Who is Jessica Jay? Answers are here (Maybe)

(June 2015. I realize that this blog post seems confusing, but I am leaving it as it is, to show the strange journey I took in figuring out things eventually, Just skip over to the bottom of this web page to find the results of what I found).

Jessica Jay is a singer who sang the 1995 Europop hit Casablanca and lots of other dance songs. Most of the songs are in English and simply arranged. I also confess I have no idea who this singer is! Despite the massive amounts of information of the Net and several Youtube videos, I am no closer to finding the answer than I was a few years ago. There still is no confirmed photograph of the singer, so she could be European, Asian or an alien from outer space.

It’s not exactly an obsession. She’s a good singer (and that song Casablanca has a special memory for me; it was the first time I ever danced all night, in 1996, when I was in Vlore, Albania). But at this point I simply feel frustrated. Why is finding information about one singer so hard? For this post, I invite other people searching on google to add information (maybe even Jessica Jay herself!).

Here is what I know so far:

  • Most importantly, the Philipino dancer Marian Rivera made this dynamite dance video of one of her songs Chichiquita. (You should probably stop and watch/listen to it now. It’s that good) This song comes from a CD called Marian Rivera Dance Hits (note that Rivera does not sing; she merely performs dance numbers to the song).
  • According to this Amazon information, “Jessica Jay first emerged in the music scene with “Broken Hearted Woman” in 1993, which became the biggest song of 1993, selling 1 million copies alone in Thailand and more than 500,000 copies in Asia. After a 6-year break, Jessica is back with a long-awaited new album “My Heart Is Back”.
  • There are 2 myspace profile for Jessica Jays (see here and here) but I seriously doubt these people are the real Jessica Jay. They are 20 years and 22 years old and don’t have any mentions of her most famous songs.
  • Denpasar Moon is another song of Jessica Jay’s on Youtube which simply shows various beach scenes. (That actually is pretty consistent with the Europop feel of her other songs).  Update: Boy, was I wrong! Apparently this is based on an Indonesian song, Denpasar Moon (Denpasar is located in Bali, Indonesia with lots of beaches). Also, see Update #4 below.
  • Here’s a youtube karaoke version of Broken-Hearted Woman which suggests Asian distribution of this song. (Broken Hearted Song was on the same cassette as Casablanca when I found it in 1997).
  • Here’s a youtube video called Chilly Cha Cha. I cannot confirm that this song is by Jessica Jay, but it would not surprise me (especially given the context of that dance number Chichiquita).
  • The language of the commenters on youtube have mystified me. On the Chichiquita song, all the commenters are writing in Tagalog; on the Casablanca song, a lot of the commenters are writing in Albanian (!) ; on another, the commenters are writing in a non-Romance language with the Roman alphabet (Turkish?) This video shows that someone made an avatar animation of the Chilly Cha Cha song also by Philipinos.
  • The lyrics for most of her early songs like Casablanca and Broken-Hearted Woman are on the Internet everywhere (leading me to believe that the rush to identify song lyrics far outpaces the rush to learn about the singer).

Up until two I have two working theories: First, perhaps Jessica Jay is a Philipino who sings in English (and somehow managed to make inroads in Thailand and get her song put on a Eurodance CD). Second, Jessica Jay is a woman from Spain who sang in English for marketing reasons (Perhaps she married a Phillipino man?). She retired in the late 1990s and only restarted her career a few months ago. The fact that there are no English articles about this singer tells me that her native language cannot possibly be in English and probably not a European language either. Actually, a lot of singers perform for a few years, disappear for a decade and then suddenly spring into the public eye again. (I had that happen with Texas singer Kathy McCarty a few years ago ). Who knows–maybe Jessica Jay is working under our noses  disguised as a normal person.

Ironically, the Chichiquita song may do more to catapult Jessica Jay to fame than her previous dance songs. Come on, readers. Help me out here! I’m really looking forward to finding out the real story. Occasionally I do casual Internet detective work to locate people, and I savor the challenge. I heard the song first in 1996 and had no idea how to find the song when I wrote a former student, Ermelinda Gjika and asked her if she knew anything. She immediately knew the singer “Jessica Jay” and even mailed me a copy of a cassette to me at my new job in Ukraine. I was so grateful for her help, but I think Ermelinda didn’t know much more about the singer than the name.

May 28 Update: One Google link identifies a “Jessica Jey” with SAIFAM music, which looks to be a CD distribution company located in Italy. It looks like they distribute lots of compilation CDs consisting of dance/dj hits. They allegedly have a popup page for “Jessica Jey”. It contains nothing but this photo. Often these kinds of cassettes/cd’s contain generic photos of pretty dancers, but let’s assume it’s correct right now.

May  30 Update #2: Ebay Philipines auction for the latest Jessica Jay CD. Seller comments: “never available anywhere and only Singapore and the Philippines issued this album for fans to get hold of…Made in the Philippines by Universal Records.”

June 4 Update #3: Warner Music Thailand has a page about the My Heart is Back album and for a Jessica Jay Greatest Hits album. But alas, the biography page is completely blank! Damn, you Warner Brothers!  The “Jessica Jay” is from Thailand is now the default theory (but I notice that it’s also available on Warner Brothers Singapore, so maybe the nationality isn’t important). I noticed that one of the new songs (My Chiw Chiw Thai Boy) uses a foreign phrase and the music video for Casablanca actually seems to be a tourist-promotional video for a beach resort from Thailand.

June 4 Update #4: Another piece of the puzzle is Colin Bass (aka Sabah Habas Mustapha) who wrote the song Denpasar Moon (which Jessica Jay’s Dempasar Moon is a cover version of).  His artist site says:  The title song, “Denpasar Moon”, was covered by a singer from the Phillipines called Maribeth and her version became the biggest selling English-language record ever in Indonesia. Over 40 cover versions in different regional styles and languages followed”. Ok, let’s think. Colin Bass is an Asian/European singer who is singing in a dangdut pop music style that fuses Asian and Arabic styles. But he was born in England, traveled all throughout Eastern Europe and then produced the song in 1994 in Indonesia, then had it become an international hit sung by a Philipino singer named Maribeth. Purely by coincidence another singer from that region does a cover version of the song which happens to be a hit in the same region Colin Bass traveled extensively in. I’m not saying the paths of these two singers have crossed, but it would bolster the theory that  Jessica Jay is from Philipines/Thailand (and certainly not from Europe).

July 4 Update. According to a person commenting, Jessica Jay is a “disco concept,” with Italo-disco star Dora Carofiglio providing the female vocals. That merits a photo, doesn’t it? Update: Simon says this photo is of the wrong person.

Note to commenters: If you came here through a search engine, I would love to hear where you are from in the world and when you heard her songs! If you have seen her sing in person, then you will receive good karma.

September 2, 2008. According to Simon (see below), Dora Carofiglio was the main Jessica Jay. Looking at this Novecento  video (in which Dora actually appears!), you can’t deny the similarity in voice. It’s a David Morales mix, and I feel certain he probably mixed Casablanca and the other songs. Amazingly, I can’t seem to find a photo of Dora, although she clearly appears to be singing in the Novecento video. Dora also sang under the name Valerie Dore

Dec 15 2008/April 28, 2008. Cody points out below an update on the  SAIFAM website. Amazingly, the bio uses the word “I” several times. Unless this is a literary trick, my guess is that we are hearing Jessica/Dora actually speak. (Shudders of excitement...)

1993 saw the release of a song called “Broken Hearted Woman” by a brand new face on the music scene named “Jessica Jay”.

“Broken Hearted Woman” took Thailand by storm and became an overnight success. It was well accepted across the country and among the people regardless of sex, age and educational background. The song is included in a compilation album called “Broken Hearted Woman” and propelled the album to 3 million mark in sale. The sale was largely driven by this sole track. It was quite phenomenal in the international music scene, considering it happened 6 years ago when international music was not as a big market in Thailand as today.

The success of the song was also witnessed by more than 30 local artists doing cover version of “Broken Hearted Woman” in Thai. The saying of “100 messages, 1 rhythm” came after the hype created by “Broken Hearted Woman” among the Thai artists who did the covers. Although the market was flooded by so many covers of the song, the sales figures of the parent albums did not seem to suffer at all.

It is not unusual an upbeat tune enhanced by strong, yet powerful voice would be embraced and received a massive exposure. There is no denying that “Broken Hearted Woman” was 1993 Song Of The Year.

But who is Jessica Jay, by the way?

Born and raised in an upper middle class musical family in Europe, Jessica Jay was so into singing that she recorded more than 100 songs. However, she never thought that one of them would become successful somewhere in Asia. “I never thought “Broken Hearted Woman” would become a hit. At that time, I just recorded this song and went home after I was done with it”, she said.

Afterwards, she found herself moving to Russia with her family. Once there, she adjusted herself to new surrounding and gave first priority to her study. “It took me awhile to get used to the new home. I had to forget singing for quite awhile. I still sang with my friends but recording a song was nowhere near possible. Until now”.

Right after graduation, Jessica Jay was back in business doing what she loves and is very good at: singing. “I was so glad to be able to sing again, to be able to do what I love again after all these 6 years. And I don’t think that the absence should bring about any problem”.

“Broken Hearted Woman” brought an interest in me. It was a shame I didn’t have chance to get to know anyone then. But looking on a positive side, I don’t think anyone would love to see a little girl sing “Broken Hearted Woman”. However, if you want to know me better, you already have.

Jessica Jay is back this year with her full length album “Chilly Cha Cha” which will take you back to the original Cha Cha Cha music as well the dance beat of 90’s.
This is definitely going to make you swcat, just like “Broken Hearted Woman” did before.

The more you listen to “Chilly Cha Cha”, “You Don’t Have To Say Love Me”, “Kiss Me Another”, the more you will become certain she was born to sing and make you dance. Who knows “Chilly Cha Cha” might be covered as much as “Broken Hearted Woman” was.

April 28, 2009. I’ve heard the song Always before (From Broken-Hearted Woman album), but I have never really HEARD it. It’s great.

April 29, 2009. I will make this offer. If Jessica Jay/Dora Carofiglio is reading this, I would love to have the opportunity to do an interview. Contact me at idiotprogrammer AT fastmailbox.net .

August 11, 2009. You know, it occurs to me that Dora Carofiglio must have discovered this web page by now and found it very funny.

August 20, 2009. It looks like there is a facebook group for Jessica Jay.

November 10, 2009. Someone claiming to be Jessica Jay commented on this post. I sent her an email and will provide updates.

December 15, 2009. Sorry I forgot to update. I emailed the person claiming to be Jessica Jay. She was not “the Jessica Jay” but a woman who has been involved with Jessica Jay in the past. (I believe her story overall). She was involved in the Jessica Jay European  tours, but now works in Italian media.  Based on what she wrote,  I don’t think she was the person whose voice is associated with Jessica Jay songs.  I don’t think it’s accurate to say that this woman was the lead singer…if only because the music concept is supposed to deemphasize the role of a single individual and allow for different individuals to take the place of the lead singer if necessary.  I think this woman’s  correspondence did confirm this fact. In the meantime, I am still not providing a “picture” of Jessica Jay  — but if anyone knows of a good photo of Dora Carofiglio, I will use that one.

Jan 16, 2010. Wow, major update! On the facebook group I see this message from someone who worked at SAIFAM named Sascha Alexander Busch:

Jessica Jay featured different singers… The first album was Dora, the Second “Chilly Cha Cha” album featured an unknown Italian singer (often used by SAIFAM) and a British singer, who was also a background vocalist for “The Spice Girls” and often used by SAIFAM, as well. On her last album, they featured the unknown Spanish singer (unreleased songs from the 1998-1999) and the well-known Italian singer Melody Castellari (“Dance Little Lady Dance”, “Broken Hearted Woman 2008” and so on)… That’s the BIG secret… I worked for SAIFAM, so I know for sure 🙂

Now for videos. Here is an early Valerie Dore song The Night (1984!) which are verysoft, moody and low-key. Be kind! It was the 80s! :

Other Valerie Dore songs on youtube: Get Closer, Guinevere, On the Run. Wait, are you ready for this? A fan site lists about 30 different songs on youtube which Dora performed with Novocento and other bands! See Leaving Now for example. The Dora fan site also lists other names that Dora has been singing under.

