Gioia Bruno is most remembered for being one-third of the chart topping group Expose. Expose ruled the 80's and early 90's with their hit songs, "Come GoWith Me", "Let Me Be The One", "Tell Me Why", and the classic ballad "Seasons Change."
At the peak of thier fame Gioia (pronounced joy-a) was forced to leave Expose after doctors discovered an inoperable tumor on her vocal cords. This was a devastating blow to the beautiful singer known for her strong powerhouse voice. Doctors told Gioia that she would never sing again, but through meditation and prayer the singer regained her voice again.
Gioia's voice is back and stronger than ever. Now a solo artist, Gioia's performing live again. Gioia's first release is the club anthem "Free To Be." Gioia is hard at work working on songs for a full length album. Gioia has also launched her official web site to support her return. from www.AfterEllen.com Interview with Gioia Bruno of Exposé by Lydia Marcus, Contributing Writer
Gioia Bruno made a name for herself as one third of Exposé, a top female singing group of the late '80s and early '90s whose numerous hits included “Point of No Return,” “Seasons Change,” and “Let Me Be the One.” After Exposé, Gioia (pronounced “joy-ah”) sang with the band Wet, worked solo, and even opened the West Broward Performing Arts Academy in Florida. But in late November, Bruno will reunite with Exposé after more than a decade apart, and a tour is planned for 2007.
Last January, the 43-year-old singer, mom to an 18-year-old daughter, revealed that she is bisexual. AfterEllen recently talked with her about the highs and lows of Exposé fame, her bisexuality, queer fans and how she dealt with a throat tumor on her vocal chords.
AfterEllen.com: I was in high school when Exposé was big, so everyone my age I told I was interviewing you was pretty psyched. Gioia Bruno: It’s pretty amazing how many people remember, and it freaks me out because there are so many markets. Honestly, I think everybody came out of the closet — at least mostly the boys — to Exposé. If they didn’t, then at recent shows I’ve seen all the faces that I remember from before, and they’re finally out. I’m like, “I so knew you were gay.” I could just tell. I love the people that support me so much, let me tell you. Anybody I knew back then, we’re in contact now. Most of my friends are people that I met back then. And all of them are gay or bisexual or transgender or lesbian.
AE: Part of why I’m interviewing you is that you’ve recently begun talking about being bisexual. GB: Yeah, well, I talked about it my whole life, but nobody talked to me about it in an interview. I really only opened up to that for myself in my life when I was in my 30s. It’s tough to figure out what does bi mean. ... I thought about it in my 20s and being raised Catholic Italian … and I always loved men. I love men and women. The thing is I made some relationships in my 20s and 30s with people, women in my life, that I’ll never forget and that will never end.
AE: What’s your longest relationship with a woman? GB: Probably about three years.
AE: Did you live together? GB: We couldn’t 'cause of work but you know, [we] got together all the time. But she — actually it’s pretty hard to talk about who she is — but I respect that. It kind of started out as a threesome, and that’s how I was introduced to women.
AE: To have been in a band that had more than one hit is kind of a miracle. When you were at the height of it, did you enjoy it? GB: You know they kept us so down, they kept us down.
AE: The management? GB: Everybody, the whole entire bunch of them.
AE: Were you created? Because you came after there was already an Exposé. GB: Yeah, there was a three-girl group and they put out the first version of “Point of No Return,” and after they gave the deal to the producers of the group, they said, “Great music, but we want new girls.” And they came in and they found me at a club in North Miami.
AE: Were you dancing? GB: I was singing. North Miami had just brought me up from New York — I’m a rock singer. I was a rocker, R&B singer, and they needed somebody with a little more of a soulful voice for songs like “Let Me Be the One.” And they came at me and for eight months straight I was not interested. I didn’t know what dance music was, I didn’t want to know about it. And then, of course, it got under my skin and now I’ve got a Junior Vasquez remix, a track for me called “From the Inside,” and that went out on Queer As Folk and got on their CD, and then different little things started happening.
And my whole world is gay. If I have one friend out of 10 — and I have a lot of friends — [one] out of every 10 is straight, it’s a lot. And I wouldn’t be who I was if it wasn’t for the people in my life. And they’re gay and they’re straight and they’re transgender and they’re completely switched over, and I love that about my life. And for me to not be able to say it, you know, that’s who I am and what I’ve done.
AE: So did you actually get to enjoy Exposé when you were at the height of your fame? GB: You know what? Honestly, there were times that it was great. For me, the memory that always sticks in my head is the sound of the audience when certain songs would start, like “Point of No Return,” and just the amount of screaming, say at the Boston Garden. … And I can get chills just thinking about it now, that it was just so amazing that so many people loved it so much. But it was pretty tough shows. It was like nine shows a week and we were getting paid 200 bucks a show! Some of it was the worst!
AE: You had a benign throat tumor while you were still performing with Exposé. Did that come from singing? GB: No, you know like anything, any kind of a cancer, it’s from stress.
