Early life

As a child Andrea played the organ in church, and at the age of 12 he won the Margherita d'Oro in Viareggio with "'O Sole Mio", his first win in a music competition. After working for one year as a lawyer (he graduated as a Doctor of Laws from the University of Pisa) he undertook singing lessons from maestro Luciano Bettarini, taking up music full time.

Early career

In 1992, the Italian rock star Zucchero Fornaciari first auditioned Andrea while scouting for tenors to duet with him in the song "Miserere"; upon hearing the recording, tenor Luciano Pavarotti urged Zucchero to use Andrea instead of himself. The song was finally recorded with Pavarotti but Andrea Bocelli accompanied Zucchero in his European tour.

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

In 1995, Andrea's song "Con Te Partirò" came fourth at the Sanremo Music Festival.

International presence

In 1996, he sang with the English soprano Sarah Brightman a duet version of "Con te Partiró", entitled "Time to Say Goodbye", which broke sales records and stayed in the German top ten for nearly six months. In subsequent years Andrea performed at Paris, Bologna, Torre del Lago and Vatican City. 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, Andrea 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.

In 2002, Andrea repeated his America tour, winning two World Music Awards. Since then, Andrea 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, 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". He was especially impressed with Katharine McPhee. She accepted his offer to perform with him on the 3 California dates of his US tour: Sacramento, San Jose and the Hollywood Bowl, June 9 - 11, 2006.

Charitable and other works

He has sung for many charitable events and occasions worldwide, such as at Ground Zero in October 2001, "Pavarotti & Friends" events, concerts for the ARPA research foundation in Pisa, Italy (of which he is honorary president), participated in the Sharon Osbourne CD project for the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake relief and performed in a large, televised concert in Italy, in March 2005, entitled "Music for Asia".

Not limited to singing, Andrea has contributed to several written works, including a short piece on friendship in a compilation by Doris S. Platt, and both the foreword and an interview-chapter to an Italian book about joint custody. He also wrote an autobiography, La musica del silenzio (Italian for The Music of Silence), which was published in 1999. The English edition was out the following year as Andrea Bocelli: The Autobiography.

Criticism

Though Bocelli frequently sings in operas, some music critics and opera fans consider him a pop singer who has neither the training nor the voice quality of a true opera singer.^[1] Supporters of Bocelli often counter that his stage presence and heartfelt emotion he puts into his singing make up for any perceived lack of technical proficiency.

Discography

Albums:

• Romanza (1996) #35 US, #1 NL
• Aria - The Opera Album (1997) #59 US
• Hymn for the World (1997)
• II Mare Calmo Della Sera (1998), #19 NL
• Viaggo Italiano (1998), #8 NL, #153 US
• Bocelli (1998), #1 NL
• Hymn for the World 2 (1998)
• Sogno (1999) #4 US
• Sacred Arias (1999) #22 US
• Verdi (2000) #23 US, #2 ITA
• La bohème (2000)
• Cieli di Toscana (2001) #11 US, #3 UK, #3 ITA
• Sentimento (2002) #12 US, #7 UK, #13 ITA
• Tosca (2003)
• Il trovatore (2004)
• Andrea (2004) #16 US, #6 ITA
• Werther (2005)
• Amore (2006) #3 US, #4 UK, #1 NL, #2 ITA

See also

• List of best selling music artists

References

External links

• Bocelli's official site
• Bocelli section at ClassicalX
• Bocelli pages at Music City
• Podcast interview with Andrea Bocelli
• Andrea Bocelli at the Internet Movie Database
• Biography of Andrea Bocelli, from RAI International