Andrea Bocelli

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Andrea Bocelli
Image:Andrea Bocelli.jpg
Background information
Birth name Andrea Bocelli
Born September 22, 1958 (1958-09-22) (age 49)
Origin Lajatico, Italy
Genre(s) Classical crossover, Operatic pop
Instrument(s) vocals, piano, saxophone, flute
Years active 1996-present
Label(s) Sugar, MT Opera&Blue's
Website Andrea Bocelli

Andrea Bocelli (born 22 September 1958) is an Italian singer. He is both an operatic tenor and a classical crossover singer. Despite his popularity, he has been often dismissed by critics for his poor phrasing, uneven tone and lack of technique.[1] To date, he has recorded six complete operas — La Bohème, Il Trovatore, Werther, Pagliacci, Cavalleria Rusticana and Tosca — in addition to various classical and pop albums. He has sold 60 million albums worldwide. Bocelli has been blind since the age of 24 when a soccer accident accelerated an already slow loss of eyesight from congenital glaucoma.

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In 1992, the Italian rock star Zucchero first auditioned Bocelli while scouting for tenors to duet with him in the song "Miserere"; after hearing this recording, tenor Luciano Pavarotti urged Zucchero to use Bocelli instead of himself and said, "Let Andrea sing Miserere with you, for there is no one finer."[2] The song was later recorded with Pavarotti, but Bocelli accompanied Zucchero on his European concert tour.

In 1994, Bocelli performed the winning entry "Il mare calmo della sera" at the Sanremo Festival, which led to his first gold record. That year, he also debuted as Macduff in Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth, sang at Pavarotti's benefit concert in Modena, and performed for Pope John Paul II at Christmas.

In 1995, Bocelli's song "Con te partirò" placed fourth at the Sanremo Festival. It was included in his 1995 album Bocelli.

In 1995, Andrea Bocelli had a performance during "Night of the Proms" — a famous yearly concert consisting of a combination of pop music and popular classical music (often combined) with various well-known and less known musicians in Antwerp, Belgium. As a consequence of this, "Con te partirò" became a huge hit in Belgium and stayed many weeks number one in the Belgian charts.

In November 1996, Andrea sang the song in duet with English soprano Sarah Brightman in Germany. Changing the title lyric of the song from "Con te partirò" (I’ll go with you) to “Time to Say Goodbye,” they sang it as a farewell song for the German World Light-Heavyweight boxing champion, Henry Maske's last bout. "A national hero held in unrivalled esteem, he is known for his love of selecting entrance themes to his bouts. Sarah Brightman, the internationally renowned soprano and friend of Henry Maske heard "Con te partirò" in a restaurant while dining with friends. Entranced by the singer and the song, Brightman made contact with Andrea. Bocelli and Brightman re-recorded "Con te partirò" as the duet Time to Say Goodbye with members of the London Symphony Orchestra. Maske was defeated on points by US champion Virgil Hill. As the German public paid tribute to their departing hero, the arena was filled with the glorious sound of Time to Say Goodbye. The single was released and shot to No. 1 where it resided for 14 weeks. A spin-off single called "Time to Say Hello" has been rumored to be in the works for a 2008 release. With sales nearing three million copies, and a sextuple platinum award, Time to Say Goodbye eclipsed the previous best-selling single by over 1 million copies He also appeared in Sesame Street singing a duet with Elmo. In subsequent years Bocelli performed in Paris, Bologna, Torre del Lago and Vatican City. He also topped the Spanish singles chart in 1996 with a duet with Marta Sanchez, Vivo Por Ella. He released further albums until entering the American market in 1998 with a concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and a White House reception. Both that year and in 1999, Bocelli embarked on tours to North and South America and duets with Céline Dion, and performed the first Internet live opera broadcast in its entirety from the Detroit Opera House, with Denyce Graves.

On Thanksgiving Eve of 1998 Bocelli appeared as a guest on Céline Dion's TV Special "These Are Special Times" on which he joined Dion with their hit "The Prayer" (from Dion's album These Are Special Times) and then sang solo "Ave Maria." Dion's album, including "The Prayer" was released in 1998 and re-issued with the DVD of the TV special in 2007.

In 2002, Bocelli repeated his America tour, winning two World Music Awards. Since then, he has continued his career with concert appearances throughout the world, including singing during the NBA's 2006 All-Star Weekend in Houston. He sang "Because We Believe" from his 2006 album Amore album, during the Closing Ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics.

In 2006, Bocelli worked with the six finalists of American Idol to help them sing the week's themed songs, "classic love songs." Andrea Bocelli and Katharine McPhee's duets of "Somos Novios" and "The Prayer" were performed at his California concerts. They also performed and recorded duet versions of "Somos Novios" on the album for JCPenney Jam, a primetime television special produced by EVI, and "Can't Help Falling in Love" on Bocelli's Amore album.

On July 1, 2007, Bocelli performed "Music of the Night" from Andrew Lloyd-Webber's Phantom of the Opera, during the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium in London, England.

Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman's duet version of "Con te partirò" was used in the 2007 movie Blades of Glory starring Will Ferrell and Jon Heder, as an ice skating song.

Akiyama Yoshihiro, K-1 mixed martial arts fighter uses "Con te partirò" as his ring entrance music.

On September 8, 2007, he sang Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus" at the funeral of Luciano Pavarotti in Modena, Italy.

Bocelli met Enrica Cenzatti in 1987 and they married on 27 June 1992. She bore him two sons, Amos (b. 22 February 1995) and Matteo (b. 8 October 1997). The couple divorced in 2002 under private terms.He recently became engaged to Veronica Berti.

His father died during the night April 30, 2000, but his mother encouraged him to honor his commitments and so he sang for the Pope in Rome on May 1 and immediately returned home for his father's funeral. At the July 5, 2000 performance that was videotaped for PBS as "American Dream — Andrea Bocelli's Statue of Liberty Concert" Andrea dedicated the encore "Sogno" to the memory of his Babbo, Sandro Bocelli.

On October 21, 2007, he sang "Con te partirò" with Katherine Jenkins on the popular UK television series 'Strictly Come Dancing' results show, and on October 30, 2007, he sang "The Prayer" with Celine Dion on the soon-to-be-aired ITV special "An Audience with Céline Dion." He sang alongside fellow Italian singer Laura Pausini "Vivire" ("Dare To Live", in English, which was also released in The Best of: Andrea Bocelli as "Dare To Live (Vivere)") during the 2007 Latin Grammy.

 This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes.
Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies.(June 2007)
  1. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/arts/music/10boce.html?ref=music
  2. ^ Biography on www.bocellionline.com (from the Tour of America program guide).

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