2000s

At 16, Elisa met Caterina Caselli, who one year later signed her to the record company Sugar. At 18 she left for Berkeley, California (US) to work on songs for her debut album with record producer Corrado Rustici, who has also worked with Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin and Zucchero among others.

Elisa's first single "Sleeping in Your Hand" was released in late May 1997, followed by her debut album Pipes & Flowers on 22 September. She was credited as a writer or co-writer on all tracks. The album soon went quadruple platinum in Italy and won her two prizes: Targa Tenco and PIM (Premio Italiano della Musica). She was also a special guest on Eros Ramazzotti's European tour. In 1998, the re-release of Pipes and Flowers included a new track, Cure Me, recorded in Venice with British producer Darren Allison (Spiritualized, Belle and Sebastian).^[8]

5 May 2000 saw the release of Asile's World (Asile being Elisa written backwards). The album took a new turn in terms of musical influences and featured songs produced by Howie B, Roberto Vernetti, Mauro Malavasi and Leo Z.

In September 2000 Elisa recorded her first song in Italian, "Luce (Tramonti a nord est)". The song was initially written in English, but an Italian lyric was written in collaboration with fellow singer Zucchero. The song was performed at the 2001 Sanremo Festival supported by the Solis String Quartet, and won her the Critics' Award, Interpreter of the Year as well as the competition altogether. Both Italian and English versions were later included in a re-release of Asile's World. In November she was awarded three prizes at the Italian Music Awards: Best female artist, Best single (Luce) and Best song, as well as taking home the Best Italian Artist at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2001 in Frankfurt. She also received Premio Italiano della Musica's Best Female Artist and Best Single (Luce).

Elisa's third album, Then Comes the Sun was released on 9 November 2001, with Rustici returning as producer. The album saw a return to a more pop/rock sound and went triple platinum. The following year she performed both at the closing of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah singing a jazzy version of the Italian national hymn, and at the 2002 Pavarotti and Friends concert, singing Voglio vivere così (col sole in fronte) with the world-famous tenor.

In August 2002, Sugar released an International album simply titled Elisa. The album is a selection of songs from her first three albums fronted by Come Speak to Me, the original English version of her hit Luce. The single received high rotation on MTV Europe as well as fair airplay and moderate attention in several European countries, but still failed to establish Elisa as an international artist.

In late 2003, Elisa released the album Lotus, an acoustic album featuring new, stripped-down versions of some of her songs as well as a handful of new ones including a cover version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". The album was followed by an extensive acoustic Italian tour as well as a double DVD set consisting of an MTV Supersonic concert and The making of Lotus.

Elisa's fourth studio album Pearl Days was released on 15 October 2004. All tracks were produced by Glen Ballard, known for producing Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill and tracks for artists such as Anastacia, Michael Jackson, Shakira, Christina Aguilera and The Corrs. The album was more rock-influenced and sported more electric guitars than her earlier records. One of the songs, Life Goes On, was later translated to Italian (Una poesia anche per te) and became the fourth best selling single in Italy in 2005. The single was accompanied by a self-directed video which won the Premio Video Italiano for Best Female Artist. In the summer of 2005, Elisa appeared at the Live 8 concert in Rome alongside Zucchero, Luciano Ligabue and other major Italian artists.

Two non-album singles were released in 2005 and 2006, Swan and Teach Me Again (duet with Tina Turner). Both supported major Italian films, namely Melissa P. and All the Invisible Children (Segment 9: Song Song & Little Cat directed by John Woo). Elisa also performed Luce (Tramonti a nord est) at the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Torino.

On 17 November 2006 Soundtrack '96-'06 was released, a collection of hits through her first ten years as a recording artist. The album also contained four new songs; three in Italian and one in English. The album peaked at number 1, was certified diamond and became the third most selling album of 2006 in Italy with more than of 700,000 copies. A revised edition titled Caterpillar was released in September 2007, aimed at the International market. Several of the songs had been remixed, rearranged and partly rerecorded and it featured an entirely new cover version of The Rolling Stones Wild Horses. The box set Soundtrack Live '96-'06 was released on 23 November 2007, containing a CD and DVD from a Milan concert during the Soundtrack Live Tour 2007.