Melody Castellari songs on video. Here is an embedded radio player with Melody’s songs.  Definitely a lot rowdier than Dora, but talented.

First, here is Dora’s photo gallery, with more galleries than you know what to do with!

Valerie Dore, 1980s
Valerie Dore, 1980s (before she was Jessica Jay)pre-Jessica Jay Valerie Dore, 1980s, glamor shot
pre-Jessica Valerie Dore
Russia concert Flyer. Who is this woman?
Valerie Dore 2007
Totally not Jessica Jay! (Appeared on Saifam album cover)
Melody Castellari (after she sung as  the next Jessica Jay)

Additional Thoughts. I am guessing that performers with Saifam/Jessica Jay must agree never to talk about their Jessica Jay singing.  Who knows what musicians must think of these arrangments? (Hopefully the money was good).  I just think those performers should know that even corporate rock bands like Jessica Jay still manage to touch people from all over the world.

June 26, 2014: News Flash! After checking google and wikipedia,  I see that the Jessica Jay song “Casablanca” is actually a cover version of a Bertie Higgins song (here). Bertie Higgins wrote and performed slow ballads in the 1980s, and Casablanca came from his first album Just Another Day in Paradise. This actually makes sense because I thought the lyrics were too smart to be written by a non-native speaker. The original song’s style is more of a slow dream ballad with greater emphasis  on synthesizer  and lush arrangements (that sort of fade into the sunset at the end). Jessica Jay’s faster and more rhythmic  version of the same song definitely has a Euro disco feel while retaining the original tropical feel of the original song.  I have always loved that pulsating (but understated)  interlude with the synthesizer in the middle of the Jessica Jay version. I actually exchanged emails with Higgins about the song and the “Jessica Jay” controversy.

Bertie Higgins, original writer and singer of "Casablanca"
Bertie Higgins, original writer and singer of “Casablanca”


June 10, 2015 update . Lately I have been listening to all the Novecento recordings and have figured a few things out.  Dora Nicolosi (who used to be  Carofiglio) sang with Novecento, but she also did some extra projects, perhaps for the fun of it, perhaps to pay the bills. She participated in  Valerie Dore as lead singer during the early days of Italo-Disco, while Monica Stucchi was the “face” of the band. Soon after the first album she left Valerie Dore entirely — leaving it entirely to Monica Stucchi to handle the singing. (It should be stressed that in these Eurodisco/synth bands, the singing was secondary to the moody synth sound). Contrast that with  Novecento which Dora participated in fully   with 3 members of the Nicolosi family  — and indeed, she married one of them.  Jessica Jay was another project she dabbled in when she wasn’t doing Novecento stuff. Novecento seemed more tranquil and jazzy, while Jessica Jay was just straight pop. I suspect that in the 80s and 90s, it was pretty common in Italy to have band concepts where singers came and went and people performed and toured who may have been different than the people who originally sang the song.  (This pitchfork article about 80s Italo-disco by Andy Beta provides the historical context). The advantage to this arrangement is that the brand was a familiar launching point for new blood; the disadvantage was that you lose your identity and perhaps were too controlled by the label. I’ve seen examples of this in the US and England. (The Pussy Cat dolls and the Sugarbabes come to mind). Lately it seems that  Nicolosi Productions probably keeps Dora and family busy enough.

By the way, I have been listening to all the Novecento albums. I’ve been enjoying them, especially Dreamland, Necessary and Secret. The 80s stuff is typical Italo-disco, while the more recent stuff is slower, jazzier, more serene. How nice to see a group evolving over time.


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172 responses to “Who is Jessica Jay? Answers are here (Maybe)”

  1. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    I’m from Indonesia and I heard her songs during 1993-1994 when I was in Junior high school. Broken hearted woman was a hit during that time. Ever since then I tried to find her songs collection, but it’s been difficult to find, especially the mp3’s files.

  2. Simon Avatar
    Simon

    I think I’m able to help you with your problem. I have to disappoint you, though… Jessica Jay is not an actual person. It’s an alias/musical project created by SAIFAM Music, and at least 3 different vocalists have been involved in it so far. The most recent one (on the My Heart Is Back album) is Melody Castellari (http://www.melodycastellari.com), who currently sings for SAIFAM under many other aliases. The first vocalist (behind Casablanca, Denpasar Moon, Broken Hearted Woman, etc.) was most probably Dora Carofiglio, lead singer of an Italian band called Novecento (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwuVH87RKuA), who has also been involved in multiple Italian disco/dance projects. SAIFAM Music, even though it’s based in Italy, has had a lot of success in Asia, and Jessica Jay is one of such ‘projects’ created for Asian markets.

  3. Wil Avatar
    Wil

    There is also a track on IGS’s arcade game ‘Percussion Master’ – bemani type drum game, that I believe is credited to Jessica Jay. Track is titled Cha Cha Queen, I believe. Catchy little song, been looking for it for a while, and like you have found not a lot on Jessica Jay nor the song…

  4. Diana Avatar
    Diana

    By the way..the Youtube commenters on Casablanca song are romanians!It a latin language(close to italian) .
    The song was also very known in Romania..i think around 1993-1994.

  5. Robert Nagle Avatar

    Thanks everybody for giving this information!

  6. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    Hi all JJ Fans,
    Now you can get her new 2008 album on GEMM.
    https://www.gemm.com/c/ad_update.pl?&key_secure=93322&a_refno=1424605889

  7. Radu Avatar
    Radu

    Thank you for this article. I have long wondered about this song and finally I can be completely disappointed that JJ is not a real person 😀

    The song is one of the best and is hardly forgetable.

    1995 was a very good year. Thank you once again for the article.

  8. Andrey Avatar
    Andrey

    Hi, I am from Ekaterinburg, Russia.
    Same thing – love JJ songs but can’t find anything about her. Some 10 yeras ago got a JJ cassete. Now all cassetes are gone but the only this one – it’s still on the shelf. The cassete player is broken for long, I’m looking for MP3-s, could anyone help?
    Thank you all!

  9. Christian Avatar
    Christian

    Jessica jay es una persona real no es un proyecto!

  10. Christian Avatar
    Christian

    Jessica Jay-real name Laura .Country-Italia

  11. Victor B. Avatar
    Victor B.

    Christian, do you have any arguments to your statement, or just words in thin air?!

  12. Colin Avatar
    Colin

    Perhaps someone can tell me who this is in the pictures of Jessica Jay in the recording studio: picture number 1 and picture number 2 .

  13. Robert Nagle Avatar

    Colin, where did you learn about these photos? It’s marked SAIFAM, so it’s possible, but on the other hand, not all SAIFAM females are Jessica Jay!

  14. Colin Avatar
    Colin

    Robert I did a lot of searching because I remember a few years ago finding a load of these pictures of her in the recording studio. Click on this link http://www.saifam.com/2004/most.asp it should take you to a page where you can click on Jessica Jays information

  15. Simon Avatar
    Simon

    SAIFAM loves to put models on the covers of their albums. It’s mostly because session singers aren’t interested in being the “face” of the project, since they work on many different projects. However, the girl in the pictures might be the ‘second’ Jessica Jay – the one who sung Chilly Cha Cha, as she appears on the cover. The first one was definitely Dora Carofiglio, and the most recent one (on the 2008 album) is definitely Melody Castellari.

  16. Simon Avatar
    Simon

    Oh, and that is NOT a picture of Dora Carofiglio – this is Monica Stucchi, who was also a model for one of the aliases under which Dora used to sing – Valerie Dore. Dora than backed out and only then did Monica actually start to sing. For an actual picture of Dora, look for pictures of the Italian band Novecento, for which she is the lead singer. By the way – “Smile”, one of the tracks from Jessica Jay’s first album, is actually a cover of a Novecento song… And they sound almost identical!

  17. Robert Nagle Avatar

    ok, what about this this video . Is this the real Dora?

    What about this Novocento video Day and Night . (That clearly shows a I have to admit, it sounds like her. Here’s a 1988 music video Shine that also sounds a lot like her, and we see a photo of a dark-haired woman. Here’s another video Dreamland Paradise . Early stuff, but are they really the Dora Carofiglio of Jessica Jay?

    I’m pretty much sold on the Day and Night video. The resemblances in the sound of the music and singing voice are remarkable. Sounds like it had the same producer as well.

  18. Simon Avatar
    Simon

    Yes, that’s the real Dora in the first two videos. By the way, Day & Night is a truly brilliant song, isn’t it? 😉
    Basically all of Dora’s songs are produced by Lino and Pino Nicolosi – the two guys you can see in the Day & Night video. Dora is actually Lino’s wife. The other girl in the group is Rossana, Lino and Pino’s sister.
    Here’s another Novecento video – Excessive Love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo9Flo-4MOU

  19. Alexandria Avatar
    Alexandria

    I first her her via the catchy dance song “Cocomelon” which was popular when I was in Thailand in 2003. I have been driving myself crazy trying to find a copy of this song ever since. Any chance someone could supply me with a CD or MP3 copy?

  20. Cody Avatar
    Cody

    Hi man! I’m from Bulgaria and I heard the song in 1995. My sister has bought a summer compilation with that song. However, check this out: http://www.last.fm/music/Jessica+Jay

    It’s a Jessica Jay’s Last.FM page. There are her pics too and album covers. It’s seems that Jessica is veri popular in Russia. She has a Gold Status for her album there. Here’s the cover:
    http://cfs10.blog.daum.net/image/20/blog/2007/07/27/22/55/46a9f94160384&filename=jessica%20jay%20-%20chilly%20cha%20cha.jpg

    We’ll keep in tocuh.

  21. Nalin C Perera Avatar
    Nalin C Perera

    Hello friends,
    Im nalin from sri lanka(ceylon)
    my first experience about JJ was casablanca cover hit.at that time i was a minor school boy.I heard her via SLBC’s english service,they played it frequently in that era.I had only my dad’s PHILIPS hifi only.it’s sound great at higher volume levels !.now i haven’t heard it any more in radio.
    The Ohs and Uhs in that song very emotional to me.i think that’s very lusty.
    like SIMON, I do believe that the casablanca JJ was DORA !.any way who’s this genius SIMON?
    thank you guys for the information…It’s a great pleasure tomeet cyber friends suffering from a same problem,,,,,,

  22. Andrey Avatar
    Andrey

    Hi again, I am from Ekaterinburg, Russia.
    Look here friends:
    http://torrents.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1253809. For those who can’t read russian, there are two albums of JJ to download and a photo. Perfomance is a little bit different from what I heard 10 years ago, but still nice!

  23. Marius Avatar
    Marius

    The voice from Casablanca and Denpasar Moon belongs to Monica Stucchi aka Valerie Dora.

  24. John Avatar
    John

    Hi, First, Thanks for all the information, I love the song “chilly cha cha” that’s why I am searching for infomation about the singer, it’s a suprise to found this singer has such a mystery background.
    Anway, just want to let you guys know, I am from China and I am pretty sure the song “Broken Heart woman” is a cover version of a popular chinese pop song back in early 90s sung by a Chinese singer -Faye wong, here is the orginal song video on youtube
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7d159m-a5M

  25. Robert Nagle Avatar

    John, this is very interesting. By the way, the wikipedia page about Faye Wong says this: wikipedia says this:

    On this album, Faye Wong covered the song “Fragile Woman,” originally sung by the Japanese music diva Miyuki Nakajima. While this song had been covered by other Chinese singers, her angelic version nonetheless swept over Hong Kong and single-handedly lifted her to superstardom.”

