For Boston based vocalist and electronic producer Valerie Giglio, it's all about bringing back that vintage sound and style and pairing it with electronic dance music. As a vocalist, she possesses a distinctive lush, retro style and sound with a modern edge that makes her unique in today's music world. It all started when she became a featured vocalist for the late Boston Jazz legend Al Vega, giving Valerie the opportunity to perform regularly with his legendary trio at iconic venues in Boston including Scullers Jazz Cub. She released the albums "Songbook" and "The Italian Project", as she had originally started her solo career singing jazz standards, Italian language songs, and unique renditions of hits from the 40's through the 80's. It was only a natural transition to the Electro Swing musical genre, which mixes Swing and Jazz elements with EDM beats.
2021 marked her debut in the Electro Swing genre with her original release "Starlight Ballroom" featuring Italian vibist Samuel Cerra, which won a Global Music Award. She soon followed this release with "Bootleg Baby" which reached No. 7 on the iSwing Charts.
2021 also saw Valerie release her first Holiday EP "Electro Jingle Swing" featuring the song Hi De Ho Christmastime, an original co-written with Cerra which charted in the top 40 on the iSwing Charts.
In 2022, Valerie and Cerra released "The Illusionist", a cinematic steampunk/dark electro swing original, accompanied by the official video filmed on location in Malta. Soon after its release, Berlin based electro swing record label Electro Swing Thing with Norweigan DJ Glenn Gatsby released a house remix of "The Illusionist" that soon went viral. In January, 2023 Valerie released the album "Midnight at the Speakeasy". A sonic palette of retro sounds paired with EDM, the album takes you back to the music reminiscent of yesterday, with a club beat!
Her latest release “Yellowbird Swing” is a homage to the glam of the 1960's Jet Age. It was nominated for a 2024 Hollywood Independent Music Award for Best Dance Song.
On a personal note, Valerie is also the survivor of a catastrophic stroke. In 2014, she lost her singing voice and ability to sing, was totally paralyzed on her left side, and was confined to a wheelchair as a result of the stroke.
After extensive rehab, determination and grit, she not only made a triumphant recovery and return to the stage and studio within months, but 2 years after losing her singing abilities she was accepted to and later attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA as a voice principal. She studied Electronic Production and Sound Design and embarked on a career as an electronic producer. She writes and produces in the electro swing and retro pop genres of electronic music.
She is also a pubic speaker and author. Her memoir, “Singing In My Own Key: A Vocalist’s Triumph Over Stroke”, was published in 2016 and documents her stroke journey. With rave reviews from Publisher's Weekly, Portland Book Review, Reader's Favorite and more, and featuring on the first round ballot of the 2016 Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word Album, it is available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, I AM Books Boston, and at many other locations. She has sang the National Anthem for the NHL (Boston Bruins), for the American Heart Walk at Boston's famed Esplanade, and was the featured survivor at the 2022 American Heart Ball Boston.
Her story has gained national media attention and she was featured in The Boston Globe, NBC Boston, as well as various magazines, radio interviews, podcasts, and social media.
Valerie has performed throughout the Boston area as well as LA and in Europe. She works continuously to inspire others suffering from adversity to never give up, that disability does not define your life and to reach for the stars!
She is a legislative stroke advocate with the American Heart Association and has advocated on behalf of improving critical care for stroke patients. Valerie's story was also featured as a survivor story by the National Stroke Association. She has been featured as a donor campaign patient success story for Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, MA.
Valerie is a graduate of Salem State University, New England School of Law and attended Berklee College of Music. She is a voting member of The Recording Academy (Grammys®), the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and maintains an independent record label and music publishing company (Palma Records and Valmark Publishing).
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