Jenny Vinatieri

I was born in Italy and raised in Spain.  My father was in the military and stationed in Seville when he met and fell in love with my mother who was going to school there.  Neither knew the other's language but there's the language of love and that's when I came to be. My father then got orders to go to Italy and that's where I made my grand entrance.  My first language was a mix of made up words they used to communicate, Spanish, English, and Italian.  Needless to say I was the little weirdo who didn't really speak much and kept to herself during her first years of school due to a lack of confidence.  But this is what brought me to my best friend MUSIC.  I found that I didn't have to understand what was being said, which was probably a good things as some of my favorites at the time were Janet Jackson's "NASTY", Madonna's "Like A Virgin", Ready For The World's "Oh Shiela!"...I got lost in the sound of the music and it's emotion.  It was a universal language! I wasn't alone!  I was put in a Special Ed class in which my teacher was blind.  She was my first hero and I thought she had super powers as she always knew when I stuck my tongue out at her.  She gave me the confidence of speech and writing.  And there began my love for writing lyrics.  In elementary school I began writing parodies to popular songs which were published in the school newspaper.  I wrote my first song at the age of 8 in which my parents loved until I taught it to my little brother and we applied the "99 bottles of beer on the wall" method to it during road trips.  At the age of 16 we moved to Colorado. It was terrifying!  I knew absolutely no one going into high school.  I remember writing a lot more as there were more topics and feelings to write about.  My emotions were running wild as a teenager.  I reverted back the little weirdo.  I managed to make a few friends and taught them my songs. We would fantasize about starting a music group.  My best friend at the time tricked me into performing in front of her class as she invited me for moral support as she was to give a speech.  This quickly turned into a blackmail situation in which she would receive an "F" if I didn't sing.  It was some weird social experiment.  But I came out feeling some strange sense of confidence after receiving a standing ovation and hearing my song throughout the hallways by kids we didn't even know.  Later in college I had an incident where a boy I had a crush on in high school approached me and said, "You're that NEVER NEVER girl".  He remembered my song! He spoke to me!  MUSIC was my super power!  Word got around and I was being asked to write for local bands. it was amazing hearing my songs sung in local bars. I had a song I wrote and produced on rotation at a few of the local dance clubs. I loved watching the people dance as one.  I ran into a guy wearing a shirt of one of the rap groups I wrote hooks for and struck up a conversation.  He started singing the hook for one of his favorites and I joined him which surprised him as no one knew what I looked like as I liked to remain incognito and let the music speak for itself.  That's what music is really supposed to do.  A few years ago I decided to put out my own project.  A compilation/portfolio of my own songs to have for myself.  I purchased my own beats and worked with a local engineer to produce my album "Religion". I created a profile on Reverbnation and signed up for feedback.  I was curious to see how people would relate.  I found the negative feedback to be empowering and a challenge. To my surprise the feedback was overwhelmingly positive and I was approached by Reverbnation to be their featured artist!  With this project I was a semi-finalist in the USA, International and Unsigned songwriting competitions, Grand Prize winner of the Divine Tracks song contest, received international airplay on various indie stations as well as video play.  I recently had the honor of performing live as the headline for the Susan G. Komen, Race for the Cure walk in Colorado Springs and had my remix track played at the annual YOT Club event.  My song Rainbow was featured on the CD compilation "That's Summer" Volume 1, by various artists, in which is currently nominated for an IMA.  I just released my second album "Phoenix" and am in process of opening my Artist Development company, lyriXchange where I hope to be a launching pad to mentor and develop future talent.  I believe that music has the power to bring people of all walks of life together.  I'm a huge cry baby when I attend concerts. I love to watch them back words into the crowd at the audience.  It's beautiful to see such a large group of people put their differences aside for a little while to get together and get lost in the moment.