  26. Vasilica Batu Avatar

    First of all I would like to thank you guys for taking the time to enlighten us regarding Jessica Jay. I too was listening and partying to her famous song “Casablanca” in Romania in the 90’s, and I must also admit that I stumbled upon this site while searching for a photo of her(Amazing that in this day of age we cannot be 100% sure who she is). Many times I listen to the old cassette tapes I purchased over there (cheap too) and can’t help but wonder how was it at all possible to have so much music talent come out in such a short period of time.(Alexia who used to sing with Ice MC is another Italian voice that along with Jessica Jays should not be relegated into obscurity). Keep up the good work!!!

  27. Dukku Avatar
    Dukku

    Hello!Like Vasilica ,I am romanian too.
    Judging by her intonation and her accent she cold not be english , asian, spanish,north-european or russian but i think that she is a latin one.
    I have listened to other italian singin’ spanish songs and their intonation of spanish words is the same that JJ have in “baila chilli cha cha”.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWmfH6htE-o

  28. geti Avatar
    geti

    Has anybody the lyric of the Casablanca’s song
    thank you

  29. Nalin c perera Avatar
    Nalin c perera

    why can’t we contact Dora or David morales directil on this matter ???

  30. Nalin c perera Avatar
    Nalin c perera

    why can’t we contact Dora or David morales directly on this matter ???

  31. dan Avatar
    dan

    Denpasar moon… I loved once and I know it will never be the same or at least close to that feeling. I have the same curiosity to know who is JJ, but maybe it is meant to be this way…

  32. P Odedra Avatar
    P Odedra

    hey there!!!! 🙂
    i’m so grateful i actually found out something about the songs of Jessica Jay!

    i am from kenya, heard one of her songs at the coast and instantly fell in love with it!!!

    i first heard the song ‘broken hearted woman’ in ’06 from an audio cassette which had other mixed dance numbers as well.. its quality however was nt that good and i spent ages trying to get its lyrics and figure out all about the song. i didn’t even know what it was called until a few days ago!!!
    love to hear it cz it brings back gr8 memories i had on the beach.

  33. Cody Avatar
    Cody

    JESSICA JAY

    1993 saw the release of a song called “Broken Hearted Woman” by a brand new face on the music scene named Jessica Jay.

    “Broken Hearted Woman” took Thailand by storm and became an overnight success. It was well accepted across the country and among the people regardless of sex, age and educational background. The song is included in a compilation album called “Broken Hearted Woman” and propelled the album to 3 million mark in sale. The sale was largely driven by this sole track. It was quite phenomenal in the international music scene, considering it happened 6 years ago when international music was not as a big market in Thailand as today.

    The success of the song was also witnessed by more than 30 local artists doing cover version of “Broken Hearted Woman” in Thai. The saying of “100 messages, 1 rhythm” came after the hype created by “Broken Hearted Woman” among the Thai artists who did the covers. Although the market was flooded by so many covers of the song, the sales figures of the parent albums did not seem to suffer at all.

    It is not unusual an upbeat tune enhanced by strong, yet powerful voice would be embraced and received a massive exposure. There is no denying that “Broken Hearted Woman” was 1993 Song Of The Year.

    But who is Jessica Jay, by the way?

    Born and raised in an upper middle class musical family in Europe, Jessica Jay was so into singing that she recorded more than 100 songs. However, she never thought that one of them would become successful somewhere in Asia. “I never thought “Broken Hearted Woman” would become a hit. At that time, I just recorded this song and went home after I was done with it”, she said.

    Afterwards, she found herself moving to Russia with her family. Once there, she adjusted herself to new surrounding and gave first priority to her study. “It took me awhile to get used to the new home. I had to forget singing for quite awhile. I still sang with my friends but recording a song was nowhere near possible. Until now”.

    Right after graduation, Jessica Jay was back in business doing what she loves and is very good at: singing. “I was so glad to be able to sing again, to be able to do what I love again after all these 6 years. And I don’t think that the absence should bring about any problem”.

    “Broken Hearted Woman” brought an interest in me. It was a shame I didn’t have chance to get to know anyone then. But looking on a positive side, I don’t think anyone would love to see a little girl sing “Broken Hearted Woman”. However, if you want to know me better, you already have.

    Jessica Jay is back this year with her full length album “Chilly Cha Cha” which will take you back to the original Cha Cha Cha music as well the dance beat of 90’s.
    This is definitely going to make you swcat, just like “Broken Hearted Woman” did before.

    The more you listen to “Chilly Cha Cha”, “You Don’t Have To Say Love Me”, “Kiss Me Another”, the more you will become certain she was born to sing and make you dance. Who knows “Chilly Cha Cha” might be covered as much as “Broken Hearted Woman” was.

    *********************************************************************************************************************
    From early childhood, she felt a wild passion for music especially for singing.

    At the age of 17, she starts singing in club in her area, with several bands.

    She perfected her vocal technique and began working as a vocalist for many recording studios.

    She loves listening to all kind of music especially funky, pop, jazz,

    Her favourite singers are: Aretha Franklin, Anita Baker, Liza Minelli, Barbara Streisand, Natalie Cole and Al Jarreau. She also likes group such as incognito, U2 and tears for fears.

    Even if she is very young, she has already released 2 album, “Broken Hearted woman”, “Chilly Cha Cha”.

    This info is from Saifam site:
    http://www.saifam.com/music/index.cfm/hurl/contenuto=173/artist_djs.html/selection=J/artista=00129

  34. Robert Nagle Avatar

    Wow, Cody, thanks for the update! I will add it to the main article. And Jessica/Dora, if you’re reading this, we all love you!

  35. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    hey guys 🙂

    i was working as a session singer for saifam as well… so i can tell you a few things about “jessica”!

    on her last album “my heart is back” you can hear DIFFERENT singers. for example on “broken hearted woman 2008” (as you can hear it doesn’t use the original vocals) and “dance little lady dance” it’s melody castellari singing. some other tracks are “previously unreleased tracks” from the 90s (so they seem to be new) – that’s why they feature the same vocalist used on “chilly cha cha”.

    on “chilly cha cha – the album” there are different singers as well. you can hear the spanish session singer on songs like “chilly cha cha”, “kiss me another” and “time is all we need” – i don’t know anything about her. but her voice was often used on saifam productions back then.

    on songs like “you don’t have to say you love me” and “can’t help falling in love” it’s a british girl singing (she was background vocalist for the spice girls).

    there is also another single by jessica jay, which was NOT that popular back then – it’s called “reach” (a gloria estefan cover). and once again the spanish girl is singing.

    so – it’s a “typical” story of a saifam project 😉

    if you wanna know more – just send me a message.

    cheers!

  36. AlexK Avatar
    AlexK

    I always wonder who is Jessica Jay also. But I also have a feeling that the singer on Jessica Jay’s first album is Dora Carofiglio b/c I can hear the sound of Valrie Dore on some of the songs.

    Anyway, the song “Time Is All We Need” on her second album is from a Chinese song by Teresa Teng – a legendary Tawain Chinese singer. Here is a link to her video singing the song.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE-HlEG9m7I&feature=PlayList&p=1C4A9CD4B2AB8610&index=5

  37. Robert Nagle Avatar

    Dagva: that is not her, she is too young.

  38. Didi Avatar
    Didi

    I heard The Chilly Cha Cha is from a Korean movie, Innocent Steps
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0DGbydDIkA&feature=related

  39. alejandro Avatar
    alejandro

    About tagalog comments, Marian rivera is a philippino dancer who made a compilation of 1990’s dance songs which included a song from Jessica Jay. In a youtube video i saw a photograph of Jessica Jay but i’m not sure about if she really is.

  40. Alphonse From Peru Avatar

    This is a Web page were I found all the albums (i guess!!) so.. enjoy them…
    http://popaddicted.blogspot.com/2009/02/jessica-jay-discography.html

  41. Alphonse from Peru Avatar

    I check the information I posted but The blogger space was deleted or hidden or whatever fortunatelly I saved the links of all the disk that were posted there its in a pdf file to downloaded
    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PHV250K3
    Greets to everybody

  42. dan Avatar
    dan

    somebody told me that Jessica Jay is the italian singer known in the real life as Dora Carofiglio. What do you think? Are we getting closer to the truth or else?

  43. Syed Javed Iqbal Avatar
    Syed Javed Iqbal

    Robert Nagle and Cody, you guys are simply amazing! I just wana say I love you! I was in Bangkok in the early nineties to do my MBA and became so intertwined with a few Thai friends, Thai food, Thai culture…. and Jessica Jay’s ‘broken hearted woman’. Back then this song was a simply an inseparable part of life. It brings back so many sweet memories of Bangkok. Although I am back in country, sunk in the daily routine work, I would often google her name without much luck. It now seems she has been finally tracked. Anyway, I have a suggestion: How about finding her out and arrange a small concert in Bangkok. We shall put ad in the major dailies which can attract a good number of Jessica fans. In case you guys are not interested, at least you can give us her address. I am sure she would love to see she has so many admirers in such a faraway country as Thailand. I shall also try to find sponsors for that event. I don’t think she will be that expensive!

  44. Robert Nagle Avatar

    Here’s a better idea. Maybe I should create a facebook group! Details coming soon.

  45. recording studios Avatar

    yep ill defo join that group .. let me know the details

  46. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Wow… I cant believe what I have read here. I am a huge Jessica Jay fan and have been for 15+ years!! At one point I actually wanted to make a tribute page to her. I tried contacting SAIFAM years ago after seeing her on their site but they ignored me most of the time, one time they replied back to me and said that she was not contactable, which I thought strange at the time.

    Like many others I discovered her in 1993 whilst visting Thailand, where Broken Hearted Woman was a HUGE hit, it was all over the place all the time, I have never heard a single song played so much in a 2 week period anywhere in my life. That song was stuck in my head for years until I managed to buy a copy of her first album on cassette on a later trip. Over the years I spent a lot of time searching for other releases, and found quite a few CD’s and other mp3’s, I probably have the biggest Jessica Jay collection here haha…

    Anyways I forgot about it all for a while, did a search today again and found this info… I was amazed at what I learnt about there being no “real” Jessica Jay, although to me I guess Dora to me IS the “Real” Jessica Jay because that is the voice that I fell in love with on the first album, her melancholic sad singing style is just fantastic despite the extremely simple song arrangements.

    Anyways, sorry for the long post… just cant believe this info, thanks to all who contributed here. I hope I can meet Dora one day and make her aware of the important place her music has in my collection.

    One more thing, around the time of the Chilly Cha Cha album they did a version of Viva Forever and La Isla Bonita mixed together which is absolutely amazing. Check it out.

  47. Payal Odedra Avatar
    Payal Odedra

    I like the idea of having of having a facebook group too! AWESOME!!!!!!! 😉 😉

  48. D Avatar
    D

    If you like Always, try the original http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlxlYPxsFwI sounds much better… for Jessica Jay, it sure looks it’s just a cover brand… I would be terribly happy curious to learn who actually sings casablanca though. Beautiful voice.

  49. ASR Avatar
    ASR

    Hi guys i am from Singapore and I was so thrilled to find this website… Are you guys sure that Jessica Jay was simply a concept? I cannot find the page anymore but I remember coming across this website a few years ago where a Singaporean woman posted photos of herself with a woman called Jessica Jay. “Jessica Jay” in the photographs looked Scandinavian… Light eyes, very blond and tall.

    Anywayz, I can tell you guys this much. Coming from Singapore I have the benefit of exposure to Western and Asian music. Faye Wong is not the original singer of the song. It was a cover… the Jessica Jay song came out first and then there was a lot of covers in HK, Taiwan, Singapore and China.