In the wake of Elisa's increased popularity due to her song Dancing appearing on So You Think You Can Dance, yet another compilation album appropriately named Dancing was released in the US on 15 July 2008. Being the singer's first album to be available in the US, it is recognised as her American debut.

Elisa released her next album, Heart, on 13 November 2009. The first single was Ti vorrei sollevare with Giuliano Sangiorgi from Italian rock band Negramaro. The album also contains a collaboration with Antony Hegarty from Antony and the Johnsons in the song "Forgiveness". On 30 November 2010, Elisa released Ivy, an album in the same vein as Lotus, featuring 3 new tracks, acoustic versions of her past songs and covers such as Smashing Pumpkins' "1979". The album sold over 80.000 copies in Italy and was further supported by a tour.

2012–2016: L'anima vola, On and new projects

In 2012, the song "Love Is Requited", written by Andrea Guerra and Michele von Buren for the soundtrack of Roberto Faenza's film Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You and performed by Elisa, received a Nastro d'Argento for Best Original Song.^[9] On 18 December 2012, her collaboration with Ennio Morricone, "Ancora qui", was featured on Quentin Tarantino's film, Django Unchained and its soundtrack album.

On 15 October 2013, L'anima vola, Elisa's first album recorded entirely in Italian was released. In early August, the album was certified double platinum by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry.^[10] Elisa was featured on a special version of "We Are Incurable Romantics" by Belgian singer Ozark Henry, which was released in the Italian iTunes store on 15 July 2014.^[11]

In 2015 Elisa had been the coach and artistic director of the blue team in the talent show Amici di Maria De Filippi.^[12] Her team won the singer category with the band The Kolors, with whom she collaborated on the second studio album Out.^[13] Elisa also returned to the role in the following two seasons coaching Elodie Di Patrizi, Riki and Federica Carta.^[14][15]

On 15 January 2016, "No Hero" was published as the lead single from Elisa ninth studio album, marking a comeback to the English language for the artist.^[16] The song debuted at number eight on the Italian Singles Charts and received 3xPlatinum certifications by FIMI. The album, On, was recorded in English with also two Italian-language tracks, "Bruciare per te" and the collaboration "Sorrido già" with Emma Marrone and Giuliano Sangiorgi.^[17] It debuted at number one on the FIMI Albums Chart, becoming the singer-songwriter's fourth album to top the chart.^[18] From the album were published the singles "Love me forever" and "Bruciare per te". Between November and December 2016 Elisa embarked the On Tour in Italy and the UK-Ireland Tour in United Kingdom and Ireland.^[19][20]

2017–2019: Label change, Diari aperti and The Lion King

In 2017, Elisa ended her deal with Sugar Music and signed with Universal Music Group under the label Island Records.^[21] The same year Elisa celebrated 20 years of her career with the Together Here We Are, a four event concerts at the Verona Arena.^[22] The live event was anticipated by the last record project with Sugar Music of the greatest hits Soundtrack '97-'17, which debuted at no. 4 in the Italian Album Charts.^[23] On September 22, 2017, "Ogni istante" was published as the first single with Universal Music.^[24] The revenues from the single were donated to municipalities in central Italy affected by the earthquake in 2016 and 2017.

Elisa released her tenth studio album Diari aperti through Universal Music Group on 26 October 2018, which debuted at number two on the Italian Albums Chart.^[25] The album's lead single, "Se piovesse il tuo nome", peaked at number four on the FIMI Italian chart and at number one on the Italian Airplay Chart for nine weeks.^[26] In January 2019, Elisa released the second single, "Anche fragile", singing it at the Sanremo Music Festival 2019 as a special guest.^[27] In May 2019, "Vivere tutte le vite" featuring rapper Carl Brave was released as the album's third single.^[28] The following 17 September she published the fifth single "Tua per sempre".^[29] The singer announced that an expanded version of the album, Diari aperti (Segreti Svelati), would be released on 15 November 2019 with a total of 21 tracks stemming from the tenth album Diari Aperti and the English EP Secret Diaries.^[30] In the project has other collaborations with Carmen Consoli, Brunori Sas and Rkomi. The lead single of the expanded album, in collaboration with Rkomi, was "Blu Part II" published on 8 November 2019.^[6]

