan Shadrake published his book, "Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock", which was critical of the Singapore judicial system. Shadrake was arrested whilst promoting the book in Singapore and later sentenced to six weeks in prison for contempt of court. He is also charged with criminal defamation. The case attracted worldwide attention, putting the Singapore legal system in the spotlight. Shadrake apologised to the court if he had offended the sensitivities of the judiciary and did not mean to undermine the judges or the judiciary, but stood by his book, apart from a mistake contained within. The judge, Quentin Loh, dismissed his apology as "nothing more than a tactical ploy in court to obtain a reduced sentence". Shadrake's conviction for scandalising the court was upheld by the Court of Appeal.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: On 5 October 2018, Singapore carried out three executions of drug traffickers - Zainudin bin Mohamed, Abdul Wahid Bin Ismail, and Mohsen Bin Na’im, it led to the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) and 28 civil society organizations in Asia showing condemnation over the triple hangings, and these groups the death sentence was a grave violation of the right to life, which was "the most fundamental and essential human right for other rights to be realized". They also argued that the executions of Zainudin, Abdul Wahid and Mohsen did not serve any purpose for the island-state and its citizens in terms of fulfilling the ends of justice.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: In March 2022, when Singapore dismissed the final appeal of Malaysian death row prisoner Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam and later authorized the execution of Singaporean drug convict Abdul Kahar Othman, which was its first execution during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 400 Singaporeans, including rights activists Jolovan Wham, Kirsten Han and Kokila Annamalai, who took part in a protest against the government's use of the death penalty at Hong Lim Park. With regards to Abdul Kahar's execution, the European Union (EU) condemned it and stated that capital punishment is a cruel and inhumane punishment, which not only failed to deter crime but also defied both humanity's dignity and integrity. Two days prior to Nagaenthran's execution (which took place on 27 April 2022), a candlelight vigil was held on his behalf.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: In December 2005, the Law Society revealed that it has set up a committee, named "Review Committee on Capital Punishment", to examine capital punishment in the country. The President of the Society, Senior Counsel Philip Jeyaretnam, said that the main focus of the review was on issues regarding administering the death penalty such as whether it should be mandatory. A report of the review would be submitted to the Ministry of Law. On 6 November 2006, they were invited to give its views on proposed amendments to the Penal Code to the Ministry of Home Affairs. In their report, issued on 30 March 2007, they argued against the mandatory death penalty:


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: The death penalty should be discretionary for the offences where the death sentence is mandatory – murder, drug trafficking, firearms offences and sedition – a position similar to that for the offence of kidnapping. There are strong arguments for changing the mandatory nature of capital punishment in Singapore. Judges should be given the discretion to impose the death penalty only where deemed appropriate.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: The Singapore government states that the death penalty is only used in the most serious of crimes, sending, they say, a strong message to potential offenders. They point out that in 1994 and 1999 the United Nations General Assembly failed to adopt United Nations resolutions calling for a moratorium on the death penalty worldwide, as a majority of countries opposed such a move.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: Singapore's Permanent Representative to the United Nations wrote a letter to the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions in 2001 which stated:


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: In January 2004, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a response to Amnesty International's report, "Singapore: The death penalty - A hidden toll of executions". It defended Singapore's policy to retain the death penalty, predicating its arguments on, among others, the following grounds:


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: The Ministry of Home Affairs also refuted Amnesty International's claims of the majority of the executed being foreigners, and that it was "mostly the poor, least educated, and vulnerable people who are executed". The Ministry stated: "Singaporeans, and not foreigners, were the majority of those executed... Of those executed from 1993 to 2003, 95% were above 21 years of age, and 80% had received formal education. About 80% of those who had been sentenced to capital punishment had employment before their convictions."


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: Following the hanging of Van Tuong Nguyen in 2005, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reiterated the government's position, stating that "The evil inflicted on thousands of people with drug trafficking demands that we must tackle the source by punishing the traffickers rather than trying to pick up the pieces afterwards... It's a law which is approved of by Singapore's inhabitants and which allows us to reduce the drug problem."


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: In October 2020, Law Minister K. Shanmugam emphasised that the death penalty is a powerful deterrent to capital crimes in Singapore. He cited the statistics of the rate of firearms-related offences and kidnapping cases had dropped dramatically after the introduction of the death penalty as evidence of its deterrence. Shanmugam also cited that after the government mandates the death penalty since 1991, the average net amount of opium trafficked dropped by 66% and many drug traffickers are illegally transporting less and less amounts of drugs to avoid the punishment. The government conducted surveys on Singaporeans and non-Singaporeans, and the majority of both groups responded that the death penalty is more effective than life imprisonment in discouraging people from committing capital offences.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: During a June 2022 BBC interview, Shanmugam, who was asked by the host and journalist Stephen Sackur regarding the death penalty for drugs, stated that the death penalty in Singapore was the right punishment adopted by the government to protect Singaporeans and save lives. He also cited a 2021 report by the World Health Organisation that showed there were 500,000 deaths linked to drug abuse in just one year. Shanmugam added that in the 1990s, Singapore was arresting about 6,000 people a year for drugs, but this has now dropped to about 3,000 people a year. He stated that it goes to show how the draconian laws deployed by Singapore on narcotics offences has safeguarded the lives of many locals and maintains a safe society in Singapore. The death penalty response by Shanmugam during the BBC interview was well-received and supported by many members of the public on social media, who also voiced their support for capital punishment for drugs in Singapore.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: In light of the execution of Abdul Rahim Shapiee (and his accomplice), Pritam Singh, opposition leader of Parliament and chairman of Workers' Party, wrote to Singapore newspaper Today to express his support for the death penalty for drug crimes in Singapore and the execution of drug traffickers. Singh nonetheless argued that there should be changes made to rectify the shortcomings in determining the extent of one's cooperation with the authorities during investigations before sentencing, citing cases of traffickers receiving death sentences before courts decided they were couriers and could sentence them for life, as well as cases like Abdul Rahim's, who was sentenced to death despite being a courier and having provided substantive assistance. Singh also expressed concern about the need to curb the frequent abuse of court processes by drug traffickers and their lawyers.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) revealed that from 2013 to early 2022, certificates of substantive assistance were issued to 82 out of 104 drug traffickers regardless of nationality, while there were 14 out of the remaining 22 sentenced to death and the other eight traffickers sentenced to life imprisonment due to mental illnesses. Another data revealed that 78% of the traffickers were not subjected to capital punishment despite having brought drugs exceeding the capital threshold, as a reslt of plea bargains to reduce their capital charges or certifications for substantive assistance.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: In 2002, Singapore tried to negotiate with Australia for the extradition of a British murder suspect and fugitive Michael McCrea, who was wanted for the double murder of a couple whose corpses were discovered abandoned in a car at Orchard Towers. However, McCrea, who was arrested in Australia, was not extradited as Australia, which abolished the death penalty for all offences by then, was not legally allowed to extradite suspects back to countries where they would face the death sentence. It was only after Singapore gave the Australian government the assurance that McCrea would not be hanged even if he was convicted of murder, which allowed McCrea to be sent back to Singapore for trial. McCrea was eventually convicted of culpable homicide and destroying evidence of a murder case, and sentenced to a total of 24 years in jail. This left an impact and precedent on Singapore's avenues to successfully negotiating for extradition of suspects from countries where the death penalty or caning was not practiced, including the extradition of suspected bank robber David James Roach, whom the Singapore government promised would not face caning for robbery. Roach was eventually sent back to Singapore, where he later served five years in prison, and he was pardoned from caning by President Halimah Yacob.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: In 2012, a number of American elected officials and office-seekers suggested that Singapore's success in combating drug abuse should be examined as a model for the United States. Michael Bloomberg, a former Mayor of New York City, said that the United States could learn a thing or two from nations like Singapore when it came to drug trafficking, noting that "executing a handful of people saves thousands and thousands of lives." The last execution in New York took place in 1963. Several courts have ruled that the death penalty violates the New York Constitution (see "People v. LaValle"). In 2007, the state of New York abolished the death penalty. 22 states, plus Washington D.C., have abolished the death penalty, with the most recent being Virginia in 2021. However, certain states, such as Texas and Georgia, still regularly execute prisoners for aggravated murder.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: Former presidential candidate Newt Gingrich repeated his longstanding advocacy for Singaporean methods in the United States' War on Drugs during campaign interviews and speeches.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: The following table of executions was compiled by Amnesty International from several sources, including statistics supplied by the Ministry of Home Affairs in January 2001 and government figures reported to Agence France-Presse in September 2003. Numbers in curly brackets are the number of foreign citizens executed, according to information disclosed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: Detailed statistics were not released by the Singapore government between 2000 and 2006. Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong told the BBC in September 2003 that he believed there were "in the region of about 70 to 80" hangings in 2003. Two days later he retracted his statement, saying the number was in fact ten.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: While no information is issued on the race and ethnicity of death row inmates, it was noted in 2021, during an appeal from a number of Malay death row inmates who alleged racism on the part of the government, that there were a large number of Malays among those on death row, with only handfuls of other minority races. Between 2010 and 2021, Malays made up 66 of the 120 prosecuted for capital drug offences, with 76% of cases concluding with the death sentence. 50 out of 77 people sentenced to death between 2010 and 2021 were Malays, with a remaining 15 Indians, 10 Chinese and two from other races. Since 2010, of all the 77 sentenced to death, there were 14 Malaysians being condemned to death row, with eleven of them ethnic Indians, two Malays and one Chinese.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: Former chief executioner, Darshan Singh, stated that he had executed more than 850 people during his service, which began in 1959. When conducting the executions, he would use the phrase: "I am going to send you to a better place than this. God bless you." At one point, Singh executed 18 people on one day; these 18 people were among the 58 rioters who killed four prison officers while they were serving their jail terms in a Pulau Senang island prison in 1963. Singh also said that he has hanged seven people within 90 minutes; these seven men were the culprits of the 1971 Gold Bars triple murders, in which a businessman and illegal gold trader was killed together with his driver and colleague over a total of 120 gold bars.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: Executions peaked between 1994 and 1998; Singapore had the second highest per-capita execution rate in the world during this period, estimated by the United Nations to be 13.83 executions annually per one million people, just behind Turkmenistan with 14.92. Since then, executions have become far less common, with some years having no executions at all. For example, no one was executed in 2012 and 2013, and two persons were executed in 2014. Nevertheless, in the late 2010s, the number of executions has started to increase again: in 2018, 13 people were executed, the most since at least 2003. and four people (including two unreported executions) were hanged in 2019. No one has been executed from the start of 2020 to August 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore. The first person to be sentenced to death during the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore was Punithan Genasan, a 37-year-old Malaysian who was also the first to be sentenced to death on 15 May 2020 via a remote court hearing on Zoom. Punithan, who was convicted of drug trafficking, was later acquitted on 31 October 2022 upon appeal. The first fully virtual court hearing of a capital case was made via Zoom on 23 April 2020, when the Court of Appeal acquitted 27-year-old Singaporean drug suspect Mohammad Azli Mohammad Salleh and dismissed both his drug charge and his death sentence.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: There were originally two executions scheduled for drug traffickers Syed Suhail bin Syed Zin and Mohd Fadzir bin Mustaffa on 18 September 2020 and 24 September 2020 respectively, but they were subsequently postponed due to stays of execution granted pending last-minute appeals against the death sentences. As a result, there was no one executed in 2020. Similarly between January and October 2021, no new execution dates were set for the inmates on Singapore's death row, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and resurgence of community cases.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: The execution of Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam was supposed to be carried out on 10 November 2021, but it was postponed due to Nagaenthran contracting COVID-19. The suspension of Nagaenthran's execution in 2021 also led to no executions being carried out in 2021 itself. There were originally two executions of Roslan Bakar and Pausi Jefridin to be carried out on 16 February 2022 and a third execution of Rosman Abdullah on 23 February 2022 before they were postponed due to the men's appeals. Due to the increasing notices of executions being revealed publicly, there were lingering concerns from civil groups and international figures that Singapore might resume executions to accommodate the growing death row inmate population at Changi Prison.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: The first death row prisoner to be hanged in Singapore during the COVID-19 pandemic was 68-year-old Singaporean drug offender Abdul Kahar Othman on 30 March 2022, who had not appealed against his sentence and later executed as scheduled, therefore resuming executions in Singapore. By the time Abdul Kahar was executed, there were 62 prisoners on death row, awaiting execution (reduced to 61 with Nagaenthran's execution). Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam was the second to be hanged on 27 April 2022 after Abdul Kahar. Datchinamurthy Kataiah was originally the third in line to be executed on 29 April 2022 after Nagaenthran before his execution was postponed due to an appeal. On 7 July 2022, Kalwant Singh Jogindar Singh and Norasharee Gous became the third and fourth convicts to be hanged in Singapore in 2022. In the same month, Nazeri Lajim was executed 15 days after Kalwant and Norasharee. Three more hangings - one on 26 July and two (Malaysian Rahmat Karimon and his accomplice Zainal Hamad) on 2 August - were conducted after Nazeri's execution. On 5 August 2022, 45-year-old Singaporean Abdul Rahim Shapiee and his 49-year-old accomplice Ong Seow Ping were the ninth and tenth to be executed. A 55-year-old Singaporean, whose name is unknown, was the eleventh to be executed for a drug charge on 7 October 2022.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: The people on death row include foreign nationals, many of whom were convicted of drug-related offences. These inmates come from a diverse range of countries, including the United States, Australia, Bangladesh, China, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam. Figures released by the Singapore government show that between 1993 and 2003, 36% of those executed were foreigners, including some residents in Singapore (half of Singapore residents are foreigners).