  50. Cristian Aranda Avatar

    Hi!!! i´m from Argentina and i began hearing Jessica Jay because i´m an Ace Of Base fan an most of the older song from Broken hearted woman has the All That She Wants beats!!! i love them!!!
    i think she is a project and the real singer is Dora from Noveccento, esp in song Marimba Day that also has ACE OF BASE rythm….. the voice is the same and the other songs like Chilly cha cha, etc is not the same singer!!!

    anyone has the album where Marimba Day is?
    thanks
    Cristian

  51. Pol Avatar
    Pol

    I’m Thai.
    These songs are successful in Thailand.
    Broken Hearted Woman
    Chilly Cha Cha
    Summer Night
    My Macho
    Coco Y Melon
    Chichiquita
    Your Loving Girl
    Love Is Like The Moon
    My Chiw Chiw Thai Boy

  52. laura Avatar
    laura

    I am Jessica Jay,i worked with saifam for 3 years and i make 3 concert in Russia in 1996….if you see my foto on internet and my face on facebook is the same person.

    [NOTE FROM ROBERT: I CONTACTED THIS PERSON AND WE EXCHANGED ONE OR TWO EMAILS. I ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT THIS WOMAN PARTICIPATED IN THE JESSICA JAY PROJECT — ALTHOUGH NOT AS A SINGER. SHE TOURED AS THE SINGER IN EASTERN EUROPE. I ASSUME SHE DANCED AND LIP SYNCED AND WAS THE MODEL FOR THE PHOTO STILL. SHE IS AN ITALIAN WHO WORKS IN ITALIAN TV. THE IRONY IS THAT SHE WAS PROBABLY TALENTED, THOUGH MAYBE NOT AS A SINGER!)

  53. Baymuhammed Avatar
    Baymuhammed

    Hey Laura,

    Are you really Jessica Jay? I have been looking for you all through my life. You disappeared so suddenly in mid 90’s. Why is there no information about you on internet? What do you do now?

    Looking forward to your response.

  54. Minoku Avatar
    Minoku

    Well I think too that JJ is a project… her accent in “Cassablanca” is diferent from “Chichiquita” (Spanish song) but just in the english part when she sings:

    “HI GUYS LOOKING TO HER EYES, SHE DANCING ALL THE NIGHT AND SHE FEELS ALL RIGTH, BYE BYE CHA CHA CHA IS LIFE”, CHICHICHICHIQUITA, THE QUEEN OF CHACHACHA”…

    I think so there are 3 diferents women… and the lastest is who sings in Spanish…

  55. Minoku Avatar
    Minoku

    and also the newest “Jessica Jay” is philipino

  56. SoulFucker Avatar
    SoulFucker

    ok i like jessica jay too – otherwise i wouldn’t be here. but err?.. i think all this speculation theories and assumptions about her are at best idiotic.. i’m going to tell you my side of the story. and it goes a little something like this. see, i believe maybe something bad happened to her?.. that’s why she got out of public view?.. why else all information about her is so elusive. and with this being said, i once saw a very nasty accident on youtube which apparently happened to a blonde female singer. i don’t know probably it was just a drunken girl doing karaoke shows! or probably jessica jay herself! hell knows.. but she certainly looked a lot like her – the same body build, same haircut, same short blonde hair.. so in the video i saw, this girl climbed the floor of a stage to gain a little height, and from there she attempted to do a backflip – to jump backwards with the feet spinning above her head… now mmm?.. what i saw is that the girl performed the jump extraordinary. only problem is, she landed 100% on her… head.. you know, i’d be amazed if that girl is still alive after what she did back there. the video i’m talking about is this and you want to look at 1:45 to see what i’m talking about.

    [Sorry, I removed the URL. As liberal-minded a person as I like to think I am, I really hate those accident/injury videos on Youtube]

  57. Yubo Avatar
    Yubo

    I found that there are some information about the original version of Broken hearted woman. It’s a japanese song named “Rouge” by Miyuki Nakajima, a song from 1979. You can find it from youtube.

  58. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    hi there, I just came across denpasar moon on youtube, which reminds me of a 90s compilation CD I have somehwere. So I started looking for other stuff by Jessica Jay and found this page.

    I note that there are at least 2 other people who use the name “Jessica Jay”, an actress based in London, and an R&B singer from Wales, also based in London.

    I was a bit heartbroken when I saw she’s not a real person…still…great music and all that

  59. Albanez Avatar
    Albanez

    I’m from albania and i’ve heard this song first time in 2000…i’ve searched on google and wikipedia but nothing found anyway there is a youtube video of her song “take a piece of my heart” and there is a photo of a caucasian blonde woman…maybe is her….

  60. Idenkolt Avatar
    Idenkolt

    So Is She Dora Or Valerie? or both Are the Same Person , I’m Very Confused , Another ting How Many Albums in Total ? I think She Have More Than 3.
    Thanx For the Great Blog Here, And I think i Have the First Question for the Year 2010.

  61. Robert Nagle Avatar

    Idenkolt, good ideas. I will try to put all the album data on this page for reference when I have time…

  62. vincenzino Avatar
    vincenzino

    It is funny.
    I am Italian, I found this website after having found ‘casablanca’ in a disc of mp3 I had made some years ago.
    I remember that song, I heard it around ’95 during a summer vacation in Romania. It was a great succes, every dicoteque was used to play it several times each night. I expected that, after some time it could arrive also in Italy, but I believe it has never been distributed here. It was something that really surprised me. Nobody in Italy knows about that song, and now apparently it was made in Italy, very weird!

  63. Christian Avatar
    Christian

    http://old.samara.ru/paper/41/397/7185/ 1997.Стоял час “пик” в Самаре, толпа народа устало штурмовала подъехавший к остановке “Дом молодежи” автобус, из водительской кабины гремел известный всем хит “Касабланка”, а в двух десятках метров от остановки из машины выходила та, чей голос как раз и звучал из кабины водителя автобуса, – певица Джессика Джей, прилетевшая в Самару для выступления в ночном клубе “Экватор”.

    Разве что самый отъявленный сыщик смог бы заподозрить мировую “звезду” в этой хрупкой невысокой восемнадцатилетней блондинке. В жизни Джессика не такая, как в своих видеоклипах. Хотя знаменитостью от этого быть не перестает. На встрече с самарскими журналистами Джессика призналась в том, что настоящее ее имя – Лаура Фаджотто, родом она из Италии и живет в городе Вероне, помните шекспировских Ромео и Джульетту? Они жили там же. Петь Джессика начала с пятнадцати лет, а учиться музыке – с десяти. Сначала исполняла чужие песни, потом стала сочинять свои. Идею “Касабланки” подсказала ей ее сестра. Сейчас певица много гастролирует, в основном, в азиатских странах. Выпустила два альбома. В свободное время, если таковое находится, любит смотреть американские сериалы – они красивые, говорит Джессика. А итальянские фильмы ей совсем не нравятся. Как и русские мужчины – слишком уж они холодные какие-то, сдержанные. Не итальянцы в общем.

  64. Christian Avatar
    Christian

    1997.Stoyal hour “peak” in Samara, a crowd of people stormed a tired riding up to the stop “Youth House” bus from the driver’s cab roared all known hit “Casablanca”, and two hundred feet from the stop of the car came out the one whose voice is just and sounded from the driver’s bus – singer Jessica Jay, who arrived in Samara to nightclub performances in Equator.

    Is that the most notorious detective could have suspected the world “star” in this fragile blonde eighteen-year low. In life, Jessica is not like in their videos. Although the celebrity of this can not stop. At a meeting with journalists of Samara Jessica confessed that her real name – Laura Fadzhotto, it comes from Italy and lives in Verona, remember Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet? They lived there. Jessica began to sing with fifteen years, and study music – with ten. First performed other people’s songs, then began writing their own. The idea of “Casablanca” prompted her to her sister. Now the singer has toured extensively, mostly in Asian countries. Released two albums. In his spare time, if it is, likes to watch American soap operas – they’re beautiful, “says Jessica. And Italian films she did not like. As Russian men – too cold, they are then restrained. No Italians in general.

  65. opale Avatar
    opale

    find this and listen to this : Bertie Higgins – Casablanca …

  66. Robert Nagle Avatar

    Erricdraven,

    I’m pretty sure that the photos you link to are the Saifam photos which showed a blond model who was not the singer for the band. They wanted to create an illusion that Jessica Jay was an actual person. (Seriously, I don’t know why they didn’t use the photo of Valerie Dore; she’s pretty!)

  67. Johnny K. Avatar

    Hi!

    Is there any chance, that one of the initators of that damn SAIFAM projects will take the initiative and tell us, who sang completely (=100%) the vocals to “CASABLANCA”?

    Thanks in advance!

  68. Tomo Avatar
    Tomo

    Hi !I`m Japanese big fan of Jessica jay.

    There`s something that i can tell you.
    Do you know Jackie moore,Annie Adams,Gloria Adams,2U,Floor and Sissy Taylor?
    They are person who belongs to Disco Magic.Which was in Milano,Italy.and now doesn`t exist.

    Valerie Dore is them.
    Here is the true.
    Look at the Vocal!!
    For Example
    http://www.discogs.com/Sissy-Taylor-Woman-In-Love/release/909136
    Their voice`s completely same with Jessica Jay.
    This Site will help you to find out the true.
    http://www.discogs.com/label/Discomagic+Records

    And Look at the Producer !!
    Nicolosi is member of Novecento!
    He has a deeply relationship with them when JJ(If She is same person) was in Italy.

    How do you think?

    Actually I don`t know what she does now?
    I think at this moment`s JJ who sing Love is like a moon,Broken hearted woman 2007 is not real jessica jay ,100% another voice!!!

  69. sejdi sekiraqa Avatar
    sejdi sekiraqa

    Unë jam prej Kosove njëherit e pershendes këngëtaren jesica j. nga zemra. Mua me pëlqejnë kënget e saj sidomos ‘casablanka’ dhe ‘broken heart woman’. kisha dashur që ta kem adresën e saj dhe të kontaktoj me të.Ju faleminderit.

  70. Luis Guadalupe Avatar
    Luis Guadalupe

    Hello Robert. My name is Luis, I am 47 years old and I am from Peru, in South America.

    I have read this very interesting post and I want t thank you for having solved so many misteries I have around this terrific song. Since I heard the song “Casablanca”, I fell in love with that song and specially with that voice. I was searching information about that song and who sang it and I realised it was sung by Jessica Jay, but I never saw a pic of her and watched a pic about her. And as you said, in these days of internet it was so strange to find nothing about her. And I have a personal blog called “ROYAL TRILOGY: QUEEN, ME AND SOMETHING MORE” and the main theme is about my all time fave band, QUEEN, and also I post about the songs that were my fave ones in my life and some time ago, I wanted t post about this song but I have no information about it and after searching in internet I found this wonderful page and the Facebook group abot Jessica Jay and the mysteries were solved.

    So it seems that this lady Dora Carofiglio is the voice behind Casablanca. Any other interesting information about that marvellous song, please email me at lguadalupet@gmail.com.

    Take care and have a positive week.

    Greetings from Peru.

    LUIS

  71. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Hello. I’m from Thailand.
    That blond model is a singer. Her voice appear on Chilly Cha Cha (The Album), Summer Nights, My Macho and Coco Y Melon. It’s the same voice.
    Dora Carofiglio’ voice was used on first album.

  72. Lkhagva Avatar
    Lkhagva

    My name is Lkhagva. I’m from Mongolia. I’m big fan of Jessica jay. She’s very very very good singer.

  73. julio (argentina) Avatar
    julio (argentina)

    gracias x toda esta informacion sobre jessica jay!!!!!!

  74. julio (argentina) Avatar
    julio (argentina)

    ALGUIEN SABE SI ANNIE ADAMS TAMBIEN ES DORA CAROFIGLIO?????

  75. julio (argentina) Avatar
    julio (argentina)

    CONCLUSION: Segun lo que lei DORA CAROFIGLIO a demas de Jessica jay, Novecento, Valerie Dore y Annie Adams tambien es Sissy Taylor, Gloria Addams, Jackie Moore, 2U y Floor

  76. Behrang Avatar
    Behrang

    Was listening to this song today after years and somehow it managed to make me feel broken hearted for the whole day…

  77. Madalin ( Romania) Avatar
    Madalin ( Romania)

    JESSICA JAY is the singer Dora Carofiglio. Other Dora’s stage names are Valerie Dore, Annie Adams, Sissy Taylor, Gloria Addams, Jackie Moore etc.