Throughout 2019 the singer has been chosen by Walt Disney Animation Studios for the dubbing of the animated film The Lion King premiering in Italy on 21 August 2019. Elisa voiced Nala, who is voiced by pop-star Beyoncé in the original, and sung the Italian version of "Spirit" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" with Marco Mengoni, who voiced Simba.^[31] In 2019 Elisa was also involved in some collaborations, including "Blu" with Rkomi,^[32] on Imagine Dragons's song "Birds", the fifth single from their fourth album Origins,^[33] and in the album Note di viaggio – Capitolo 1: venite avanti... by Francesco Guccini and Mauro Pagani, in which the singer reinterpreted the song "Auschwitz".^[34]

2020–present: Ritorno al futuro/Back to the Future, Sanremo Festival and collaborations

On 6 March 2020, Marracash released a new single "Neon – Le ali", from the album Persona, featuring Elisa, which peaked at number five on the Italian Singles Chart.^[35] On 10 April 2020, Elisa published the collaboration "Andrà tutto bene" with Tommaso Paradiso, written during the quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.^[36] On 20 November 2020, Luciano Ligabue published the collaboration with Elisa "Volente o nolente", second extract from his album 7.^[37] In December 2021 Elisa performs the song "Alice!" title-track of the homonymous show "Alice!" written and directed by Simone Ferrari and Lulu Helbaek,^[38][39] composed by John Metcalfe, arranger for U2, Coldplay, Peter Gabriel and Blur. In 2021, as well as announcing on social networks that she was working on her eleventh studio album, Elisa was featured on Mahmood's single "Rubini" from the rapper album Ghettolimpo.^[9]

On 24 November 2021, the single "Seta" was published, anticipating the eleventh album, Ritorno al futuro/Back to the Future. The album, which is a double record with songs in Italian in the first and in English in the second,^[40] released on February 18, 2022, and became Elisa's fifth number one album on the Italian Albums Chart.^[41] It featured the single "O forse sei tu", presented by the singer during the Sanremo Music Festival 2022, where it took second place in the final ranking and was recognized with the "Giancarlo Bigazzi" award for best musical composition.^[42][43] On May 6, 2022, Elisa published "Litoranea" as the third single form the album,^[44] followed by the collaboration "Palla al centro" with Jovanotti.^[45]

From June 28 to September 24, 2022, Elisa embarked on the environmentally friendly Back to the Future Live Tour in Italy,^[46] which was followed by an eight-date European tour.^[47] The recordings of the three opening concerts hold in Verona Arena flowed into the live album Back to the Future Live.^[48] On December 16, 2022 "Come te nessuno mai" was released as the fifth single and she embarked on An Intimate Night, a tour in theatres that featured the artistic direction of Dardust between December 2022 and January 2023.^[49]

Throughout 2022 Elisa wrote and composed two songs for Italian singer Elodie: "Bagno a mezzanotte"^[50] and the soundtrack original song "Proiettili (Ti mangio il cuore)" for the film Burning Hearts, directed by Pippo Mezzapesa,^[51] which won the David di Donatello for Best Original song and was nominated in the same category at the Nastro d'Argento.^[52] She was also featured on a bilingual version of Muse's song "Ghosts (How Can I Move On)", released on November 25, 2022.

In 2023 she participated as a guest at the Sanremo Music Festival 2023, performing with Giorgia a mash up of her own song "Luce (Tramonti a nord est)" and Giorgia's one "Di sole e d'azzurro". Throughout 2023 she collaborated with Negramaro and Jovanotti on the single "Diamanti",^[53] and with La Rappresentante di Lista on Zef & Marz's debout single "Tilt".^[54] On 24 November 24, 2023 Elisa published the single "Quando nevica" form her compilation album Intimate - Recording at Abbey Road Studios, recorded with Dardust at the Abbey Road Studios in London.^[55][56]

Television