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: In 2016, Singaporean director Boo Junfeng directed and released a film titled "Apprentice", starring Firdaus Rahman and Wan Hanafi Su. The film, which narrates the fictional story of newly appointed prison officer and executioner Aiman Yusof, touched on the subject of the death penalty in Singapore and an executioner's perspective of the practice, as well as the experiences and ostracisation of the families when their loved ones were tried and executed. The director also revealed that he had gathered information through interviews of the retired executioners, imams and priests who counselled the death row inmates, and also the families of the executed prisoners while producing the film. The film, which was released in several international film festivals, was met with positive public responses and it attracted both nominations and awards for the director and production team.


title: Capital punishment in Singapore

text: In Singapore, there were local crime shows like "Crimewatch" and "True Files" which re-enact the real-life crimes in Singapore. Among these cases, there were murder and drug trafficking cases which attract the death penalty in the city-state. Often, the re-enactments of these capital cases would also show the final verdicts of the convicts, where it revealed the dates of their sentencing and/or executions. Notably, executed criminals like English serial killer John Martin Scripps, notorious wife-killer Anthony Ler and child rapist and killer Adrian Lim and many more had their cases featured in these re-enactment shows since the 1980s till the present.


title: Belladonna (actress)

text: Belladonna (born Michelle Anne Sinclair; May 21, 1981) is an American actress, director, producer, model, and pornographic and erotic actress. She retired from the sex industry in 2008. Since retiring from pornography, she has acted in several films, including "Inherent Vice" and "The Ladies of the House."


title: Belladonna (actress)

text: Michelle Anne Sinclair was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, the second of eight children. She grew up in a traditional conservative Mormon family. Her father, a retired Air Force officer, was a Mormon bishop. The family has German, Scottish, and Cherokee Indian roots.Sinclair dropped out of high school and moved out of her parents' house at 15. Prior to her professional career, she held jobs at 7-11, Victoria's Secret, Sears and Subway.


title: Belladonna (actress)

text: She was introduced to the adult industry when an agent came to Utah to see one of her friends, who introduced him to her. The next day she flew to Los Angeles with the intention of joining the industry. Immediately prior to starting her porn career she was dancing in a club in Utah. The pseudonym "Belladonna" came in part from a friend in Utah named Bella; later, an early agent suggested Bella Donna as it means "beautiful woman" in Italian. Her motivation to join the adult industry was mainly financial.


title: Belladonna (actress)

text: Her career began in 2000 when she was 18. Her first film was "Real Sex Magazine". One of her early films featured Sinclair in a rough group sex scene with twelve men, staged in a prison. She has since appeared in over 300 adult films, including titles such as "Service Animals 6 & 7," "She-Male Domination Nation," "Bella Loves Jenna," "Back 2 Evil," "Weapons of Ass Destruction," and "Fashionistas Safado: The Challenge." In 2002 she featured in the multi award-winning BDSM themed "Fashionistas"; its director John Stagliano described her as "a woman with the most incredible sexual abilities I’ve ever seen." As well as Stagliano she has often been directed by Nacho Vidal, Jules Jordan and Rocco Siffredi. In 2003 she signed a contract with Sineplex, for whom she also directed.


title: Belladonna (actress)

text: She has appeared several times in the reality television series "Family Business", which focuses on the life of porn director Adam Glasser a.k.a. "Seymore Butts". In 2004 she was one of a number of porn stars photographed by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders for a "coffee table book" on the adult industry, "XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits"; she also appears in the HBO documentary "Thinking XXX" about the making of the book.


title: Belladonna (actress)

text: In a 2007 interview with the Salt Lake "City Weekly", Sinclair expressed some regret about aspects of her career in pornography, particularly her early notoriety for performing acts and scenes that many other performers regarded as extreme or taboo. Lamenting the lack of guidance from more experienced actresses, Sinclair described an extended period of clinical depression. Sinclair stressed in this same interview, however, that she took responsibility for all her decisions and that she was never forced to perform.


title: Belladonna (actress)

text: In 2011, she was named by CNBC as one of the 12 most popular stars in porn. CNBC noted that while she had stepped back from acting to pursue directing and producing, she has maintained a loyal fan base, and has been nominated for 42 AVN awards and won 10 in the course of her career.


title: Belladonna (actress)

text: Her career in the pornography business was followed for two years by a crew from ABC Television, culminating in a January 2003 interview with Diane Sawyer as part of a "Primetime Thursday" segment on pornography. At one point in the interview Belladonna broke down in tears, when Sawyer asked her, "You keep describing these awful things that happened to you. Yet, you keep smiling. Why?" Belladonna's smile wavered and her eyes watered up. "It's so I don't start crying," she said.


title: Belladonna (actress)

text: The publicity provided by the interview boosted Belladonna's career. The interview has since been used by a number of anti-pornography groups to support their case that pornography is exploitative of the women who appear in it; nevertheless, Sinclair remained an active performer in the industry. In later interviews, Sinclair claimed that she had never intended to make "anti-porn" statements. In one interview, when she was asked if she were happy with how the interview came out, her reply was, "I am not happy about "Primetime" but I would love to see the whole story air one day so everyone can see how much I had to say that was FOR the porn industry. If you know me you know that I loved shooting!" ABC contacted her once to do a follow-up to the interview; she refused saying, "No thank you. I don't want to be embarrassed again." Several figures in the porn industry objected to her comments on the program. In an interview with "Vice", Sinclair admitted that despite being depressed at the time, the interview was embarrassing and that when she watched it, there were elements in the piece that were untrue.


title: Belladonna (actress)

text: In August 2007, Sinclair decided to semi-retire from performing with other people over concerns of STDs, specifically herpes. She thought she had contracted herpes in 2002 and was worried the disease had spread; however, it was later discovered that it was a skin rash rather than herpes. Regardless, she still decided to semi-retire.