    Dora Carofiglio is woman’s voice in Casablanca and Broken Hearted Woman.

    Here is a Romanian site for you to download JESSICA JAY songs:

    http://www.gmz.ro/jessica-jay-wikipedia_31735.html

  78. roberto Avatar
    roberto

    hola saludos de peru a mi tambien me gusta la musica de jessica jay pssss busco algo cçsobre ella y nada pero me alegre al encontrar esta pagina y la verdad a mi tmbien me encantaria saber quien es ella pssss las fotos que ponen siobre ella guau es linda muy linda y bueno nada mas espero saber mas sobre ella saludos y gracias.

  79. Victor Avatar
    Victor

    I’m not sure if it was pointed out already, but Jessica Jay’s Always is just a cover of a song by Erasure, also called Always. That one came out in 1993 or so.

  80. Sonya Avatar
    Sonya

    I grew up in Russia. My brother bought a tape of Jessica’s in 1996, it looks legit (I still have it). I remember the cover had a white woman on it in sunglasses and whatever appropriate for 90’s wear. I remember looping the tape like there’s no tomorrow, not understanding any lyrics but loving the hell out of the songs! I just re-listened and decided to do a search. Thanks for all the info! I hope she’s doing well off them royalties! :))))

  81. Gustavo Avatar
    Gustavo

    I´m from Bolivia (southamerica), during the 90s I was a radio DJ and I like the Jessica Jay´s song “Casablanca”. Since I heared the song (1995) I have been interested in Jessica, but It´s so hard to find real information about her. I remember a documental presented by discovery channel or another network (maybe E!, I´m not shure, sorry) where her father, who was the jessica´s manager, talked about the carrer of his daugther, who was 12 years old. If anybody can confirm this it will be great.

    I´m still enjoying the sweet Jessica Jay´s voice singing casablanca. I can listen it again and again. So, if anybody have more information about this singer, please share it!.

  82. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Here’s a recent picture of Dora Carofglio (undoubtedly the Voice of the first Jessica Jay Formation in the early 90ies)

    Look at Post#42
    http://forum.musikexpress.de/showthread.php?p=486148

    It’s amazing that the original japanese Song from 1979 (“Rogue” by Myuki Nakajima) became such a world wide hit in 1993-1995, after it got translated to english (Broken Hearted Woman), cantonese, thai, etc.

    Greetings from Germany
    Mike

  83. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Take note on page 42:
    http://books.google.de/books?id=QQgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=vmp+singapore&source=bl&ots=NoF38hjd2v&sig=wNN-OP5DFdT_EJlUT4d2xBbw3Po&hl=de&ei=rXowTsLKHcWSOt_t_X4&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=vmp%20singapore&f=false

    and:
    http://www.reocities.com/sunsetstrip/birdland/6049/vmp.html

    Since I bought my Jessica Jay CD “Broken Hearted Woman” in Singapore in the 90ies, I did some research on the Singaporean Label VMP (Valentines Music Productions) which promoted Jessica Jay in South-East Asia (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philipnes, etc.) at that time.
    Conclusion:
    Clever asian Music Producers from Singapore asked italian session singers from saifam, discomagic, etc. to do some cover-version of already well-known-tunes from asia (rogue, denpasar moon, etc.) and other international hits with underlying “ace of base” drumpads. That’s all! No romantic story behind it after all! When I lived in Singapore during the 90ies, I remembered a radio show at Radio Station 98.7, the DJ even claiming, that Jessica Jay was a german singer and therefore was not able to do an interview. Another stupid lie.

  84. KARIM Avatar
    KARIM

    hello all

    I live in Agadir in Morocco, I met the mysterious jessica in 2001 with the song “Casablanca” the clip shows sequences of the movie namesake turned just in Morocco in Casablanca in 1942) presented with other mp3 on a cd had a friend, it was the tubes in 1997.

    the song is out of Casablanca after my research in 1996, it reminds me a lot of good memories, then with the generalization of the Internet and mp3, I knew the other titles of this singer as “the room at the top of the stairs “which is actually a cover of Eddie Rabbitt.

    I too am looking for a name and a face on a stick jessica jay, but I prefer to think of it as when reading a book and after that we watch the film it is not the same thing we can be “disappointed” … So miss (or Ms.) jessica continue to haunt me and make me dream by listening to your beautiful songs.

    Finally, thank you for all your efforts, I am delighted that so many people has s’interressent JESSICA JAY.

    NB: excuse my English, it comes from a translation french english on a search engine …

    Karim cordially.

  85. daniel Avatar
    daniel

    So again, no1 is sure who is Jessica jay???

  86. Twin Avatar
    Twin

    I’m Thai. Now, Anybody know who Jessica Jay is ???..

  87. Adi P Avatar
    Adi P

    Maybe the right question is : who are Jessica Jay ?

    I am listening to some Jessica Jay’s songs, and it heard like there are more than one singer.

  88. Ntensibe Abu Avatar
    Ntensibe Abu

    Am Bakker from Uganda. I miss jessica jay so much.

  89. sugianto Avatar
    sugianto

    She likes a fairy for me,,who flown above rainbow,,cant touch,,I only felt,love you jj

  90. Annael Avatar
    Annael

    This is an amazing page and I’m impressed at the effort you took to uncover the “mystery” behind J.J. I used to listen to these songs back in the nineties, in Romania. Casablanca at least was hugely popular. Also, to Dora Carofiglio or Valerie or Monica Stucchi or whatever her name is, she should know that she is loved and her voice touched so many of us.

  91. demi Avatar
    demi

    i’m gonna buy a plain white T-shirt and put “who is jessica jay?”on it.

  92. Nalin Perera Avatar
    Nalin Perera

    I wrote on this page in 2008 for the very first time when i was in Sri Lanka.
    Now I am living in Italy,I asked so many Italian people about JESSICA JAY,amazingly they do not know about any JJ and 99.99% Italian people does not speak in ENGLISH .even though SAIFAM music based in Italy,they are making money directly from Asia

    Main thing is Still No Luck,after 4 years have to ask the same old same old question
    Who is Jessica Jay????

  93. Alexkopras Avatar
    Alexkopras

    Hi,Robert Nagle, I am a wikipedia writer and my username in wikipedia is Alexkopras.
    Actually wikipedia does not include an article about Jessica Jay, but I try to create it, but it will waste time because the information about the singer is hard to find.

    It is very interesting this mistery about this “dance music” singer Jessica Jay, she was a successful artist in the 1990s.

    About her song ,Casablanca, it is stylistically a “reggae-electronic dance” song, and her “dance music” songs are in in English and use great and interesting arrangements.

    Your information about this singer is interesting, thanks for it. As a wikipedia writer, I search info about this singer and I find that Jessica Jay is a Singaporean singer:

    Billboard – 9 Apr 1994 – Page 42
    One track, in particular, has helped it to sell: “Broken Hearted Woman” by Jessica Jay, featuring a light reggae backbeat and the Singapore singer’s high, lilting voice. In fact, “Broken Hearted Woman” (originally a Hong Kong-written …

    Business review: Volume 23, Issues 276-281
    1994
    “Mega Dance 2” is a compilation, featuring repertoire gathered from as far afield as Germany and Italy, but it is the single “Broken Hearted Woman”, sung by Singaporean artist Jessica Jay, that has captivated the Thais over the past six months. …

    Cultures in ASEAN and the 21st century
    Edwin Thumbo – 1998 –
    One good example of imported music in this point may be a song entitled “Broken hearted woman”, which was originally sung by a Singaporean singer, Jessica Jay, which has been adapted into many Thai versions. …

    See the links
    http://www.google.com/search?q=%22jessica+jay%22+casablanca&hl=en&prmdo=1&biw=1024&bih=596&tbm=bks&source=lnms&ei=nND8Trv9EIqcgQfv5ZmNAg&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=7&ved=0CCEQ_AUoBg#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&prmdo=1&tbm=bks&source=hp&q=%22jessica+jay%22+%22Broken+hearted+woman%22&pbx=1&oq=%22jessica+jay%22+%22Broken+hearted+woman%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=21359l25375l10l26578l4l3l1l0l0l0l265l719l2-3l4l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=c767584bc0d3be37&biw=1024&bih=596

    http://books.google.com.pe/books?id=QQgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA42&dq=%22jessica+jay%22+%22Broken+hearted+woman%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Z9P8TtegEcby0gG1-dW-CA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22jessica%20jay%22%20%22Broken%20hearted%20woman%22&f=false

    http://books.google.com.pe/books?id=OcQSAQAAMAAJ&q=%22jessica+jay%22+%22Broken+hearted+woman%22&dq=%22jessica+jay%22+%22Broken+hearted+woman%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Z9P8TtegEcby0gG1-dW-CA&redir_esc=y

    http://books.google.com.pe/books?id=-nNuAAAAMAAJ&q=%22jessica+jay%22+%22Broken+hearted+woman%22&dq=%22jessica+jay%22+%22Broken+hearted+woman%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Z9P8TtegEcby0gG1-dW-CA&redir_esc=y

  94. hxpro Avatar
    hxpro

    Hi guys,
    I’m from Romania and I CAN’T AGREE WITH those of you who claim Dora is behind Jessica Jay’s Casablanca song! It’s common sense if you got a “musical ear”, Dora’s voice ressembles with SALLY OLFIED’s voice, (listen one of her hits here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1sErzyh1Z0) if you really listen to Casablanca, you won’t find any of Dora’s inflexions in that song. Dora has a great voice and unique style of singing kind of like irish style. In 1995 I had a cassette tapes store and what can I tell you is that I used to sold more than 300 copies of that Casablanca song in 1 day. It was just amazing, People were standing in huge lines to buy that cassette, just incredible! In my personal oppinion the voice in Casablanca it’s closer to Valerie Dore’s voice.
    We all should help to discover who really was Jessica Jay. Greetz from Romania and happy new year 2012!

  95. Nalin Perera Avatar
    Nalin Perera

    hay hxpro ,you claims this just because of SALLY OLFIELD is singing almost likely to JJ ?or the way she is singing?the accent?. (I think)she is very far away from SAIFAM……………….any way ,I am glad you came here.

  96. hxpro Avatar
    hxpro

    Hi Nalin,
    I never said Sally Oldfield is involved with SAIFAM, I just said Dora’s voice ressembles to Sally’s voice, I mean style of singing and voice inflexions. I am almost sure thar Dora is behind Jessica Jay’s Broken hearted woman, same style, same vocal inflexions, but is not Dora’s voice on Casablanca, it’s another style of singing, just listen carefully, you can’t find nothing to Dora’s voice there. I’m gonna make a mix between Novecento – Night and days and Jessica Jay’s Broken hearted woman, you’ll recognize Dora’s voice without any doubt in both songs, but not in Casablanca, there is someone else singing. It’s a real mistery here…Greetings from Romania and the best wishes!

  97. Nalin Perera Avatar
    Nalin Perera

    Hi hxpro,Thank you very much for the greeting,I love Beautiful Romania.

  98. radu (romania) Avatar

    Thank you all for the information
    casablanca had an amazing success in Romania at that time
    the song had really left a mark and it’s clearly unforgivable
    hope you’ll solve the ‘riddle’
    and thanks again to all those who helped sort some of the facts that that ‘blur’ the image of “jessica jay”
    good luck!

  99. Lizzy(China) Avatar
    Lizzy(China)

    Thank you for all the information,
    I really want to know the real name of the yellow T-shirt woman.
    Who can tell me ? T.T

  100. razvanel Avatar
    razvanel

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i8WgY-P25o
    The same style and the same vocal inflexions.
    Maybe it’s a clue. Greetings from Romania.