AE: Oh yeah, and you get it where it really counts because it shuts you down. GB: Yeah. Stress, lack of sleep, poor nutrition. And I was forced to come off the road, and in doing so I had a lot of time to really investigate holistic types of medicines and herbal remedies and basically just shutting my big fat mouth.
AE: What was the signal? Did you feel a lump or your voice was affected? GB: Actually my voice was affected, that was the first sign. … There was an actual growth in my vocal chord and it was inside, like a node would happen on the outside. So this happened on the inside and just started to swell. They said that if they operated that I would never, ever sing again. We found out that it was benign and I looked up everything; my family and everybody was working on it. And I spoke to a few different doctors. I went to the professor of otolaryngology at [the University of] Miami/Jackson [Memorial Medical Center], and he told me that they can shrink. And it’s completely gone. And I got involved in just really great supplements — I’m like the vitamin whore.
AE: What are the other holistic things you did? GB: The reason I went to those was because they starting giving me steroids, and I started feeling really wacky. But just all these different herbal remedies — I used Eastern medicine, I did acupuncture.
AE: Were you still touring at that time? GB: What happened in the summer of '91 [was] I had to stop performing because business and contractual obligations just got really complicated. They kept trying to push me to go back out and I was like, “You don’t understand, this thing is just getting worse.” It was at that point it was just growing, and I was singing worse and worse. How can I get on stage? What can I do? I want to get well and you’re not worth it, sorry guys. Not the girls.
And I wouldn’t compromise. I just said, "If I’m ever going to sing again, we’ll do what I really wanted to do," which was ... I wanted to be a songwriter and sing with a band and have fun and screw the record business. I didn’t want that, I just kind of fell into it, and everybody thinks it’s like some fairy tale thing, but I’m saying it’s a curse. [Laughs.]
No it wasn’t a curse, I can’t even go down saying that, but I can I tell you that three women, three menstrual cycles — I know why I never wanted to be with women in my 20s, because I was with Ann [Curless] and Jeanette [Jurado]. As much I love them, each of them I’m sure they’d say the same thing. We’d want to kill each other every other day. But I embrace them now. I didn’t talk to them for so long, and now we’re talking due to work.
AE: When you hear “Point of No Return,” what do you think of? GB: The goosebumps I used to get. And I’m grateful for that, and I still get those goosebumps and people still freak out when they hear it. I think that I’m a damn lucky girl, is what I think when I think about those songs, because I really had a great career with it. And when it really comes down to it, was I miserable then? Yes. Am I grateful for it? Hell yes. And would I do it again? Double hell yes, I would just do it a little bit differently.
AE: What would you do differently? GB: I’d have a hell of a good attorney. And I wouldn’t listen to half to the people that influenced me back then. I’d be a little stronger as a woman and more independent, which is what I feel I’ve become.
AE: You’re very ripped; what do you do to stay in shape? GB: I pretty much do shakes every day. I have a business that I do — my Usana business — that’s what I’m talking about with supplements and stuff; I found a company that has 100 percent of everything I need for me. And my voice has gotten so much better; it’s so much more consistent. And then I do the shakes because it’s all low glycemic and my blood sugar has to be regulated. When I have too much, I go off the freakin' wall. And I eat healthy. It became like a lifestyle thing for me. I love fried chicken but it doesn’t love me. I love to cook, so I’ve learned how to make things that don’t normally taste good taste really good.
AE: What’s your workout routine? GB: I lift weights and do cardio just like pretty much everyone else, but I do superset everything, chest and tri's, back and bi's, that kind of routine. Then I’m bad too, I really don’t work that hard. I think what it is, is years and years of doing it. I was 16 when I started, so I’m really blessed. Thank you God that I can even have any muscle left. And I move really fast. So just the energy, I just go.
AE: Your daughter Brianna was born in 1988 during the height of your Exposé fame. How did you deal with being a mom and a traveling performer? GB: She was born when “Seasons Change” was number one. [Laughs.] She was with me all the time. She was on every stage and every dressing room. Her microphone stand was always set up, and her little white shoes — her poor little feet were all crooked, so we had to straighten them out, so she would always wear these little clunker shoes and she had her little headphones on so we wouldn’t blow her brains out. She was so cute. She knew the dance moves better than we did at 2 years old. She had three mamas; all three of us took care of her.
AE: Does she do any singing or dancing now? GB: She sings her friggin' butt off. She’s amazing, but she doesn’t want to be a singer, and I guess seeing me struggle so much. She wants to be a writer. … She’s my best friend, I love her so much. That’s my world.
Gioia Bruno, the former lead singer of Exposé, says she has had sexual relationships with women as well as men. She made the announcement during an appearance on Q Television Network's "Brunch," hosted by Honey Labrador and Scott Withers.
"I never wanted to put a label on myself, but, yes, I have dated women," said Bruno. "It's about the person and what's in their soul. Right now, I am dating a man, but hey, but I can still look at the girls. I think everybody's got a little queer in them."
I am also a co-author of It's A Gay-Gay-Gay World which may sadly come to an end next year; the good news is that fellow author Riki the Dark gave me permission to reprint all items I like! Woohooo!
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