Weekend Intermission – Veronica Fusaro (Switzerland) – Better with you (single/track from forthcoming debut album)

Weekend Intermission is our regular feature where we look at an artist or band not from the Nordic countries, just to mix things up a bit.

It’s the first time in NMC for Swiss/Italian chanteuse Veronica Fusaro but I’ve encountered her several times before and been impressed by her vocal capabilities, comparing her, inter alia, to Dusty Springfield, Shirley Bassey, Petula Clark and Sia (the disparity between those artists alone should give you an idea of her range). I’ve also noted how close to ‘Bond’ film themes she comes in her some of her songs and more about that later.

She’s still quite young but has already performed alongside Mark Knopfler, and has played gigs at Glastonbury, Eurosonic and support shows for Ibeyi and Eagle-Eye Cherry. Support for an Indian artist in the UK back in 2019 seems to have been factor in her picking up plenty of support herself in India. (And it will be interesting to see where this article is read, we do have readers out there).

She describes herself as a ‘night person’, saying that is when her inspiration is at its strongest. Having said that, ‘Better with you’is about waking up in the morning…but particularly because “next to you (is) the person who makes the moment perfect…” Aww.

Her creativity having been strangled by lockdown, it was only in December that inspiration seized her again and this song came to her quickly – and it’s her first real love song. Aww again.

There is a danger with Veronica when she sings a song like this so effortlessly and with such a lush, silky voice, of picturing her as the ‘top of the bill’ act on some or other fancy cruise liner on a world voyage. There is a lot more to her than that and ‘Better with you’ doesn’t really test her. Even then, you can sense that it would merit inclusion in a Bond film score, and especially so in a bedroom scene if the next Bond does turn out to be a woman.

Ever since I discovered her I’ve believed that she is destined for the top. The album, when it is released (towards the end of the year, on deepdive records) will not be the acid test but it should certainly propel her along the way if she can keep this standard up.

Find her on:

Website: https://veronicafusaro.com/