title: Belladonna (actress)

text: In 2008, she came out of retirement, and filmed a number of hardcore scenes. She appeared in Digital Playground's "", the sequel to their top-selling DVD, "Pirates". She has also appeared recurringly in "James Gunn's PG Porn". Her last adult film was "Odd Jobs 4" in 2008.


title: Belladonna (actress)

text: Belladonna was featured on the cover of the second album of British metalcore band Asking Alexandria, titled "Reckless & Relentless", released in 2011. She also later featured in their short film "Through Sin + Self Destruction".


title: Belladonna (actress)

text: In July 2012, she announced via Twitter that she was "no longer interested in having sex on camera" and would be pursuing her other interests. In 2014, she made her non-pornographic feature film debut in John Wildman's "The Ladies of the House", a horror film about a group of female cannibals. She appeared in Paul Thomas Anderson's film "Inherent Vice" as Clancy Charlock in 2014 and in a short film titled "Dream Murder Machine" in 2018. She also considered becoming a sex positive speaker and instructor.


title: Belladonna (actress)

text: The AVN Awards are sponsored and presented by the American adult video industry trade magazine "AVN" ("Adult Video News"). Belladona has been nominated for 43 AVN Awards, of which she has won 10. In 2011, she was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame.


title: Belladonna (actress)

text: The XRCO Awards are given by the X-Rated Critics Organization annually to people working in adult entertainment.


title: Belladonna (actress)

text: The Fans of Adult Media and Entertainment Awards (F.A.M.E.) were created in 2006 by "Genesis" magazine, WantedList.com and "Adult Video News" magazine, and Adam & Eve as a means for the public to vote for their favorites.


title: Belladonna (actress)

text: Ninfa Prizes are awarded at the annual Spanish pornographic film festival, the Festival Internacional de Cine Erótico de Barcelona.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: The Uniform Civil Code (Hindi: समान नागरिक संहिता, IAST: Samāna Nāgarika Saṃhitā) is a proposal in India to formulate and implement personal laws of citizens which apply on all citizens equally regardless of their religion, gender and sexual orientation. Currently, personal laws of various communities are governed by their religious scriptures. Implementation of a uniform civil code across the nation is one of the contentious promises pursued by India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. It is an important issue regarding secularism in Indian politics and continues to remain disputed by India's political left wing, Muslim groups and other conservative religious groups and sects in defence of sharia and religious customs. Personal laws are distinguished from public law and cover marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption and maintenance. Meanwhile, article 25-28 of the Indian constitution guarantees religious freedom to Indian citizens and allows religious groups to maintain their own affairs, article 44 of the constitution expects the Indian state to apply directive principles and common law for all Indian citizens while formulating national policies.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: This draft also creates hopes for the LGBTQIA+ community in India as it does not differentiate between individuals based on their gender, or sexual orientation. Same-sex marriages are not recognised legally by any applicable law in India till now.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: Personal laws were first framed during the British Raj, mainly for Hindu and Muslim citizens. The British feared opposition from community leaders and refrained from further interfering within this domestic sphere. Indian state of Goa was separated from India due to colonial rule in the erstwhile Portuguese Goa and Damaon, retained a common family law known as the Goa civil code and thus being only state in India with a uniform civil code till date. Following India's independence, Hindu code bills were introduced which largely codified and reformed personal laws in various sects among Indian religions like Buddhists, Hindus, Jains and Sikhs while exempted Christians, Jews, Muslims and Parsis, being identified as distinct communities from Hindus.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: UCC emerged as a crucial topic of interest in Indian politics following the Shah Bano case in 1985. The debate arose when the question of making certain laws applicable to all citizens without abridging the fundamental right of right to practice religious functions. The debate then focused on the Muslim Personal Law, which is partially based on the Sharia law, permitting unilateral divorce, polygamy and putting it among the legally applying the Sharia law. UCC was proposed twice, in November 2019 and March 2020 but was withdrawn soon both of the times without introduction in parliament. The bill is reported to be being contemplated due to differences between BJP & RSS.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: The debate for a uniform civil code dates back to the colonial period in India. Prior to the British rule, under the East India Company (1757-1858), they tried to reform local social and religious customs by imposing Western ideologies on India.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: The Lex Loci Report of October 1840 emphasised the importance and necessity of uniformity in codification of Indian law, relating to crimes, evidences and contract but it recommended that personal laws of Hindus and Muslims should be kept outside such codification. This separation of Hindus and Muslims before law was part of the Divide and Rule policy of the British Empire that allowed them break the unity among different communities and rule over India. According to their understanding of religious divisions in India, the British separated this sphere which would be governed by religious scriptures and customs of the various communities (Hindus, Muslims, Christians and later Parsis). These laws were applied by the local courts or panchayats when dealing with regular cases involving civil disputes between people of the same religion; the State would only intervene in exceptional cases.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: Throughout the country, there was a variation in preference for scriptural or customary laws because in many Hindu and Muslim communities, these were sometimes at conflict; such instances were present in communities like the Jats and the Dravidians. The Shudras, for instance, allowed widow remarriage—completely contrary to the scriptural Hindu law. The Hindu laws got preference because of their relative ease in implementation, preference for such a Brahminical system by both British and Indian judges and their fear of opposition from the high caste Hindus. The difficulty in investigating each specific practice of any community, case-by-case, made customary laws harder to implement. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, favouring local opinion, the recognition of individual customs and traditions increased.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: The Muslim Personal law (based on Sharia law), was enforced in different parts of India. It had no uniformity in its application at lower courts due to the diversity of the local cultures of Muslims in different parts of India. Even though some communities converted to Islam, the local indigenous culture continued to be dominant in their practise of Islam and therefore the application of Sharia Law was not uniform across the country. This led to the customary law, which was often more discriminatory against women, to be applied over it. Women, mainly in northern and western India, often were restrained from property inheritance and dowry settlements, both of which the Sharia provides. Due to pressure from the Muslim elite, the Shariat law of 1937 was passed which stipulated that all Indian Muslims would be governed by Islamic laws on marriage, divorce, maintenance, adoption, succession and inheritance.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: Therefore, while Hindus have to follow the Hindu code bill, Muslims and other religions were given the liberty to follow their own respective laws. For Muslims The All India Muslim Personal Law Board makes the laws, which is a private entity.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: The Sharia Law in Islam had provisions that were discriminatory of women, their status and rights. Certain Hindu customs prevalent at the time discriminated against women by depriving them of inheritance, remarriage and divorce. The British and social reformers like Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar were instrumental in outlawing such customs by getting reforms passed through legislative processes. Since the British feared opposition from orthodox community leaders, only the Indian Succession Act 1865, which was also one of the first laws to ensure women's economic security, attempted to shift the personal laws to the realm of civil. The Indian Marriage Act 1864 had procedures and reforms solely for Christian marriages.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: There were law reforms passed which were beneficial to Hindu women like the Hindu Widow Remarriage Act of 1856, Married Women's Property Act of 1923 and the Hindu Inheritance (Removal of Disabilities) Act, 1928, which in a significant move, permitted a Hindu woman's right to property. However, such protection was not extended to Muslim women due to the opposition from conservative Muslim groups who wanted to follow Sharia Law.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: The call for equal rights for women was only at its initial stages in India at that time and the reluctance of the British government further deterred the passing of such reforms. The All India Women's Conference (AIWC) expressed its disappointment with the male-dominated legislature and Lakshmi Menon said in an AIWC conference in 1933, "If we are to seek divorce in court, we are to state that we are not Hindus, and are not guided by Hindu law. The members in the Legislative assembly who are men will not help us in bringing any drastic changes which will be of benefit to us." The All India Women's Conference demanded a uniform civil code to replace the existing personal laws, basing it on the Karachi Congress resolution which guaranteed gender-equality.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: The passing of the Hindu Women's right to Property Act of 1937, also known as the Deshmukh bill, led to the formation of the B. N. Rau committee, which was set up to determine the necessity of common Hindu laws. The committee concluded that it was time of a uniform civil code, which would give equal rights to women keeping with the modern trends of society but their focus was primarily on reforming the Hindu law. The committee reviewed the 1937 Act and recommended a civil code of marriage and succession; it was set up again in 1944 and send its report to the Indian Parliament in 1947.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: The Special Marriage Act, which gave the Indian citizens an option of a civil marriage, was first enacted in 1872. It had a limited application because it required those involved to renounce their religion and was applicable mostly to non-Hindus. The later Special Marriage (Amendment) Act, 1923 permitted Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains to marry either under their personal law or under the act without renouncing their religion as well as retaining their succession rights.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: The Indian Parliament discussed the report of the Hindu law committee during the 1948–1951 and 1951–1954 sessions. The first Prime Minister of the Indian republic, Jawaharlal Nehru, his supporters and women members wanted a uniform civil code to be implemented. As Law Minister, B. R. Ambedkar was in charge of presenting the details of this bill. It was found that the orthodox Hindu laws were supportive of women's rights since monogamy, divorce and the widow's right to inherit property were present in the "Shashtras". Ambedkar recommended the adoption of a uniform civil code. Ambedkar's frequent attack on the Caste System and dislike for the upper castes made him unpopular in the parliament. He had done research on the religious texts and considered the Caste System in Hindu society to be flawed. According to him, only the Uniform Civil Code bill was this opportunity to reform Hindu society as well to ensure protection to Muslim women who have little protection under Sharia Law. He thus faced severe criticism from the opposition but Nehru later supported Ambedkar's reforms and demand for a Uniform Civil Code. Although a Uniform Civil Code was not introduced at the time, a Hindu Bill was introduced to ensure modern reformation of Hindu Society.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: The Hindu bill itself received much criticism and the main provisions opposed were those concerning monogamy, divorce, abolition of coparcenaries (women inheriting a shared title) and inheritance to daughters. The women members of the parliament, who previously supported this, in a significant political move reversed their position and backed the Hindu law reform; they feared allying with the fundamentalists would cause a further setback to their rights.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: Thus, a lesser version of this bill was passed by the parliament in 1956, in the form of four separate acts, the Hindu Marriage Act, Succession Act, Minority and Guardianship Act and Adoptions and Maintenance Act. These diluted versions supported by Jawaharlal Nehru were in contraction to the implementation of a uniform civil code in Article 44 of the Directive principles of the Constitution specifying, "The State shall endeavour to secure for citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India." This was opposed by women members like Rajkumari Amrit Kaur and Hansa Mehta. According to academic Paula Banerjee, this move was to make sure it would never be addressed. Aparna Mahanta writes, "failure of the Indian state to provide a uniform civil code, consistent with its democratic secular and socialist declarations, further illustrates the modern state's accommodation of the traditional interests of a patriarchal society".


