Cristina D'Avena is an Italian singer and actress, widely recognized for her extensive work performing theme songs for Italian-dubbed anime and animated series. Born in Bologna on July 6, 1964, her career in entertainment began at a very young age when she joined the prestigious Antoniano choir after participating in Lo Zecchino d'Oro at just three years old. Her professional recording career took off in the early 1980s, and she has since become a defining voice for generations of Italian viewers, selling nearly seven million albums.

In the context of anime voice acting, D'Avena's contribution is unique and specialized. While she is not a voice actress in the traditional sense, providing dialogue for characters, she is renowned for dubbing the singing voices of characters in anime. A prime example of this is her work on the 1983 series Magical Angel Creamy Mami (known in Italy as L'incantevole Creamy). For the Italian adaptation, Cristina D'Avena performed the Italian theme song, L'incantevole Creamy. Furthermore, she provided the singing voice for the protagonist Yu Morisawa in her pop star form, Creamy Mami, as well as for her rival, the singer Duenote Megumi Ayase. Six of the seven songs Creamy performs during the series are sung by D'Avena, set to the original Japanese musical arrangements. Her role in this series exemplifies her contribution to anime in Italy, where the dubbed songs are newly written Italian pieces rather than direct covers of the original Japanese songs.

Her work, however, extends far beyond a single series. D'Avena's discography includes hundreds of theme songs for a vast array of anime that became cultural touchstones in Italy. Among the many series for which she has sung the Italian themes are Sailor Moon, Kiss Me Licia (Ai Shite Knight), Marmalade Boy, Holly e Benji (Captain Tsubasa), Mila e Shiro due cuori nella pallavolo (Attacker You!), One Piece, Pollon, and Nadia: Il mistero della pietra azzurra (Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water). Her repertoire also includes themes for Western cartoons and live-action series.

D'Avena's career is marked by several notable collaborations and achievements. She had a long-standing and prolific association with the Mediaset networks and the record label Five Record, which produced the majority of her anime theme songs. A significant recurring collaboration was with the anime and live-action franchise Kiss Me Licia. After singing the theme song for the anime Ai Shite Knight, she starred as the lead character, Licia, in four Italian live-action television series that served as sequels to the anime: Love me Licia, Licia, dolce Licia, Teneramente Licia, and Balliamo e cantiamo con Licia. This success led to the creation of a television series about her, titled Arriva Cristina, further cementing her status as a beloved children's entertainment personality. In 2017, after 35 years, she signed with Warner Music Italy and released the album Duets - Tutti cantano Cristina, which became her first number-one album and achieved platinum status. Her influence and popularity were further underscored by her appearances as a guest at the Sanremo Music Festival in 2016 and 2019.