Resta in ascolto and Escucha (English: Keep Listening or Listen) are the eighth studio albums by Italian singer Laura Pausini, released by Warner Music on October 22, 2004. The Spanish-language edition won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album in 2006, making her the first and only Italian female to receive such award.
Escucha features "Víveme", theme song of the highly successful Mexican telenovela La madrastra (2005). The song's exposure extended to the United States when Univision acquired the telenovela and began its broadcast of La madrastra in March 2005. In September 2006, following a year of praise and formal recognition—particularly from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences—Warner Music released special edition CD+DVDs of Escucha in Argentina and the United States. The special editions feature previously unreleased bonus tracks presented in music video form. These tracks include "Prendo te" and "De tu amor".
Promoting the album, Pausini embarked on a world tour during the early 6 months of 2005. The tour has yielded a DVD.
Background
The recording is on the subject of a break-up and was written in 2002, during Pausini's separation from her ex-boyfriend and producer Alfredo Cerruti.[3]
The album features the song "Mi abbandono a te" / "Me abandono a ti", co-written by Pausini, Rick Nowels and Madonna. It also includes the ballad "Vivimi" / "Viveme", written by Biagio Antonacci, and the single "Benedetta passione" / "Bendecida pasión", penned by Italian rock-star Vasco Rossi.[4] The album is mainly focused on themes of anger, bitterness,[3] desire for independence[5] and interior peace,[4] 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.[6]