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: The Hindu code bill failed to control the prevalent gender discrimination. The law on divorce were framed giving both partners equal voice but majority of its implementation involved those initiated by men. Since the Act applied only to Hindus, women from the other communities remained subjugated particularly under Sharia Law which was the basis of the Muslim personal law in India. For instance, Muslim women, under the Muslim Personal Law, could not inherit agricultural land. Nehru accepted that the bill was not complete and perfect, but was cautious about implementing drastic changes which could stir up specific communities. He agreed that it lacked any substantial reforms but felt it was an "outstanding achievement" of his time. He had a significant role in getting the Hindu Code bill passed and laid down women-equality as an ideal to be pursued in Indian politics, which was eventually accepted by the previous critics of the bill. Uniform civil code, for him, was a necessity for the whole country but he was not able to convince conservative groups of its importance. Thus, his support for Uniform Civil Code was not implemented but was added to the Directive principles of the Constitution.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: The Special Marriage Act, 1954, provides a form of civil marriage to any citizen irrespective of religion, thus permitting any Indian to have their marriage outside the realm of any specific religious personal law. The law applied to all of India, except Jammu and Kashmir. In many respects, the act was almost identical to the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, which gives some idea as to how secularised the law regarding Hindus had become. The Special Marriage Act allowed Muslims to marry under it and thereby retain the protections, generally beneficial to Muslim women, that could not be found in the personal law. Under this act polygamy was illegal, and inheritance and succession would be governed by the Indian Succession Act, rather than the respective Muslim Personal Law. Divorce also would be governed by the secular law, and maintenance of a divorced wife would be along the lines set down in the civil law. Therefore, the Special Marriage Act provided significant protection to religious minorities which could not be found in the Personal Law of their religion such as the Muslim Personal Law.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: The frequent conflict between secular and religious authorities over the issue of uniform civil code eventually decreased, until the 1985 Shah Bano case. Bano was a 73-year-old woman who sought maintenance from her husband, Muhammad Ahmad Khan. He had divorced her after 40 years of marriage by triple "Talaaq" (saying "I divorce thee" three times) and denied her regular maintenance; this sort of unilateral divorce which discriminates against women is permitted under the Muslim Personal Law. She was initially granted maintenance by the verdict of a local court in 1980. Khan, a lawyer himself, challenged this decision, taking it to the Supreme court, saying that he had fulfilled all his obligations under Islamic law. The Supreme court ruled in favour of Shah Bano in 1985 under the "maintenance of wives, children and parents" provision (Section 125) of the All India Criminal Code, which applied to all citizens irrespective of religion. It further recommended that a uniform civil code be set up. Besides her case, two other Muslim women had previously received maintenance under the Criminal code in 1979 and 1980.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: The Shah Bano case soon became nationwide political issue and a widely debated controversy. While the Liberal and Progressive Indians as well as progressive Muslim women supported the Supreme Court judgement as being supportive of women, The All India Muslim Board defended the application of Muslim Personal Law which was based on Sharia Law and denied divorced Muslim women the right to alimony. The judgement of the Supreme Court, which sought to offer protection to muslim women was argued to be an attack Muslim Personal Law by conservative Muslims.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: The orthodox Muslims felt that their communal identity was at stake if their personal laws were governed by the judiciary. Rajiv Gandhi's Congress government, which previously had the support of Muslim minorities, lost the local elections in December 1985 because of its endorsement of the Supreme Court's decision. The members of the Muslim board, including Khan, started a campaign for complete autonomy in their personal laws. It soon reached a national level, by consulting legislators, ministers and journalists. The press played a considerable role in sensationalising this incident.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: An independent Muslim parliament member proposed a bill to protect their personal law in the parliament. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights of Divorce) Bill 1986, sought to make section 125 of Criminal Procedure Code inapplicable to Muslim women, which meant that the reversal of the Supreme Court judgement. Further, it also sough to legislate that alimony be paid by a Muslim man only for a period of 90 days after the divorce was demanded by the muslim husband. Reeling from the electoral defeat, the Indian National Congress under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi reversed its previous position and supported this bill while the liberal groups such as the Left, Muslim liberals and women's organisations strongly opposed it. The Muslim Women's (Protection of Rights on Divorce) was passed in 1986, which made Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code inapplicable to Muslim women. This was a colossal defeat of liberal movements and protection of women in Indian society.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: The politicisation led to argument having two major sides: the Congress and Muslim conservatives versus the liberal groups, women's organisations and the Left. In 1987, the Minister of Social Welfare, Rajendra Kumari Bajpai, reported that no women were given maintenance by the Wakf Board in 1986. Women activists highlighted their legal status and according to them, "main problem is that there [are] many laws but women are dominated not by secular laws, not by uniform civil laws, but by religious laws." The legal reversal of introducing the Muslim Women law significantly hampered the nationwide women's movement in the 1980s.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: UCC is meant to replace currently applicable various laws applicable to various respective communities which are inconsistent with each other. These laws include the Hindu Marriage Act, Hindu Succession Act, Indian Christian Marriages Act, Indian Divorce Act, Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act. Meanwhile certain ones like Sharia (Islamic laws) are not codified and solely based upon their religious scriptures.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: The proposals in UCC include monogamy, equal rights for son and daughter over inheritance of paternal property and gender & religion neutral laws in regards of will charity, divinity, guardianship and sharing of custody. The laws may not result into much difference to the status of Hindu society as they have already been applicable on Hindus through Hindu code bills for decades.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: India is a 'secular' nation which means a separation between religion and state matters. Moreover, 'secularism' in India means equality of all religions and practitioners of all religions before the law. Currently, with a mix of different civil codes, different citizens are treated differently based on their religion. The rights of a Hindu woman are far more progressive than those of a Muslim woman who is governed by Muslim Personal Law based on Sharia law. Women's rights groups have said that this issue is only based on their rights and security, irrespective of sensationalism by religious conservatives. The arguments for it are: its mention in Article 44 of the Constitution, need for strengthening the unity and integrity of the country, rejection of different laws for different communities, importance for gender equality and reforming the archaic personal laws of Muslims—which allow unilateral divorce and polygamy. India is, thus, among the nations that legally apply the Sharia law. According to Qutub Kidwai, the Muslim Personal laws are "Anglo-Mohammadan" rather than solely Islamic. The Hindu nationalists view this issue in concept of their law, which they say, is secular and equal to both sexes. In the country, demanding a uniform civil code can be seen negatively by religious authorities and secular sections of society because of identity politics. The Sangh Parivar and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—one of the two major political parties in India, had taken up this issue to ensure that every citizen of the country is treated equally before the law. The BJP was the first party in the country to promise it if elected into power.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: Goa is the only state in India which has a uniform civil code. The Goa Family Law, is the set of civil laws, originally the Portuguese Civil Code, continued to be implemented after its annexation in 1961. Sikhs and Buddhists objected to the wording of Article 25 which terms them as Hindus with personal laws being applied to them. However, the same article also guarantees the right of members of the Sikh faith to bear a Kirpan. Today, Goa is a leading example of different religious groups - catholics, protestants, Hindus and Muslims living in harmony due to its Uniform Civil Code.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: In October 2015, Supreme Court of India asserted the need of a uniform civil code and said that, "This cannot be accepted, otherwise every religion will say it has a right to decide various issues as a matter of its personal law. We don’t agree with this at all. It has to be done through a decree of a court". On 30 November 2016, British Indian intellectual Tufail Ahmad unveiled a 12-point document draft of it, citing no effort by the government since 1950. The Law Commission of India stated on August 31, 2018 that a uniform civil code is "neither necessary nor desirable at this stage" in a 185-page consultation paper, adding that secularism cannot contradict plurality prevalent in the country.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: Indian society in pre-independence era had many other consideration like socio-coeconomic status, Jati and gotra etc. in case of marriages. While the Hindu code bills wiped out all such practices in Hindu, Jains, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, Christian communities, some conservative section of these society had been demanding amendments to their Marriage Acts. Critics of UCC continue to oppose it as a threat to religious freedom. They consider abolition of religious laws to be against secularism and UCC as a means for BJP to target Muslims while look progressive at the same time meanwhile BJP continues to promote UCC as means of achieving religious equality and equal rights for women by fending off religious laws.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: UCC had been included in BJP's manifesto for the 1998 and 2019 elections and was even proposed for introduction in the Parliament for the first time in November 2019 by Narayan Lal Panchariya. Amid protests by opposition MPs, the bill although soon was withdrawn for making certain amendments. The bill was brought for a second time by Kirodi Lal Meena in March 2020 but was not introduced again. As per reports which emerged in 2020, the bill is being contemplated in BJP due to differences with RSS.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: A plea was filed in the Delhi High Court which sought establishment of a judicial commission or a high level expert committee to direct central government to prepare a draft of UCC in three months. In April 2021, a request was filed to transfer plea to the Supreme Court so that filing of more such pleas throughout various high courts doesn't bring inconsistency throughout India. The draft would further be published on website for 60 days to facilitate extensive public debate and feedback.