  101. charly11 Avatar
    charly11

    Hola después de varios años y teniendo este mp3 en mi pc como reliquia recién me entero quien fue en realidad la cantante de “cassablanca” gracias por educarme con su información. Esa canción la escuche en tiempos de escuela secundaria entre los años 93 y 94 que buenos recuerdos muchas gracias 🙂

  102. rudy Avatar
    rudy

    Hi, I’m from Indonesia… a few hours ago, I just bought a compilation CD called TOTAL HITS MANIA, it was released 1994 with one Jessica Jay’s song (I Can’t Help) Falling In Love and also Maribeth’s song Denpasar Moon. That’s why I found this site when I want to search some information about Jessica Jay. Jessica Jay’s song arrangement is quite the same as the UB40 version.

    I remember back in early 90s, Maribeth’s song, Denpasar Moon (in the back cover : words & music by Sabah Habas Mustapha) from her album Alone Against The World, released 1993 is a massive hit in Indonesia. This song was produced by Taka Tsukuma and arranged by Kitaroh Nakamura. I thought she was the first singer who took this song to its popularity, not Jessica Jay.

    Other artists in this album are Rick Price (If You Were My Baby), Spin Doctors (Have You Ever Seen The Rain), Collin Raye (In This Life), Cyndi Lauper (That’s What I Think), a band from New Zealand, The Hobnail Boots (Heaven Knows I Love You) etc.

    If you want to hear the sample of Jessica Jay’s song in this album, feel free to contact me.

    Thanks.
    Have a wonderful day 🙂

  103. Dante Avatar
    Dante

    Hello. Very good data. I am from Perú, many listen to the song Here Casablanca, quite touched by the rays in the summer of 1996. So read the conclusion is that Jessica Jay is Dora Carofiglio (singer of Novecento). Julio (from Argentina) wrote that Dora Carofiglio also sang with another name: Annie Adams heard “River of Dreams” (Annie Adams) and I noticed a strong resemblance to the style of music and the voice of Casablanca … amazing. Comparing “One More Try” (by Jessica Jay) with “Day and Night” (Novecento group) the similarity of the voices is incredible. Robert Nagle got right in saying that watching the video of Novecento (Day & Night) is as if Jessica was there. I think Dora Carofiglio erred in failing to sing with one name, the quality of voice that had (and I hope to carry with him) had disclosed to a higher level and this is evident with the number of videos on YouTube under the behalf of Jessica Jay – Casablanca (great song).

  104. raluca Avatar
    raluca

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEFGdPWwMrI&feature=related

    nic eu nu inteleg ce atata mister cu aceasta stimata doamna…..
    dar intotdeauna am acceptat tacit ca nu stiu cum arata (cand eram mica si ascultam melodiile ei)

  105. Elis Avatar
    Elis

    Ba. Sa ne fie de bine c-am trait anii copilariei cu muzica asta. 🙂 Si eu cumparam caseta din Satul de Vacanta din Mamaia, pe vremea aia erau masute cu casete din 10 in 10 metri in Mamaia. 🙂 Am importat hituri la greu, Italia (Jessica Jay), Germania (Nana, C-Block – Time is tickin’ away). Frumosi ani, p-atunci dansam pe orice, numai sa fie placut urechii. Acum analizam si versurile. 🙂

  106. adi Avatar
    adi

    I’m from Romania. “Casablanca” was one of the greatest hits in the summer of 1995 (I think) here. Every club, every corner of the street near the beach (at our seaside resorts). Not interested on who was the singer at that time because I was too young then, but every know and then I remember it and I’m amazed that such a great success can remain such a big mistery and not have at least a wikipedia page about who was the singer.

  107. Catalina Avatar
    Catalina

    Totally agree with you, Adi from Romania!
    I am also from Romania and grew up with Jessica Jay’s music. I was 9-10 years when she became famous. And still, to this day, can’t understand why is she such a mistery to all of us fans out there. It is quite clear the innitial voice was that of Dora Carofiglio/or Dora Nicolosi, from the Novecento italian band. The rest of the voices used for this JJ Project are, unfortunately, not that good. So I think that Dora should get the attention and appreciation which she fully deserves, because she borrowed her voice to this project, and made us, the fans, really really happy with songs like Cassablanca, Denpasar Moon, Always, Can’t take my eyes off of you, Broken hearted woman, etc.
    At least now, almost 20 year after those big hits, SAIFAM should be able to say: YES, PEOPLE, IT’S DORA CAROFIGLIO… and also, ask her to make some new songs, as Jessica Jay!

  108. Ruben Avatar

    Saludos a todos, en verdad siempre quise tener una foto o unos videos de Jessica Jay y al igual que ustedes nunca pude encontrarlos….pero hay una cassettes que tengo muy pero muy antiguas en donde tengo unos temas muy ineditos de Jessica Jay….que hasta ahora no los encuentro en CD…la calidad del tema es muy malo…pero son temas muy hermosos, y estoy seguro que es la misma vos de los temas de Casablanca, Dempasar moon….lo malo es que no se el tema de la cancion..y como esta en Cassette. no lo puedo pasar a un CD porque es muy malo el sonido…pero alquien que tenga otros temas desconocidos de Jessica Jay porfavor mande la pagina o algo para poder escucharlos….al manos para mi nunca habra una vos al de ella, jamas es una vos unica… desde que fui muy chico siempre escuche estos temas…y en verdad me gustaria tener mas temas de ella….o quien sea jessica jay????…aqui hay mucha gente que te quiere a JESSICA JAY y nunca olvidara su musica . Seguro que hay muchos temas aun que no son muy conocidos pero al igual que yo tengo temas muy desconocidos,compartanlos porfavor…Ruben (Peru) ruben_iceman@hotmail.com

  109. Ruben Avatar
    Ruben

    saludos otra ves…me gusta mucho este genero aparte de Jessica Jay hay tambien un grupo muy paresido a Jessica Jay tiene el mismo ritmo haber si les gusta son temas ineditos que tengo haber que les parese cualquie cosa me mandan un mensaje a mi correo los que les gusta este genero hagan comentarios es muy pero muy paresido el ritmo de Jessica Jay haber si me mandan mas temas pero desconocidos paresidos a este que les mando ahi les va: ruben_iceman@hotmail.com
    esta es la pagina http://www.todocaleta.com/musica/randy-bush.html
    el tema que deben escogerdentro de esa pagina es: “To Love Somebody”

  110. Deddy Ermawan Avatar
    Deddy Ermawan

    Hi, I’m Deddy from Indonesia, it’s in South East Asia region, Jessica Jay was huge in my country during the 90’s with her song Broken Hearted Woman. After reading this article, I learned that she also covered the song Denpasar Moon, which was previously sung by Pinoy later-turned Indonesian singer named Maribeth, Co-incidentally, Denpasar is the capital city of Bali Province, under Indonesian sovereignty. Recently, I was warped into a retro music mood, one of them is Jessica Jay’s ‘Broken Hearted Woman’, which I learned a long time ago that it was actually a cover from a Chinese/Mandarin song, I don’t know the real title since I don’t understand Mandarin, but suposedly have the same meaning that is Broken Hearted Woman, sung by Mandarin actress/singer Wang Fei, you can find it on Youtube.
    After reading this blog, oh man, I was blown away, I never expect how widely known this Jessica Jay person was/is, also, how misterious this ‘supposedly’ woman is, I mean… Wow ! For real ! After all those efforts, still little clues were only found.
    I do really hope, though, that someday we all can find out the truth about Jessica Jay, admitted or not, we all have grown fond of her, for sure, we all had some piece of memory with her voice/song in it.
    Well, good luck !

  111. Lorena Avatar
    Lorena

    Hello, I’m from Romania.
    hxpro’re right in what you say. I would also say that Valerie Dore isn’t Dora Carofiglio! Folks, look carefully, they have a totally different physiognomy, there is a saying in Romanian ‘seen and the plane’, I would say ‘and the rocket’. And also voice, a fine ear senses very well the difference. Why SAIFAM ‘thrown’ on the market this information who knows … probably for financial reasons.
    Unfortunately who’s behind this wonderful voices of this wonderful song remains, and now after 17 years, a mystery.

  112. Morten Avatar
    Morten

    Greetings from Norway.
    This might be one of the most interesting websites i have ever been through! Well, unfortunately i don’t have any news to add here. One of the first songs i found at YouTube in 2006, was Denpasar Moon. Immediately i recognized the “Ace of Base” style, but this sounded much better. After reading the very few comments below the video, it seemed that JJ passed away in a tragic accident. This was as i said in 2006, i have been through all the comments in THIS link…and one person, only one, had a comment about an accident. (December 7th – 2009) Who knows, it might be the truth?
    What i think is really weird, or strange, is that this website which Robert Nagle made up almost 5 YEARS ago…don’t have any comment from either JJ (any of them), or any person who can confirm some truths about any JJ??? The only reason that i can think about is that JJ wanted to be 100% anonymous. If that is the reason, i guess we have to live with that.
    I WANT A COMMENT FROM YOU, JESSICA JAY!
    Dammit, the Broken Hearted Woman album is in my opinion one of the best albums ever made…EVER. Btw, i have been listening to Dancemusic for about 30 years.
    Lol, i loved Catalina’s last sentence posted Nov ’12, “YES PEOPLE, IT’S DORA CAROFIGLIO…and also ask her to make some new songs, as Jessica Jay!”
    I second that :)))
    Simon also had a very interesting comment some years ago, calling Jessica Jay a Musical Project…
    Ok. Thanks to The Voice (or Voices) and the producers of Broken Hearted Woman, the album!
    Thanks to all the contributors above me for some hours of entertainment 🙂
    And a very special THANKS to ROBERT NAGLE, for spending quality time to help us all :)))
    I wish you all the best in the future.

  113. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Been a few years since I checked this page but it seems not much new info has surfaced since then. I appreciate Simon for the info he provided in 2008 and I spent a lot of time since then looking for more music and info on Dora Carofiglio / Nicolosi because she “is” Jessica Jay. By that I mean that Jessica Jay is just a project made up of many people, but most/all people who have commented here associate their interest in Jessica Jay music to the songs that Dora sung.

    Believe me, there are many many wonderful songs out there that she has sung before and after her Jessica Jay album, for example the first 3 Valerie Dore songs. As it is her voice you love, you should be turning your search to “Dora Corafiglio” and not “Jessica Jay” because there is no such person as Jessica Jay and there have been at least 2-3 singers on the Jessica Jay albums since Dora who don’t sound or sing anything like her.

    The internet can be very useful in this regard… but unfortunately it also breeds ignorance. Don’t be so easy to believe the nonsense that websites such as SAIFAM put out. The bio info about Jessica Jay is fictional (and the photos too). Just because it gets repeated a lot does not make it fact! And some people seem to think that Valerie Dore was also a real person and some websites say that Jessica is Valerie. Not quite… but both are Dora Carofiglio = FACT. Anyway, I have discovered a lot of great songs sung by her that I never knew existed before, and I encourage the rest of you to do the same thing. The mystery to who “Jessica Jay” is has been solved to my satisfaction.

  114. Sanro Avatar

    hi, I’m Sanro from Indonesia.
    in 2001 when I was just 9, my brother just came back from Lake Toba and brought a cassette. we played it and I heard ” Broken Hearted Woman ” and ” Kiss and Say Goodbye “. I loved them better than other songs in the cassette. one day the cassette was broken so I couldn’t listen to these songs anymore. twelve years later I finally listened to the beautiful songs again and I was very happy.
    anyway, I think your prediction about her nationality still remains a mystery. I’ve asked a friend of mine on Facebook ( a Philipino ) and he never heard that name and he didn’t know the singer at all. I asked also a German and I got the same answer. hoping to get a satisfied answer, I asked a Hungarian but couldn’t help me. in other words, she is not a Philipino, a German, nor a Hungarian.

