July 6: Italian singer and actress Cristina D'Avena is 48-years-old today.

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Cristina D'Avena is from Bologna, Italy. She is well-known in Italy for performing Italian dubs for the theme songs of hundreds of Japanese and American animated TV series. In all, she has sung nearly 700 songs, including theme songs for Sailor Moon, Wedding Peach, Pokémon, Ace o Nerae!, Touch, Ai Shite Knight, Attack No. 1, One Piece, Candy Candy, Kodocha, La Seine no Hoshi, Magic Knight Rayearth, Dr. Slump, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Himitsu no Akko-chan, Little Women, Kimagure Orange Road, Attacker You!, Glass Mask, Cardcaptor Sakura and Rose of Versailles.

Cristina also has recorded songs for other television programs. The dubbed Italian songs she sings are not covers of the Japanese songs but newly written songs for the Italian dub of the anime. For the Italian dub of Mahou no Tenshi Creamy Mami, D'Avena, in addition to performing the theme songs, she also perfromed the singing voices of both Creamy Mami and her rival Megumi Ayase.

D'Avena has also performed themes for live-action TV series and for Western cartoon series such as Count Duckula, The Mask, My Little Pony and Friends, The Smurfs, The Snorks, Totally Spies and Jem.

In addition to performing the theme songs, she also played Licia (Yakko-chan), the female lead of the anime Ai Shite Knight (known in Italy as Kiss Me Licia), in four live-action TV drama sequels to the anime (Love me Licia, Licia, dolce Licia, Teneramente Licia, Balliamo e cantiamo con Licia) which were made in Italy in response to the popularity of the anime there.

In December 2009 she released her Magia di Natale album, which includes 12 traditional Christmas songs, all arranged by Valeriano Chiaravalle. In the album, she sung the songs in  English for the first time. The album also includes a cover version of Childhood, a Michael Jackson song in which she pays homage to the late singer.

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for more about Cristina, visit her Website at -

www.cristinadavena.it

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