title: Uniform Civil Code

text: In March 2022, the Uttarakhand government led by Pushkar Singh Dhami decided to work on the implementation of UCC in the state. However, the RSS leaderships have stated that any uniform civil code (UCC) should be “beneficial for all communities”’ and “well thought out, not hurried."


title: Laura Pausini

text: Laura Pausini (; born 16 May 1974) is an Italian singer. She rose to fame in 1993, winning the newcomer artists' section of the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with her debut single "La solitudine", which became an Italian standard and an international hit. Her self-titled debut album was released in Italy on 23 April 1993 and later became an international success, selling two million copies worldwide. Its follow-up, "Laura", was released in 1994 and confirmed her international success, selling three million copies worldwide.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Pausini has released fourteen studio albums, two international greatest hits albums and two compilation albums for the Hispanic and Anglophone market only, respectively. She mostly performs in Italian and Spanish, but she has also recorded songs in English, French, Portuguese and more recently, Catalan.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Pausini appeared as a coach on both the Mexican and Spanish versions of international reality television singing competition franchise "The Voice", was a judge on the first and second series of "La banda", and is likewise a judge on the Spanish version of international franchise "The X Factor". In 2016, she debuted as a variety show presenter, hosting the television show "Laura & Paola", with actress Paola Cortellesi.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In 2004, Allmusic's Jason Birchmeier considered Pausini's sales "an impressive feat for someone who'd never really broken into the lucrative English-language market". In 2014, FIMI certified Pausini's sales of more than 75 million records with a FIMI Icon Award, making her the fourth best-selling female artist in Latin music, and the best-selling female non-Spanish speaking Latin music artist.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In 2006, she became the first Italian female artist to win a Grammy Award, receiving the accolade for Best Latin Pop Album for the record "Escucha". In 2021, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song with "Io sì (Seen)" from the film "The Life Ahead". The single also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, making it the first Italian-language song to win the award. She has been honoured as a Commander Order of Merit of the Italian Republic by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and as a World Ambassador of Emilia Romagna.


title: Laura Pausini

text: The elder of two daughters, Laura Pausini was born in Faenza, in the Province of Ravenna to Fabrizio Pausini and Gianna Ballardini. She grew up in Solarolo, a small "comune" in the same region.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Her father is a former pianist who also played as a sessionman for ABBA's Frida Lyngstad and entered a band whose members later founded the Italian pop group Pooh. After becoming a piano bar artist, he encouraged Pausini to start performing as a singer.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Her first live performance was on 16 May 1985, when she sang together with her father in a restaurant in Bologna.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Since then, her father started giving her singing lessons and she continued to perform alongside him in local piano bars. In the meanwhile, she also started singing in a church choir.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In 1987 she recorded her first demo album, produced by her father and released to promote her live shows. Titled "I sogni di Laura", it consisted of eight covers and five new songs. In 1991 she participated in the Castrocaro Music Festival singing Liza Minnelli's "New York, New York", but she failed to reach the final stage of the competition. During the same year, she took part in another singing competition, Sanremo Famosi, which should have served as a selection for the newcomers' of the following Sanremo Music Festival. Despite being declared joint winner with another contestant, Pausini was not allowed to compete in the Sanremo Music Festival 1992.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Thanks to her performances in local singing competitions, Pausini was noticed by Italian producer and songwriter Angelo Valsiglio, who introduced her to manager Marco Marati. Valsiglio suggested to her "La solitudine", a song he wrote with Pietro Cremonesi and Federico Cavalli. Pausini's rendition convinced Valsiglio and Marati, who wanted Pausini to audition for some major labels. During one of the auditions, she met Fabrizio Giannini of Warner Music Italy's Compagnia Generale del Disco. After impressing him with a performance of an unreleased Mia Martini song, Pausini obtained her first recording contract, becoming one of the first artists discovered by Giannini, who later launched the careers of several Italian acts, including Irene Grandi.


title: Laura Pausini

text: "La solitudine" was selected as one of the entries in the newcomer artists' section of the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival. Pausini performed it for the first time on 23 February 1993, during the first night of the contest. After being admitted to the final, held on 27 February 1993, she won the competition, receiving 7,464 votes from the juries and beating Gerardina Trovato with "Ma non ho più la mia città", who took second place with 7,209 votes.


title: Laura Pausini

text: The song also became a commercial success in Italy, and it is still one of Pausini's best-known hits.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Following the success obtained with her debut single, Pausini started working on her first professional album, "Laura Pausini".


title: Laura Pausini

text: The album was recorded while Pausini was still a high school student at the "Gaetano Ballardini" Institute of Ceramics in Faenza, Italy, where she got her diploma a few months after the release of her debut studio set.


title: Laura Pausini

text: The album was also promoted through an Italian outdoor tour during the summer of 1993. In September 1993, Pausini received a Telegatto for Revelation of the Year.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In late 1993, the album was released in the rest of Europe, peaking at number three on the Dutch Albums Chart and reaching the top spot in Belgium. It also achieved commercial success in South America, being certified gold in Brazil and Argentina.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Moreover, "La solitudine" became a radio hit in Belgium and the Netherlands, it peaked at number five on the French Singles Chart and it reached the top spot of the Dutch Top 40 and of the Flemish Ultratop 50.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In February 1994, Pausini participated for the second time in the Sanremo Music Festival, competing in the "Big Artists" section with her entry "Strani amori".


title: Laura Pausini

text: The song ranked third in the competition, behind Aleandro Baldi's "Passerà" and Giorgio Faletti's "Signor tenente", and became a hit in Italy, in the Netherlands and in Flanders. The single launched Pausini's second studio album, "Laura", released in February 1994. According to CGD Records, the album sold 150,000 copies in Italy in its first week, with initial shipments of 200,000 units. It also peaked at number one on the Dutch Albums Chart and entered the charts in Belgium and Switzerland, selling three million copies worldwide and achieving gold and platinum status in Brazil and Argentina, respectively. Other singles from the album were "Gente", "Lui non sta con te" and "Lettera". During the summer of 1994, Pausini took part in the Italian itinerant TV show Festivalbar, reaching the final stage of the music competition and receiving the Premio Europa for her international success. In 1994 she was also awarded with her second Telegatto, receiving the prize for Best Female Artist. In the meanwhile, she started an Italian tour to promote her album.


title: Laura Pausini

text: During the same year, Pausini released her first Spanish-language album, "Laura Pausini", a compilation of ten adapted versions of hits from her previous albums, issued by Dro Records. The record became the best-selling album of 1994 in Spain, where it was later certified diamond by the Association of Phonographic and Videographic of Spain for sales exceeding one million units. Pausini was the first non-Spanish artist to achieve this result. Following the commercial success obtained in the country, the Spanish Institute of Italian Culture awarded her a "Globo de Platino" for contributing in the spread of Italian culture in Spain.


title: Laura Pausini

text: The album was successful in Latin America too, being certified platinum by the Argentine Chamber of Phonograms and Videograms Producers, the Asociación Colombiana de Productores de Fonogramas and the Chilean division of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Moreover, the first four singles from the album, "La soledad", "Se fue", "Amores extraños" and "Gente", entered the top 30 on the Hot Latin Songs chart compiled by "Billboard". Thanks to these results, "Billboard" ranked Pausini the second female revelation of 1994, after Mariah Carey. In 1995 Pausini also received the World Music Award for Best Selling Italian Recording Artist and the Lo Nuestro Award for Best New Artist of the Year.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Pausini's first record for the British market was a self-titled compilation album released in 1995, including nine Italian-language hits and an English-language version of her first single, "La solitudine (Loneliness)", whose lyrics were adapted by Tim Rice. "La solitudine (Loneliness)" was initially set to be released as a single in the United Kingdom on 19 June 1995, but it was postponed and released in September of the same year. Both the album and the single obtained a very poor commercial reception, failing to enter the charts in the United Kingdom.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Following the success obtained by Pausini's debut Spanish album, her third studio set was released on 12 September 1996 both in Italian and Spanish, under the titles "Le cose che vivi" and "Las cosas que vives", respectively.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Starting from that moment, Pausini has recorded most of her songs both in her native language and in Spanish, in a practice that, according to Allmusic's Jason Birchmeier, has "come to define her career and compound her success".


title: Laura Pausini

text: A special edition of the album was also released in Brazil, featuring three additional bonus tracks in Portuguese.


title: Laura Pausini

text: The album was preceded by the single "Incancellabile", released to Italian radio stations on 26 August 1996 and titled "Inolvidable" in its version for the Hispanic market. Other singles from the album include the title-track "Le cose che vivi", whose Spanish-language version topped the "Billboard" Latin Pop Songs chart, "Ascolta il tuo cuore", "Seamisai" and "Dos enamorados", which was not released in its Italian-language version. The album sold 3,500,000 copies worldwide and was certified Platinum by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, for European sales exceeding 1,000,000 units.


title: Laura Pausini

text: At the 9th Lo Nuestro Awards for Latin Music, Pausini was nominated for Pop Female Singer and Video of the Year for the Spanish-language version of "Le cose che vivi".


title: Laura Pausini

text: In December 1996, Pausini was among the artists singing for Pope John Paul II during the Natale in Vaticano concert, a Christmas show held at the Paul VI Audience Hall. During the event, she performed a cover of John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" and the song "Il mondo che vorrei".


title: Laura Pausini

text: In February 1997 she was also invited as a guest to the Viña del Mar International Song Festival in Chile.