  115. Professor Avatar
    Professor

    I from Peru. can you tell me who is jessica jj i am very confused after reading this blog
    ???????????????????
    ????????????????’?
    thanks a lot

  116. Addie Avatar
    Addie

    http://sg.news.yahoo.com/top-asian-pop-megastars–20120524.html

    Stars in Thailand
    Jessica Jay
    Singer Jessica first appeared on the Asian music scene with her single ‘Femme Au Cœur Brisé (Woman With A Broken Heart) back in 1993. This was one of the country’s top-selling records with more than one million copies sold, making it the song of the year and Jessica an overnight success. Her latest single is ‘Casablanca’.

  117. EJ Avatar
    EJ

    Dora Carofiglio = Dora Nicolosi married to Lino Nicolosi (Novecento)
    Lino has Facebook so you my try to contact him…

    https://www.facebook.com/lino.nicolosi

  118. victorcat Avatar
    victorcat

    Esta cancion reconocida mundialmente esta o estuvo en el misterio de la vocal o grupo, Pues que se llamaba “Casablanca” de “Jessica Jay” puesto que en la red no sale nada de ella, y es que “ella” era un proyecto musical de italo disco de los 90s que hacia musica por negocio y operaba basicamente en Asia. Tras años mucha gente hasta los 10s se rompia la cabeza hasta dar con casi la certeza que la vocal se llama Dora Carofiglio / Hoy de la banda italiana “Novecento”. Los productores son una empresa llamada SAIFAM que lo unico que hacia era confundir mas a los internautas.
    Este tema es de 1993 y como el trabajo era llevado a diferentes lugares a ver si pegaba son recordados en diversos paises americanos, europeos y asiaticos entre 1993-1996. Tuvo mayor difusion en Indonesia desde el exito ” Broken Hearted Woman.” de inicios de los 90s. Para culminar el enredo que hubo en las redes ademas, cabe decir que la vocal del proyecto “JESSICA JAY” cambio tras los años de nombre artistico y se sumo al enredo pero la respuesta es sencillamente por que se termino casando con Lino Nicolosi de (Novecento/Band).
    Y Lino tiene Facebook para contactar con él y entra rápido no vaya ser que todos los datos se pierden nuevamente.
    https://www.facebook.com/lino.nicolosi

    By Victorcat 2014

  119. saiful Avatar
    saiful

    same with me..today i accidentally bump with the song that i just remember its melody only instead of its title and who is the singer..i found this song ‘heart broken women’ when i listen some streaming online oldies album from 90’s like asian dance produce by VMP Singapore..so right now i know who singing this song which is i just remember the melody since my kids time year back in 90’s. .who is Jessica j but what i know i l love this heart broken women song a lot..cause i also like ace of base similar melody song too.by the way im from malaysia

  120. A.Bauer Avatar
    A.Bauer

    The photos, showing “Valerie Dore” is NOT showing Dora Carofiglio but Maria Stucchi. Dora Carofiglio(Nicolosi) is the voice of Valerie Dore, not the face!

  121. A.Bauer Avatar
    A.Bauer

    little correction: it´s not MARIA Stucchi but MONICA Stucchi.

  122. idenkolt Avatar
    idenkolt

    That is a real major update….never thought that it will end that way….I have been following this thread for years…and now the mystery is solved!!! Thank you very much

  123. idenkolt Avatar
    idenkolt

    Where is All Comments…

  124. Geri Avatar
    Geri

    Hi there! I’m Geri from Bulgaria and half an hour ago I decided to finally find out who the singer of one of my favorite 90’s songs is. So I stumbled on your blog (which is very interesting, although a bit confusing), but I also found a Russian page that I think explains it all.
    http://www.oldhit.narod.ru/jes.htm
    It’s in Russian, of course, but basically it says that “Jessica Jay” was a project of two Italian producers, Lino and Pino Nicolosi, who copied the sound of Ace of Base. Jessica Jay’s first hit was Broken Hearted Woman, performed by Dora Carofiglio, which was a cover of the song Rouge from 1979 by the Japanese artist Miyuki Nakajima. Then, in 1992, Monica Stucchi took over the role of Jessica Jay. She sung Casablanca (another cover, original by Bertie Higgins), Denpasar Moon and many others. Then it gets quite complicated, many more singers are introduced, and the story goes all the way to Jessica’s last album in 2008. I suggest using Google to translate the whole thing.
    Hope it helps! I, for my part, had fun reading it.

  125. bilge Avatar
    bilge

    http://ololo.fm/artist/biography/Jessica+Jay
    here is the most complete information so far, also in russian.

  126. Sofia Avatar
    Sofia

    hi everyone,
    exactly Jessica Jay doesn’t exist, there are 3 different italian women signing. And the picture is of a 4rd woman 😀 It’s said but it’s true.

  127. Василий Курнечсов Avatar
    Василий Курнечсов

    Well, Dear all,
    I have read all commenters replied,but still not found more information about JJ…Where does she from? No one knows. And cannot specify her nation,her religion,place where she lived!!
    Please giving me more factfiles about JJ..and send me to : pratoompong@Gmail.com
    Thank you all

  128. Ronald Avatar
    Ronald

    the mystery was solved.

  129. Laura Avatar
    Laura

    Hi, im from Perú (2015)
    And i really love the music and the mistery about Jessica J.
    My favourite is Casablanca, i can read some comments of people in other countries, and that for me is exciting because means that i am not alone in this ** I just wanna say that is amazing that one mistery can mix all diferent languages and cultures!
    If you are interest in know more about the people of all the world, like me; just send me email at claudiaforever10@gmail.com. Good Vibes

  130. Reza Avatar
    Reza

    hi all. im from(iran) and very very very love jessica songs.all song are best.plz show me she websait.tnx all

  131. henj Avatar
    henj

    Hola como todos uds. tambien estoy en eso, quisiera saber, como dicen jessica jay es un alias o es el nombre de la cantante, no tengo mucha información, pucha pero quisiera tener mas informacion, en la red no dice mucha de ello. y quisiera sacarme la espina de saber quien canta el tema casa blanca , es un gran tema que trae muchos recuerdos.

  132. Eddy Avatar
    Eddy

    Hi Guys, I am Eddy from Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific, Neighbouring country to Indonasia, My younger brother and I love all Jessica Jay Songs, I was 8 and 9 in 1993 and 94 when I heard her songs, fell in love with it and kept finding her songs and until I recently found her songs on youtube,
    On that note, I always wanted to know her life story and her bio, but there seem to be no information about her. thanks guys guys for your information about our mystery singer.

    Eddy, 29

  133. Dan Avatar
    Dan

    Wow!!! I was looking up the internet for some info about jessica jay and i run into your story.i think it is amazing that you found all this stuff.so many years 🙂

  134. Gigi Vasile Avatar
    Gigi Vasile

    Great stuff, amazing work here, memorable music.

  135. Scarlett Avatar

    Hi!!! I’m from Myanmar (SouthEastAsia)I started listen her songs in 1995 Broken Hearted Woman album when I was 15.She was most famous singer in our country at that time.My favourite song was “The Room At The Top Of The Stairs”… I still listen now that song and her full album Broken Hearted Woman.I was listening with Casstte,Walkman,CD,Mp3,ipod and now in my phone.Many memories returns.I always wanna know who was she and which country does she live.I can’t find easily her profile on FB Or Twitter or others..So I search in google today and see this blog.I have read all but still not found more information about her and where does she from!!I felt so depressed..I was felt like that over the past 20 years ago..But Thank you so much “Mr.ROBERT NAGLE” for this blog coz I can hear some JJ’s update imformation.
    So..and I really hope that someday we all can find out the truth about Jessica Jay,..Hope to see her face and Always Pray for long living.
    Sorry for my poor English..
    Have a good good night all!!!

  136. Chris Avatar

    Wow. What a fantastic site – I first encountered ‘Jessica’ in Phuket in the early 90s, there was no escape from her music, every bar, every restaurant, every radio… literally everywhere… so I found a cd shop, and eventually got hold of the cd on VMP … and then promptly lost it when I got home.
    Thanks for the info and well done to everyone for the research! This has been fascinating 🙂

  137. Juan Marin Avatar
    Juan Marin

    I posted an old song in you tube (Jessica Jay – Kiss and say goodbye 1993) and by NBM snc di G. Nicolosi request I received a copyright strike, below the notice:

    “Hi J Marin:
    Due to a copyright takedown notice that we have received, we had to take down your video from YouTube:

    Video title: Jessica Jay Kiss and say goodbye
    Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C1ar1NLjKs
    Takedown issued by: NBM snc di G. Nicolosi
    This means that your video can no longer be played on YouTube. “.
    What that this mean. may someone help??

  138. Aldo Avatar
    Aldo

    As it was mentioned – there is a very good explanation in Russian…

    Jessica Jay – oдин из проектов миланского лейбла SAIFAM, создававшего группы и имена для дальнейшей раскрутки на азиатских музыкальных рынках
    под руководством братьев Lino и Pino Nicolosi – участников группы Novecento, в составе которой также были их сестра Rosanna и супруга Lino – Dora Carofiglio.
    Взяв за основу звучание Ace of Base, они под именем Jessica Jay выпустили на Тайване в 1993 году очень успешный сингл Broken Hearted Woman (кавер на “Rouge” Miyuki Nakajima).
    Однако первый альбом был записан с певицей Monica Stucchi, чей голос и звучит в главном хите проекта – Casablanca (кавер-версия песни одноимённого голливудского кинофильма 1942 г. в исполнении Bertie Higgins).
    В ходе турне по странам Азии, Восточной Европы и России за Джессику Джей выдавала себя фотомодель SAIFAM Лаура Фаджотто (Laura Fadzhotto). Именно эта симпатичная хрупкая блондинка с розовым оттенком волос и была на обложках российских пиратских релизов Jessica Jay.
    Песни второго альбома Chilly Cha Cha (1998) с каверами CC Catch, Sandra, Spice Girls, Gloria Gaynor записаны при участии нескольких сессионных певиц.
    В начале 2000-х проект Jessica Jay был временно заморожен. Новый альбом My Heart Is Back вышел только в 2007 году, песни всё так же записаны разными вокалистками. Впрочем, на этот раз большую их часть исполнила Melody Castellari, которая в 2000-х принимала участие во многих проектах SAIFAM.

    Robert Replies:
    This Russian language description is basically correct (I ran it through Google Translate although I know a little Russian). But it says that Monica Stucchi provides the vocals for the “Casablanca” song. That is possible, but unlikely. I have listened to a lot of Dora Carofiglio’s Novecento songs, and the vocal qualities sound almost identical to the voice in Casablanca. I listened to a few Monica Stucchi songs, and she sounds more like dance pop in the style of Madonna and Cyndi Lauper.

  139. rafael Avatar
    rafael

    señores el misterio a sido reveledo por la misma DORA CAROFIGLIO, ya creo su canal de youtube donde aclara la verdadera historia de JESSICA JAY les dejo el enlace: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlWcmcw02oc

    Robert Responds : Thank you! There is now a Jessica Jay/Dora Carofiglio youtube channel.

  140. PeaknikMicki Avatar
    PeaknikMicki

    I was in Thailand a couple of months when this was a big hit. Got the album but only on tape and haven’t had a tape player for years now. For some reason the lyrics came to my mind and I did some googling and after a few clicks I ended up here wondering who Jessica Jay is. I always assumed she was Western educated Thai Chinese. Boy was I wrong.
    Anyone remember a Thai singer called “Ed” or something like that? Got this one thai song of his that is still in my head and I cannot find it on the net. His music was grungy. I think that’s the only thing I can describe as the lyrics were all greek….er thai, to me. 🙂

  141. Luc Avatar
    Luc

    Hi Robert and JJ fans
    Thank you Robert for your work about JJ. Like you and many other fans I love JJ-Casablanca. It’s the first song of my wish list.
    Enigma is open for everyone and probably all our life.
    My guess, in a conspiration theory, is that woman, probably and unfortunately, doesn’t exist alive anymore, reason of author rights or if she exist, she has a very strong reason to not appear in public.
    On another side, her enigma, enable us to make a mystery case and imagine her as his voice or song, a very beautiful woman.

