Elisa Fiorillo began singing at the age of six. Most of her childhood was spent in musical theater such as “The Sound Of Music”, “A Christmas Carol” and “The Music Man” to name a few. She spent most of her time going on auditions in New York City with her mom doing commercials for products such as: Duncan Hines Cookies, Aquafresh Toothpaste, and Kiddie City Toy Store.
Elisa Fiorillo grew up in Philadelphia in a musical family. Her mother, Betty, was a singer and her father, Alexander Fiorillo, was a concert pianist and a Classical Piano Professor at Temple University. Her father was one of five students to have studied piano with the legendary concert pianist Vladimir Horowitz and he also debuted at Carnegie Hall with the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Eugene Ormandy when he was only 12 years old.
After doing a Broadway show in New York, “The Three Musketeers,” Elisa and her mother moved to California. Elisa performed and won “Star Search” in 1985. From there, she went on to record with Chrysalis Records. Her first album entitled “Elisa Fiorillo” debuted in 1988. She also had a Top 10 dance hit with New York DJ/Producer – Jellybean Benitez (who worked with Madonna) called, “Who Found Who” which took her on a promotion tour all around the world. Her second album on Chrysalis Records was called “I Am” released in 1991. The album was recorded in Minneapolis at Paisley Park Studios. Record producer David Z. produced 1/2 of the album (The Jets/Fine Young Cannibals/Jody Watley) and Prince produced the other 1/2 of the album. Elisa co-wrote the first single with Prince and Levi Seacer Jr. entitled “On The Way Up” which peaked at #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.
While recording in Minneapolis, Elisa lent her talents on a few Prince projects. You can hear her voice on the Grafitti Bridge soundtrack singing “Love Machine” with Morris Day, on the Batman Soundtrack singing backgrounds on the 12” version of “Party Man” and on the Diamonds and Pearls album singing backgrounds on “Daddy Pop” and “Walk” along with singer Rosie Gaines.
Prince made a phone call one morning in 2009 to Elisa-and after a quick catch-up and recap of what had gone on in each of their lives over the past 20 years, he said he wanted to work with her. Elisa joined the NPG and sang alongside of powerhouse vocalists Shelby J & Liv Warfield on Prince’s album titled “2010” which was released only in Europe. Elisa toured with Prince and the NPG from 2009-2014 doing shows all over the world including: Abu Dhabi, Paris, Australia, Canada, Montreux, Switzerland for The Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival in Curacao and the Welcome To America tour that took them to amazing cities all over the USA. Elisa also got to record on Prince’s last two albums. “Hit & Run” and “Welcome To America”. The experiences in the recording studio, the soundstage rehearsing for the tour, learning all of Prince’s material around Prince’s piano as he would teach them songs from his vast catalog that he hadn’t sung in years- and of course singing in the front foyer at Paisley Park with him and just his guitar…
After Prince’s sudden passing in 2016, Elisa joined the Bruce Harper Big Band and performed here in Las Vegas as his lead singer for over 4 years doing sold-out shows at The Smith Center. Most recently she joined hit R&B singer D Train “You’re The One For Me” on stage at the Industrial for a show she produced called “Soul-Full”. Broadway World said “Soul-Full explodes with powerhouse vocalists Elisa Fiorillo & D Train singing Soul, Funk & R&B”. John Katsilometes from the Review-Journal said, “We felt the Soul-Full Sundays at the Industrial would blow the roof off the place. It did.”
For the past three summers, Elisa has flown to Minneapolis to work with a group of 25 teens with director Heidi Vader and Willie Adams teaching them about the recording process, the record industry, and the process and art of songwriting.