title: Laura Pausini

text: On 1 March 1997, she launched from Geneva the World Wide Tour in support of the album, giving concerts in Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, France, as well as in the United States, Canada and many other American countries, including Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Colombia and Mexico. It was Pausini's first international tour, during which she gave concerts in indoor arenas for the first time.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In August of the same year, during the last night of the Festivalbar, she received the International Award for the success she achieved abroad.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In 1998, Pausini released her fourth studio album, "La mia risposta", together with its Spanish-language counterpart, "Mi respuesta". The album, which included a song penned by Phil Collins, was dubbed by Italian music critics as a mature work, with influences from soul music, but, despite reaching the top spot of the Italian Albums Chart, it was a moderate commercial success, selling two million copies worldwide.


title: Laura Pausini

text: The lead single from the album, "Un'emergenza d'amore", was released in September 1998, and was followed by "In assenza di te" and "La mia risposta", the latter being performed during the Festivalbar in 1999.


title: Laura Pausini

text: To promote the album, Pausini began in early 1999 the La Mia Risposta World Tour '99, during which she performed in theatres throughout Europe.


title: Laura Pausini

text: On 1 June 1999, she was one of the artists performing along with Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti in Modena during his annual "Pavarotti and Friends" concert. Pavarotti and Pausini duetted in the Italian version of the aria "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz", titled "Tu che m'hai preso il cuor", from Franz Lehár's operetta "Das Land des Lächelns". The live performance was later included in the album "Pavarotti & Friends for the Children of Guatemala and Kosovo".


title: Laura Pausini

text: In 1999 she also contributed the Richard Marx composition "One More Time" to the "Message in a Bottle" soundtrack. The track was produced by David Foster who was featured on piano.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In 2000, she recorded the song "The Extra Mile" for the soundtrack of the movie "". The song was included in the album "Tra te e il mare", released on 11 September 2000 and preceded by the homonymous single, written by Italian pop singer Biagio Antonacci. Other singles from the album include "Il mio sbaglio più grande", which was a top 20 hit in Italy, and "Volevo dirti che ti amo", whose Spanish-language version "Quiero decirte que te amo" peaked at number 15 on the "Billboard" Latin Pop Songs chart.


title: Laura Pausini

text: The album also features the songs "Viaggio con te", which was composed by her father and which was awarded in 2001 with an Italian Lunezia Award for Best Songwriter of the Year, and "Per vivere", written from the point of view of a homeless child Pausini met in Rio de Janeiro and dedicated to two Brazilian children sponsored by her.


title: Laura Pausini

text: "Tra te e il mare" received a nomination for Album of the Year at the Premio Italiano della Musica, while Pausini was nominated for Best Female Artist during the same award ceremony, as well as in the first edition of the Italian Music Awards, held in February 2001.


title: Laura Pausini

text: A Spanish-language version of the album, titled "Entre tú y mil mares", was released shortly before the Italian-language edition, on 11 September 2000. At the 2001 Latin Grammy Awards, the record received two nominations for Best Female Pop Vocal Album and Best Engineered Album, while Pausini and Alfredo Cerruti were in the shortlist for Producer of the Year.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Pausini's first international greatest hits album was released in 2001, both in an Italian-language version and in a Spanish-language edition, titled "" and "Lo mejor de Laura Pausini: Volveré junto a ti", respectively. The first single, "E ritorno da te"—"Volveré junto a ti" in Spanish—was accompanied by a music video shot by Italian film director Gabriele Muccino. The album also includes the single "Una storia che vale" and features guest appearances by Brazilian singer Gilberto Gil in "Seamisai" and by Italian singer Nek, who plays bass in "Non c'è".


title: Laura Pausini

text: Supported by the 2001/2002 World Tour, which started in Miami on 19 October 2001, the greatest hits became one of Pausini's biggest commercial successes, selling 700,000 copies in Italy and 800,000 copies in France.


title: Laura Pausini

text: During the concert she gave in Milan on 2 December 2001 as part of the tour, Pausini also recorded her first live video album, titled "Live 2001-2002 World Tour" and released on 30 November 2002.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In 2001, Pausini started working with producers such as Patrick Leonard and John Shanks on her first English-language album, "From the Inside".


title: Laura Pausini

text: Released in Canada, Mexico and the United States by Atlantic Records on 5 November 2002, the album did not get the expected success, selling 50,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen-Soundscan.


title: Laura Pausini

text: The album singles "Surrender" and "If That's Love" reached the top spot on the Hot Dance Club Songs Chart, but Pausini, disappointed at her English-language debut being ignored in the U.S. outside the club scene, abandoned the promotion for "From the Inside" due to her label promoting it as a dance album instead of a pop album as she requested.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In 2003 Luciano Pavarotti invited her for the second time to the "Pavarotti and Friends" concert, where they duetted again in "Tu che m'hai preso il cuor".


title: Laura Pausini

text: In October 2004 Pausini released her eighth studio album, "Resta in ascolto", and its Spanish-language counterpart, "Escucha". Influenced by international artists including Phil Collins and Celine Dion, the recording is on the subject of a break-up and was written in 2002, during her separation from her ex-boyfriend and producer Alfredo Cerruti.


title: Laura Pausini

text: The album features the song "Mi abbandono a te", co-written by Pausini, Rick Nowels and Madonna. It also includes the Biagio Antonacci-written ballad "Vivimi", whose Spanish-language version, "Viveme", won a Billboard Latin Music Award in 2006 for Female Latin Pop Airplay Song of the Year, and the single "Benedetta passione", penned by Italian rock-star Vasco Rossi. Well received by music critics, the album is mainly focused on themes of anger, bitterness, desire for independence and interior peace, but also features a song about the Iraq War, in which Pausini sings about Ali Ismail Abbas, a boy who was severely injured in a nighttime rocket attack near Baghdad in 2003.


title: Laura Pausini

text: The album debuted at number one on the Italian Albums Chart and sold 350,000 copies in Italy. Its Spanish version later won Best Female Pop Vocal Album at the Latin Grammy Awards of 2005 and Best Latin Pop Album at the 48th Grammy Awards, making Pausini the first Italian female artist to win a Grammy Award.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In January 2005, Pausini started a new tour to promote the album. The concerts she gave at the Zénith de Paris on 22 and 23 March 2005 were filmed and released as a live album in November 2005, titled "Live in Paris 05".


title: Laura Pausini

text: Pausini made a guest appearance on Michael Bublé's 2005 live album "Caught in the Act", singing a duet with Bublé of Lou Rawls' hit "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine". The duet was placed on both the audio CD, and the full concert DVD that aired on PBS as an episode of "Great Performances".


title: Laura Pausini

text: At the 2006 Lo Nuestro Award, Pausini was nominated in the sections Album of the Year for "Escucha", Song of the Year and Video of the Year for "Viveme" and won the award for Best Female Pop Artist.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In November 2006, Pausini released the album "Io canto" / "Yo canto", consisting of covers of Italian pop rock songs. On the album liner notes, Pausini wrote:


title: Laura Pausini

text: "here is the music I listen to when I'm at my saddest, or when I feel a moment is special, the songs I used to sing as a young girl when I first started performing, and above all those which taught me to love music, and how music can move you so deeply, regardless of its genre or style".


title: Laura Pausini

text: The album also features duets with Tiziano Ferro, Juanes and Johnny Hallyday. It debuted at number one on the Italian Albums Chart and held the top spot for 8 non-consecutive weeks. It also became the best-selling album of 2006 in Italy, selling 500,000 copies in less than two months. On 8 November 2007, the album won Best Female Pop Vocal Album at the Latin Grammy Awards.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Laura dedicated the award to the memory of Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti. Later on during the show she sang "Vivere (Dare to Live)" alongside Italian singer Andrea Bocelli.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In Summer 2006, Pausini played a Juntos en concierto tour with Marc Anthony and Marco Antonio Solís, consisting of 20 concerts throughout the United States.


title: Laura Pausini

text: On 2 June 2007, Laura Pausini was the first female artist to play at the San Siro Stadium in Milan, in front of a crowd of 70,000 spectators. On 30 November 2007, the concert was released on CD and DVD, under the title "San Siro 2007".


title: Laura Pausini

text: Pausini spent the first months of 2008 recording her tenth studio album, "Primavera in anticipo" / "Primavera anticipada". The Spanish language edition of the album was released on 11 November 2008, while the Italian language edition was released in Italy on 14 November 2008.


title: Laura Pausini

text: The album was preceded by the single "Invece no" / "En cambio no", released on 24 October 2008 and promoted with an appearance in Piazza Trinità dei Monti in Rome on 14 November 2008.


title: Laura Pausini

text: The album also features the single "Primavera in anticipo (It Is My Song)" / Primavera anticipada (It Is My Song)", a duet with British singer-songwriter James Blunt. Also in late 2008, French chansonnier Charles Aznavour and Pausini recorded Aznavour's 1965 song "Paris au mois d'août" for Aznavour's "Duos" album, both in French as well as the Italian version "Parigi in agosto". Pausini grew up listening to Aznavour's songs, and in a January 2009 interview on France 2's Vivement Dimanche hosted by Michel Drucker, Aznavour said of Pausini, seated by his side after a live duet performance of "Paris au mois d'août", that "she knows the lyrics [to my songs] better than me." In November 2009 "Primavera in anticipo" went on to win Best Female Pop Vocal Album at the Latin Grammy Awards. In 2010 Pausini also won the Lo Nuestro Award for Female Artist of the Year.


title: Laura Pausini

text: On 21 June 2009, Pausini organized a mega-concert in the San Siro Stadium in Milan, raising money to support the victims of the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake. The concert, named "Amiche per l'Abruzzo", involved 43 Italian female singers and was later released on a DVD, which sold 250,000 copies in Italy.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In the meanwhile, on 5 March 2009, Pausini began her World Tour 2009 in Turin, which reached Europe in May 2009 and then South America and the United States in autumn 2009. The last leg of the tour took place in Italy in November 2009.


title: Laura Pausini

text: A CD of the tour, along with a DVD, was released on 27 November 2009 with the title "Laura Live World Tour 09" / "Laura Live Gira Mundial 09". The album also includes three new song, the singles "Con la musica alla radio" / "Con la musica en la radio", "Non sono lei" / "Ella no soy" and "Casomai" / "Menos mal".