  142. Raùl L. Avatar
    Raùl L.

    Hi, I am from Peru. I always wanted to know who was Jessica Jay, and I see I am not alone on this. Thank you for that information, and I started to like Novecento and Dora Carofiglio’s voice since past year. Psdt: My favourite songs are Casablanca and Denpasar moon. 🙂

  143. Vorapong U. Avatar
    Vorapong U.

    Hi, I’m Puy from Thailand:The Land Of Mystery. I have one theory in my mind but I have no time to explain now. I want to thank you ROBERT NAGLE for this topic and all commenters that inspired me to find the truth and have my theory.
    Cheers!

  144. rafael Avatar
    rafael

    esto dice el link que les comparti:
    JESSICA JAY – original voice Dora Carofiglio

    Track list:

    01 BROKEN HEARTED WOMAN
    02 CASABLANCA
    03 DEMPASAR MOON
    04 I CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE
    05 BROKEN HEARTED WOMAN (radio version)
    06 I SWEAR
    07 ALWAYS

    DISCOGRAPHY

    VALERIE DORE “The Night”
    NOVECENTO “All Albums and Singles”
    ANSWERING SERVICE “Call me Mr Telephone”
    JESSICA JAY
    Broken Hearted Woman, Casablanca, Denpasar Moon, I can’t Help Falling in Love, i Swear, Always, Flirtatious Heart, I’m Living, One More Time, Smile, The Room at the top of the stears, The truth is…

    THE REAL STORY:
    Dora Carofiglio is the lead singer of Novecento, and also well known as the voice of Valerie Dore and the real voice of Jessica Jay. She did it just for fun!
    She also is a vocal teacher, sings Classical music, and did many Classical concerts.
    Dora Carofiglio was born and lives in Italy. she married Lino Nicolosi, guitarist and producer of the band Novecento, Valerie Dore, Jessica Jay, and Jazz artists, as Billy Cobham, Chaka Khan, Sting, Billy Preston, Gino Vannelli, and many more….
    the others girls, were only faces, models invented by people, nothing more.
    this is the real story!

  145. Radu Avatar
    Radu

    1994-1995, Casablanca from Jessica Jay was a huge hit and everybody knew it and danced to it. Haven’t thought about this song until today when I woke up and somehow it was in my mind.

  146. 123 Avatar
    123

    Broken Hearted Woman was originated from a Thai song, released a year or two before the English version.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thg3xMLBG_E

    This makes me think that she might be from Thailand, or at least live in Thailand.

  147. Yohana Avatar
    Yohana

    It’s still about a mystery called ‘JESSICA JAY’ I really wonder about this thing/person. Cause I even can’t find anything about her/it in the Google!!!!

    I heard her song ‘LOVE IS LIKE THE MOON’ more than 13 years ago and I was totally in love but there isn’t any information about the singer until today.

    Checked the previous comment, maybe he’s right. JESSICA JAY disguised as a normal person upon our nose and she silently laughs to our confusion.

  148. Alexander Avatar
    Alexander

    And I wonder who is this girl in “Casablanca” clip?

  149. artur Avatar
    artur

    I wonder why record labels and distributors make secrets of this, maybe the singer who takes part in this project wants to keep anonymity

  150. artur Avatar
    artur

    Broken Hearted Woman was originated from a Thai song, released a year or two before the English version. The success of the song was also witnessed by more than 30 local artists doing cover version of “Broken Hearted Woman”
    in Thai .she was the first .but also think that it comes from Thailand

  151. Eusebio Avatar
    Eusebio

    Jessica Jay is fascinating.
    And she’s lucky to have a very good electronic keyboardist to back her up with the arrangements.
    The news are – according to all the nice people who posted earlier here, especially “rafael” (1/3/2018, 2:16 pm) – as follows :

    1. There’s a new profile since 2016 on YouTube, named JESSICA JAY. It explains everything in the description and in the “About” section.

    2. They ( Novecento – Lino Nicolosi – and Dora Carofiglio ) also have a new single – 2017 – ABBA cover : Dancing Queen, that you can find on JESSICA JAY’s Youtube page.
    — It’s the same voice as in the song “Casablanca” for sure !
    Very good new arrangement.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bRSH0m7THU&list=LLicIAlyM4XWVtSadx-PHXQg&index=1

    3. By the way, the old ABBA band will go on tour soon ( 2018 or 2019 ) ON HOLOGRAMS ! … with their young images. And they have new songs !
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjhLxLWlmp0

    4. Several years ago I thought Jessica Jay was the British actress, as I found then on a site, a beautiful woman. But it’s not her.
    https://twitter.com/jessicajayuk?lang=en
    https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2677108/?ref_=nmbio_bio_nm
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqs1NeGmGJw
    -You can hear some songs down this following page (See Audio-section), with the actress’ voice but they do not clearly specify it’s her voice, except the Tesco audio.
    Nice voice in the song “I’m Not That Girl” –> Wow ! –> like saying she’s not the one we’re looking for !
    https://www.starnow.co.uk/jessjay

    5. Newly discovered songs ( new to me ) :
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWjjOV6SR3w
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTJC98Ico_g
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxqNiLaFHow

  152. Patricio Vásquez Calle Avatar
    Patricio Vásquez Calle

    I heard Jessica Jay in 90s, but just tonight i had the desire to know who is Jessica Jay. Your post helped me so much. Greetings from Peru.

  153. mang_juan Avatar
    mang_juan

    Hi! I’m from Philippines. I’m also trying to find out who the heck she is and I came across with your blog.
    I’m not quite sure about her other songs, but her song Chilly Cha Cha and My Macho was a big hit here in Philippines during 2000s. And what I mean of “big hit” is that you can heard that two songs everywhere you go during that time (I was 6 years old that time). It’s a common thing in Philippines that every house has a large sound system playing cassettes and CDs full blast and you can still heard it 50 meters away. So during that time your day will never be complete if you don’t hear Chilly Cha Cha and My Macho. In 2006, Chichiquita is also a hit featuring Marian Rivera (a local actress and dancer). Nowadays, I rarely heard that 2 songs, maybe because cassette tapes are now extinct and CDs are endangered. I decided to search on Youtube and it shocked me that original My Macho is so rare that I only found 1 version and the rest is a dance DJ mix versions.

  154. midnight Avatar
    midnight

    If you are interested in discovering the original versions of Jessica Jay’s songs, take a look at the notes section here:

    https://www.discogs.com/Jessica-Jay-Broken-Hearted-Woman/release/12248726

    &

    https://www.discogs.com/Jessica-Jay-潔西卡婕-Chilly-Cha-Cha-The-Album-請你恰恰/release/7743984

  155. Regina Avatar
    Regina

    I came across the song Broken Hearted Woman on a tour bus here in Phuket and used Shazam maybe because I was just too bored… and lo and behold, I got here. Haha!
    I am Filipino and I confirm that this Jessica Jay is not from the Philippines. Hopefully, you get all the answers to this decades old mystery. Haha!

  156. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    1993 – 1997 : Dora Carofiglio
    1998 – 2007 : Melody Castellari
    2017 : Dora Carofiglio

  157. Eusebio Avatar
    Eusebio

    I already have a post here, since last year, 2018.

    It’s shocking to find out that her record labels are in Singapore and Taiwan, as “midnight” posted above, on 1/15/2019.
    It’s also shocking that Dora Carofiglio did not any video recordings with her Jessica Jay performaces, but did video recordings using her original name Dora Carofiglio.
    More, Dora’s voice does not resemble Jessica’s.
    Wikipedia specifies nothing about Jessica Jay within the “Dora Carofiglio” article.
    Maybe it’s not her.

    Maybe Jessica Jay is another mysterious and hidden artist, like – I discovered – are those singing for Indian movies.
    For example, I was shocked to discover that in the movie “Shree 420”, Raj Kapoor and Nargis’ singing voices were in fact other people’s voices : Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar and other singers. See on Wikipedia.

    So, Jessica Jay is an invisible spirit so far.
    We should ask the :
    – Guts Records -> Parent Label : Rock Records , a label from Taiwan https://www.discogs.com/label/75391-Rock-Records
    – and VMP label – A record label from Singapore. VMP stands for Valentine Music Productions.

    Because the two links posted by “midnight” lead there.

  158. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Licensed From SAIFAM Italy
    Manufactured Marketed and Distributed in Asia By – Rock Records and VMP

  159. Serrol Avatar
    Serrol

    Correction please, Filipino – not Philipino.

  160. Ajix Avatar
    Ajix

    Wthhhhhh……. I thought only me was confused about it and couldn’t find JJ singer…. It’s so ridiculous and mysterious. I try to figure out JJ since I was a kid but none… many confusing articles about her… just strange, she has albums, but nothing about her…. cool…

  161. Shery Fathy Avatar
    Shery Fathy

    Hello there. First thank you for collecting all of these informations. I am Egyptian and I am 20 years old. For me the first time that I heard one of her songs was a kid specifically it was Casablanca. I discovered it again as an adult about 2 months ago, and I have been very curious to learn about the artist behind it (I only found out that it was a cover of an old song).

  162. sean Avatar
    sean

    great topic here about jessica jay.. my comment isnt related to jessica but is related to SAIFAM GROUP MUSIC!! as i can see from the replys you people seem to have some good knowledge of saifam’s session singers.. not sure if simon still see’s this blog but i am keen to find out more about the vocalist on the 1999 molotov/saifam music anthem that is gyskard – power of the night!! one of my favorites me and my remix partner just got the vocal parts tio remix the track but there’s no mention on the singer on the track.. roby arduini could not recall .. 20 yrs ago now.. but i wonder if it was one the many mentioned on this blog page.. if any one knows please help .. here is the info link https://www.discogs.com/Gyskard-Power-Of-The-Night/release/443105

  163. Eric Avatar
    Eric

    Great website! Really love it. Got here via google, as I tried to find out who Jessica Jay was. In 1999 I was with friends in Thailand where we kept on hearing Chili Cha Cha during our memorable the-Hangover-type-of-nights. I always thought that Jessica Jay was a Filipino artist.

  164. Nina Avatar
    Nina

    Wow, what a journey))
    Thanks, I was genuinely curious about the singer 🙂

  165. Elias Avatar
    Elias

    Thank you for your dedication in updating this thread. As with most of the people here, I am also curious about who jessica jay is since most of the information online like you said, does not actually shed light about her identity. Thanks for clarifying things and quenching my curiosity.

  166. Laura Faggiotto Avatar
    Laura Faggiotto

    Jessica Jay is Laura Faggiotto italian girl check the fb profile and insta

  167. xcel102 Avatar
    xcel102

    Stumbled upon this page more than 20 years after hearing Jessica Jay songs. Thanks for doing the investigation! I always felt strange that there was little information about Jessica Jay; I just thought she was very private/reclusive. Now it all makes sense!

  168. Don Nguyễn Avatar
    Don Nguyễn

    I first discovered Jessica Jay’s “Broken Hearted Woman” after listening to Nhu Quynh’s “Người Tình Mùa Đông” from an old music cassette tape my parents used to own in the 90s.

    Research led me to find the track was originally recorded in Japanese. And thanks to video sharing platforms like YouTube, I have found many different versions of the track over the years. It truly was a cultural phenomenon.

    Naomi Chiaki – ルージュ [Japanese original]

    Faye Wong – 容易受傷的女人 [Cantonese]

    Như Quỳnh – Người tình mùa đông [Vietnamese]

    အေးချမ်းမေ – တစ်စစီကျိုးပဲ့နေတယ် [Burmese]

    ก้อย พรพิมล ธรรมสาร – เกือบจะสาย [Thai]

    Tina Pettersson – Vanno Mulle [Finnish]

    Yonca Evcimik – 8:15 Vapuru [Turkish]

    I wonder how many more are out there?

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