Andrea Bocelli

About Andrea Bocelli

Andrea Bocelli became one of classical music's biggest commercial successes despite arriving at international fame relatively late, when he was already in his mid-thirties. Born in 1958 in Tuscany with congenital glaucoma that left him partially sighted, he lost his vision completely at twelve after a soccer accident. He spent his youth studying law while singing in piano bars and entering regional competitions, living a split existence between respectable career path and musical obsession.

His breakthrough came through an unlikely channel. In 1992, Italian rock star Zucchero needed a placeholder vocal for a demo of "Miserere" he was sending to Luciano Pavarotti. Bocelli recorded it. When Pavarotti heard the tape, he told Zucchero to use the tenor who'd sung the demo instead. The collaboration put Bocelli on the map in Italy, and by 1994 he'd won the Sanremo Music Festival, which sounds like a minor detail but matters enormously in Italian popular culture.

His 1995 album "Bocelli" and 1997's "Romanza" turned him into something bigger than a classical crossover curiosity. "Romanza" included "Con te partirò," which became "Time to Say Goodbye" when Sarah Brightman sang it as a duet with him. That recording sold millions, got used in every emotional television moment for years, and established the template for his career: operatic technique applied to songs that worked on mainstream radio.

The late nineties and early 2000s saw him occupy a strange but lucrative space between classical purism and adult contemporary accessibility. "Sogno" in 1999 went multi-platinum. Celine Dion duetted with him on "The Prayer," which became another standard in the repertoire of singers at weddings and awards shows. Classical purists dismissed him. Record buyers disagreed with classical purists.

He's released an album every year or two since then with metronomic consistency. "Sacred Arias" in 1999 became the biggest selling classical album by a solo artist ever. He's sung for popes and presidents, performed at Olympic ceremonies, played Central Park and the Hollywood Bowl. In 2018, "Sì" became his first number one album in the UK, two decades into his recording career.

His voice sits in an odd place critically. Opera professionals point out technical limitations and argue he lacks the power for major opera house roles. None of that changes the fact that he's sold over ninety million records, which is more than most opera singers sell in several collective lifetimes. He's continued recording steadily into his sixties, mixing classical repertoire with pop collaborations, most recently working with everyone from Ed Sheeran to Karol G. He's essentially created his own category, one that exists profitably outside traditional genre boundaries while borrowing from all of them.

His shows are reverent, almost spiritual. Crowds go quiet for the classical moments, then swell with recognition when familiar melodies hit. Lots of older attendees, lots of people who don't usually go to concerts. No mosh pits. High production values, orchestral arrangements that fill theaters. He holds the stage through presence, not movement.

Known for Time to Say Goodbye, Con te partirò, The Prayer, Fall on Me, Hallelujah

See Andrea Bocelli Live