title: Laura Pausini

text: On 30 December 2010, Pausini announced her new studio album, "Inedito" / "Inédito", released both in Italian and Spanish on 11 November 2011.


title: Laura Pausini

text: The title and the track list of the album were announced through Pausini's website on 10 September 2011. The first single from the album, "Benvenuto" / "Bienvenido", was released on 12 September 2011.


title: Laura Pausini

text: To promote the album, Pausini engaged the Inedito World Tour, starting with 11 shows in Italy in late December 2011. The tour reached Latin America in January and February 2012. The European leg of her tour visited the principle arenas of France, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, and concluded at the Royal Albert Hall in London.


title: Laura Pausini

text: The album also spawned the singles "Non ho mai smesso" / "Jamás abandoné", "Bastava" / "Bastaba", "Mi tengo", "Le cose che non-mi aspetto" / "Las cosas que no me espero" and "Celeste". The song "Troppo tempo" was originally chosen as the sixth and last single of the album, but when Pausini discovered her pregnancy she changed her mind to "Celeste".


title: Laura Pausini

text: On 25 June 2012, Pausini took part in the mega-concert Concerto per l'Emilia, organized to raise funds in support of the people affected by the 2012 Northern Italy earthquakes. During the show, Pausini duetted with Cesare Cremonini, performing a cover of Lucio Dalla's "L'anno che verrà".


title: Laura Pausini

text: On 27 November 2012, a special edition of "Inedito", in both Italian and Spanish, was released, featuring a live DVD recorded during the 2012 Inedito World Tour. The Italian-language version and the Spanish-language version of the DVD were recorded in Bologna on 17 April 2012 and in Madrid on 20 April 2012, respectively. The CD included in the new edition of "Inedito" also features a live medley performed by Pausini on New Year's Eve 2012, as well as a duet with Venezuelan singer Carlos Baute on the track "Las cosas que no me espero", released as a single in Spain and the Americas.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In 2012 Pausini also recorded an Italian-language duet with Josh Groban, "E ti prometterò", included in his album "All That Echoes", released in February 2013.


title: Laura Pausini

text: On 26 February 2013, to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of her career, Pausini released a medley including the original versions in Italian, Spanish and English of the song which launched her career in 1993, "La solitudine". The track was launched as a limited-edition digital single, available for purchase for a week only.


title: Laura Pausini

text: On 1 June 2013 Pausini took part in the Chime for Change concert at Twickenham Stadium in London, supporting the global campaign of the same name for girls' and women's empowerment. Pausini performed the songs "Io canto" and "It's Not Goodbye".


title: Laura Pausini

text: During the same year, she appeared as a featured artist on the track "Sonríe (Smile)", included in American singer Gloria Estefan's album "The Standards".


title: Laura Pausini

text: In November 2013, Pausini also released a greatest hits album, titled "20 – The Greatest Hits" in Italian and "20 – Grandes éxitos" in Spanish. The album was preceded by the single "Limpido"—"Limpio" in Spanish—recorded with Australian singer Kylie Minogue.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Other singles from the album include the new tracks "Se non te" and "Dove resto solo io", released for the Italian market, and the revamped versions of "Víveme" and "Se fue", featuring Alejandro Sanz and Marc Anthony, respectively.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Starting from December 2013, Pausini promoted her greatest hits album through The Greatest Hits World Tour, giving concerts in her native Italy, as well as in other European countries, in Latin America, in the United States and in Canada. The tour also included performances during the Viña del Mar International Song Festival in Chile and the Feria del Hogar in Peru. The concert she gave in Taormina, featuring several guests, was conceived as the first Italian "one woman show", and it was broadcast by Rai Uno in May 2014.


title: Laura Pausini

text: A new version of the album was released in November 2014 for the hispanophone market. The new edition includes a duet with Thalía in "Sino a ti", a new version of "Entre tu y mil mares", featuring Melendi, and a re-recording of "Donde quedo solo yo", performed with Álex Ubago. The latter was also recorded under the title "Jo sempre hi seré", becoming Pausini's first Catalan song. This version was included in "El disc de La Marató 2014", a compilation album related to the telethon organized by Catalan channel TV3, with the purpose to raise money against cardiovascular diseases.


title: Laura Pausini

text: On 13 November 2014, Pausini was the first artist to be inducted in the newly created Paseo de las Estrellas in Tijuana, Mexico.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In Autumn 2014, Pausini was one of the four coaches of the fourth season of the Mexican reality show and singing competition "La Voz". Pausini also served as a coach for the third series of the Spanish version of the competition, "La Voz", which debuted on Telecinco in January 2015.


title: Laura Pausini

text: At the 27th Lo Nuestro Awards, Pausini received a special award in recognition of her music career trajectory. After performing a medley of songs including the salsa version of "Se fué" with Marc Anthony, she stated that although she is Italian, "half of my heart beats Latino".


title: Laura Pausini

text: In August 2015, Pausini co-wrote the song "Como yo sabría", with fellow Italian singer-songwriter Virginio Simonelli. The song was recorded by Maverick Lopes, a runner-up in the third season of "La Voz Spain", mentored by Pausini herself during the competition.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In September of the same year, Pausini, together with singers Alejandro Sanz and Ricky Martin, was a judge in the Univision talent show "La banda", created by Simon Cowell.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Pausini's eleventh studio album, "Simili", was released on 6 November 2015. The first single from the album, "Lato destro del cuore"—"Lado derecho del corazón" in Spanish—was written by Biagio Antonacci.


title: Laura Pausini

text: The album's title-track, after being released as its second single, was chosen as the opening song of the third season of Italian TV series "Braccialetti rossi". The album also spawned the singles "En la puerta de al lado", "Innamorata" / "Enamorada", "Ho creduto a me" / "He creído en mi" and "200 note".


title: Laura Pausini

text: The Spanish-language version of the album, "Similares", received a nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In April 2016, Pausini hosted with Paola Cortellesi the variety show "Laura e Paola", broadcast in Italy by Rai 1. The show included three episodes. Thanks to the show, Pausini received an award at the Premio TV 2016 as TV Personality Revelation of the Year. In June 2016, Pausini became the first Italian female artist to perform a tour in Italian stadiums. Her Pausini Stadi Tour 2016 included concerts at the San Siro Stadium in Milan, at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, and at the Stadio della Vittoria in Bari. The second and third legs of the tour consisted of shows in Latin America and Europe, respectively, and concluded in October 2016.


title: Laura Pausini

text: On 4 November 2016, Pausini released her first Christmas album, "Laura Xmas", titled "Laura Navidad" in its Spanish version. The album, produced by Patrick Williams and recorded with his orchestra, was launched with a performance at Disneyland Paris.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Her new studio album, "Fatti sentire", will be released on 16 March 2018, both in its Italian-language version and in its Spanish-language counterpart, titled "Hazte sentir". The lead single "Non è detto"—"Nadie ha dicho" in Spanish—was released on 16 January 2018. The single was performed during the final night of the 68th Sanremo Music Festival, where Pausini appeared as a special guest. "Nadie ha dicho" premiered in the United States with a performance during the Lo Nuestro Awards gala on 22 February 2018, which were co-hosted by Pausini herself.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In spring 2018, Laura Pausini also appeared as a judge on the third series of Spanish talent show "Factor X", which was won by Pol Granch, one of the contestants she mentored as part of the Boys category. To promote "Fatti sentire", she embarked on a worldwide tour, starting with two concerts at the Circus Maximus in Rome, which then passed throughout the United States and Latin America. In the fall, she returned to perform all throughout Italy in between September and October. The two concerts in Eboli, originally to be done in September, were rescheduled for November. She performed in Europe: Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In summer 2019, Pausini performed 11 concerts throughout Italy, along with Biagio Antonacci, as part of their collaborative show titled "LB Stadi Tour". At the end of the tour, she announced a two-year break from recording music.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Pausini was set to perform a concert titled "Pausini BeMe" on 5 September 2020, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of her official fan club. The concert was later cancelled, due to the Italian government's decision to prohibit all live concerts through October 2020, as part of the measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In February 2020, while appearing as a guest in the 70th Sanremo Music Festival, she also announced a one-night-only concert in the RCF Campovolo in Reggio Emilia, along with six other Italian female artists—Elisa, Fiorella Mannoia, Alessandra Amoroso, Emma, Gianna Nannini, and Giorgia—to help women suffering from domestic violence. Titled "Una. Nessuna. Centomila", the event was later postponed to 11 June 2022 due to the pandemic.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In October 2020, Pausini released "Io sì (Seen)", which was written in collaboration with Diane Warren and Niccolò Agliardi and was created for the Netflix feature film "The Life Ahead". Pausini recorded the song in five languages. The music video for the single also features the film's star Sophia Loren. Thanks to the song, Pausini won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, making "Io sì (Seen)" the first Italian-language song to win the prize, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.


title: Laura Pausini

text: In July 2021, Pausini announced she has been working on a film since February 2020. The film, directed by Ivan Cotroneo and set to be released on Amazon Prime Video in 2022, is based on an idea by Pausini herself, and will be titled "Laura Pausini – Piacere di conoscerti". Pausini will also star in the film, thus debuting as an actress. The song "Scatola"—titled "Caja" in Spanish—was released as a single from the film's soundtrack. After performing "Scatola" during the second night of the Sanremo Music Festival 2022, Pausini was announced to be one of the presenters of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, which was held in Turin in May, alongside Alessandro Cattelan and Mika. On 28 October 2022, Pausini was announced to be one of the four presenters of the 23rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards, which will be held in Las Vegas in November, alongside Anitta, Luis Fonsi and Thalía. She will be the first Italian artist to host the Latin Grammy Awards.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Laura Pausini is described as a mezzo-soprano with a classic and powerful voice. Due to her voice, Pausini has been compared by music critics to various female artists, including Milva.


title: Laura Pausini

text: At the beginning of her career, she was considered by music critics as a teen idol mainly singing about adolescent love affairs and problems. She was also strongly criticized for her songs, described as too melancholic and trivial.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Starting from her 1998's "La mia risposta" / "Mi respuesta", Italian music critics considered her as a more mature singer and later praised her simplicity and her voice, describing Pausini as an interpreter of her years.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Although Pausini is mainly a melodic pop singer, her musical style evolved during her career, with influences from various genres, including Latin music, soul music and rock music. In 2001, David Cazares of the "South Florida Sun-Sentinel" described Pausini's music as "an assortment of glossy and sentimental pop ballads backed by light rock instrumentation and synthesized strings". In 2006, "The Washington Post"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Achy Obejas wrote that Pausini is distinguished from other Latin pop singers by her sophistication and her European sensibilities. According to "Musica e dischi"'s Antonio Orlando, the key elements in Pausini's style are romanticism, optimism, melancholy and surrounding melodies.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Starting from her 1996's album "Le cose che vivi" / "Las cosas que vives", Pausini has also co-written most of her songs and starting from her 1998's "La mia risposta" / "Mi respuesta" she has been involved in the production of her albums.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Pausini left her hometown in 1995, when she moved to Milan with her partner, manager and producer Alfredo Cerruti Jr. Their relationship ended in 2002. Between 2002 and 2005 Pausini was romantically involved with her new manager, Gabriele Parisi.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Since 2005, Pausini has been in a relationship with Italian guitarist, composer, music producer, and former singer Paolo Carta. She gave birth to their daughter on 8 February 2013.


title: Laura Pausini

text: Pausini describes herself as a Catholic woman, but expressed doubts about the Church's position on various themes, including contraception, abortion, premarital sex and gay rights. In September 2000 she explained her position during an interview to the Italian newspaper "la Repubblica":


title: Laura Pausini

text: – Commander Order of Merit of the Italian Republic: Awarded the third highest civil honour in Italy, by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on 6 February 2006.


title: Katie Aselton

text: Kathryn Aselton (born October 1, 1978) is an American actress, film director and producer. She directed and co-starred in "The Freebie", which was shown in the non-competition "Next" category at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010. She also starred in the FX sitcom "The League" for its seven-season run from 2009 to 2015, and in the first two seasons of FX's Marvel Comics X-Men drama "Legion".


title: Katie Aselton

text: Aselton was born in Milbridge, Maine. She competed in pageants in 1995, and was Miss Maine Teen USA 1995 and first runner-up at Miss Teen USA 1995. She graduated from Narraguagus High School in Harrington, Maine, in 1996. She attended Boston University School of Communications for two years before moving to Los Angeles to act, where she met her future husband, Mark Duplass. She then studied for two years at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.


title: Katie Aselton

text: In 2004, Aselton appeared in a short film titled "Scrapple" opposite Mark Duplass and his brother Jay Duplass who also wrote and directed the short. Aselton made her feature-length film debut in "The Puffy Chair" opposite Mark Duplass, who directed the film alongside his brother Jay. The film premiered at Sundance in January 2005 and was released on June 2, 2006, in a limited release. That same year, Aselton appeared opposite Steve Zissis in the short film "The Intervention". In 2009, after a break from acting, Aselton appeared in an episode of "The Office". That same year, she appeared in "Easier with Practice", "Other People's Parties", and "Feed the Fish". In 2016, Aselton appeared in "Togetherness," an HBO original series created by her husband and her brother in law, as Anna. That same year, she was cast in a recurring role in the second season of "Casual" as Jennifer. Aselton also starred in "Fun Mom Dinner" opposite Molly Shannon and Toni Collette, directed by Alethea Jones. She was featured in an episode of Season 9 of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" as Jean the USPS Letter Carrier.


title: Katie Aselton

text: Aselton is married to her "The League" co-star Mark Duplass. They have two daughters together, born in 2007 and 2012.


title: Spaghetti alla puttanesca

text: Spaghetti alla puttanesca (; in Italian) is an Italian pasta dish invented in Naples in the mid-20th century and made typically with tomatoes, olive oil, olives, anchovies, chili peppers, capers, and garlic—with vermicelli or spaghetti pasta.


title: Spaghetti alla puttanesca

text: Various recipes in Italian cookbooks dating back to the 19th century describe pasta sauces very similar to a modern puttanesca under different names. One of the earliest dates from 1844, when Ippolito Cavalcanti, in his "Cucina teorico-pratica", included a recipe from popular Neapolitan cuisine, calling it "Vermicelli all'oglio con olive capperi ed alici salse". After some sporadic appearances in other Neapolitan cookbooks, in 1931 the "Touring Club Italiano's" "Guida gastronomica d'Italia" lists it among the gastronomic specialties of Campania, calling it "Maccheroni alla marinara", although the proposed recipe is close to that of a modern puttanesca sauce. In Naples, this type of pasta sauce commonly goes under the name "aulive e chiappariell" (olives and capers).


title: Spaghetti alla puttanesca

text: The dish under its current name first appears in gastronomic literature in the 1960s. The earliest known mention of pasta "alla puttanesca" is in Raffaele La Capria’s "Ferito a Morte" ("Mortal Wound"), a 1961 Italian novel which mentions ""spaghetti alla puttanesca come li fanno a Siracusa" (spaghetti alla puttanesca as they make it in Syracuse)". The sauce became popular in the 1960s, according to the Professional Union of Italian Pasta Makers.


title: Spaghetti alla puttanesca

text: Nonetheless, the 1971 edition of the "Cucchiaio d’argento" ("The Silver Spoon"), one of Italy's most prominent cookbooks, has no recipe with the name "puttanesca", but two recipes that are similar: The Neapolitan "spaghetti alla partenopea", is made with anchovies and generous quantities of oregano; while "spaghetti alla siciliana" is distinguished by the addition of green peppers. Still again there is a Sicilian style popular around Palermo that includes olives, anchovies and raisins.


title: Spaghetti alla puttanesca

text: In a 2005 article from "Il Golfo"—a daily newspaper serving the Italian islands of Ischia and Procida—Annarita Cuomo asserted that "sugo alla puttanesca" was invented in the 1950s by Sandro Petti, co-owner of "Rancio Fellone", a famous Ischian restaurant and nightspot. According to Cuomo, Petti's moment of inspiration came when—near closing one evening—Petti found a group of customers sitting at one of his tables. He was low on ingredients and told them he did not have enough to make them a meal. They complained that it was late and they were hungry, saying ""Facci una puttanata qualsiasi"," meaning something like "make for us whatever the fuck you got!" Petti had nothing more than four tomatoes, two olives and some capers—the basic ingredients for the "sugo", "So I used them to make the sauce for the spaghetti," Petti told Cuomo. Later, Petti included this dish on his menu as "spaghetti alla puttanesca".


title: Spaghetti alla puttanesca

text: Because ""puttana"" means roughly "whore" or "prostitute" and "puttanesca" is an adjective derived from that word, there is a theory that the dish was invented in one of many bordellos in the Naples working-class neighbourhood of Quartieri Spagnoli. Alternatively, food historian Jeremy Parzen suggests the name has more to do with the practical use of "puttanesca" in Italian than with its literal definition: "Italians use puttana (and related words) almost the way we use "shit", as an all-purpose profanity, so "pasta alla puttanesca" might have originated with someone saying, essentially, 'I just threw a bunch of "shit" from the cupboard into a pan'."


title: Spaghetti alla puttanesca

text: The sauce alone is called "sugo alla puttanesca" in Italian. Recipes may differ according to preferences; for instance, the Neapolitan version is prepared without anchovies, unlike the version popular in Lazio. Spices are sometimes added. In most cases, however, the "sugo" is a little salty (from the capers, olives, and anchovies) and quite fragrant (from the garlic). Traditionally, the sauce is served with spaghetti, although it is also paired with penne, bucatini, linguine, and vermicelli.


title: Spaghetti alla puttanesca

text: Garlic and anchovies (omitted in the Neapolitan version) are sautéed in olive oil. Chopped chili peppers, olives, capers, diced tomatoes, and oregano are added along with salt and black pepper to taste. The cook then reduces this mixture by simmering and pours it over spaghetti cooked al dente. The final touch is a topping of parsley.


title: You Oughta Know

text: "You Oughta Know" is a song by Canadian singer Alanis Morissette, released as the lead single from her third studio album, "Jagged Little Pill" (1995) on July 6, 1995. After releasing two studio albums, Morissette left MCA Records Canada and was introduced to manager Scott Welch. Morissette began working on new music after moving from her hometown of Ottawa to Toronto, but made little progress. In Los Angeles, she met producer Glen Ballard, with whom she wrote songs including "You Oughta Know".


title: You Oughta Know

text: "You Oughta Know" signaled Morissette's departure from bubblegum pop to alternative rock, and features guitarist Dave Navarro and bassist Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers. It outperformed the label's expectations and received positive reviews. After the influential Los Angeles modern rock radio station KROQ-FM began playing it, the single reached the top ten in Canada, Australia and the United States. It was a multiformat hit in several US genre charts, and made the top 40 in Belgium, Iceland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom.


title: You Oughta Know

text: A music video was directed by Nick Egan. The single was added in the set list for Morissette's 1995 world tour; since then, it has been included in her albums "MTV Unplugged" (1999), "Feast on Scraps" (2002), and "The Collection", as well as 1997 Grammys and the "MTV Unplugged" compilation albums. It has received numerous accolades; in 1996, the single was nominated for three Grammy Awards, winning the awards for Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. In 2021, the song was listed at #103 in the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.