Biography

Andrea Bocelli was born 22 September 1958 and is an Italian singer, songwriter, and record producer. He was born with poor eyesight and became completely blind at age 12, following a football accident.
Bocelli has recorded 15 solo studio albums of both pop and classical music, three greatest hits albums, and nine complete operas, selling over 80 million records worldwide. He has had success as a crossover performer, bringing classical music to the top of international pop charts.

In 1999, he was nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards. ‘The Prayer’ is his duet with Celine Dion for the animated film Quest for Camelot which won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. He captured a listing in the Guinness Book of World Records with the release of his classical album Sacred Arias, as he simultaneously held the top three positions on the US Classical Albums charts.

Bocelli was made a Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2006 and was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 2 March 2010 for his contribution to Live Theatre.

Bocelli showed a great passion for music as a young boy. His mother has said that music was the only thing that would comfort him. He started piano lessons at age 6 and later learned to play the flute, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, guitar, and drums. His nanny Oriana gave him the first record of Franco Corelli, and he began to show interest in pursuing the career of a tenor. By age 7, he was able to recognize the famous voices of the time and tried to emulate the great singers.

At age 12, Bocelli lost his sight completely following an accident during a football game. He was hit in the eye playing goalkeeper during a match and suffered a brain hemorrhage. Doctors resorted to leeches in a last-ditch effort to save his sight, but they were unsuccessful and he remained blind. Bocelli also spent time singing during his childhood. He gave his first concert in a small village not far from where he was born. He won his first song competition at age 14 with ‘O Sole Mio’ at the Margherita d’Oro in Viareggio. He finished secondary school in 1980, then studied law at the University of Pisa. To earn money, he performed evenings in piano bars, and it was there that he met his future wife Enrica in 1987. He completed law school and spent one year as a court-appointed lawyer.

One of Bocelli’s first lucky breaks came in 1992 when he recorded a demo tape of ‘Miserere’ for Zucchero Fornaciari, with the song co-written by U2’s Bono. That recording was heard by famed tenor Luciano Pavarotti, for whom the track was originally written. Pavarotti then encouraged Fornaciari to use Bocelli for the song. In the end, Bocelli and Pavarotti performed ‘Miserere’ together, which became a Europe-wide smash hit. A singer on the rise, Bocelli competed in the Sanremo Festival in 1994. He won the top honours in the newcomers’ category. That same year, Bocelli released his first album in Italy, Il Mare Calmo Della Sera. He scored a major hit in Europe a short time later with Bocelli, which featured ‘Con Te Partiro’. The song later became a popular duet with Sarah Brightman as ‘Time to Say Goodbye’, which appeared on his 1997 album Romanza.

With Sogno (1999), Bocelli cemented his status as an international singing sensation. The hit record included a duet with Celine Dion on the song ‘The Prayer’. More popular albums soon followed, including 2001’s Cieli di Toscana and 2006’s Amore. He also earned Grammy nods for Best New Artist in 1999 and in 2000 for Sogno (Best Male Pop Vocal Performance) and ‘The Prayer’ (Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals).

In addition to compilations and collaborative works, Bocelli has released numerous studio and live albums through his career including Viaggio Italiano (1995), Aria: The Opera Album (1998), Sacred Arias (1999), Verdi (2000), Cieli di Toscana (2001), Sentimento (2002), Andrea (2004), Amore (2006), Under the Desert Sky (2006), Incanto (2008), Vivere Live in Tuscany (2008), My Christmas (2009), and Concerto: One Night in Central Park (2011).

More recently, Bocelli collaborated with Jennifer Lopez on his 2013 album Passione. He joined forces with Placido Domingo and Ana Maria Martinez on 2014’s Manon Lescaut.  In 2015, Bocelli released Cinema, his 15th studio album. The tenor had longed to create an album of his favourite movie songs originally performed by singers such as Frank Sinatra and Mario Lanza. The album features his renditions of classic soundtrack favourites such as ‘Maria’ from West Side Story, ‘Moon River’ from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, ‘No Llores Por Mi Argentina’, from Evita, and ‘Por Uno Cabeza’ from Scent of a Woman.

That same year, he sang ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ before Pope Francis in Philadelphia during the pontiff’s historic visit to the United States. Speaking about the performance with Time magazine, Bocelli reflected, “Having the chance to sing again in front of the Holy Father, for whom I have deep and sincere devotion, offering my humble contribution as a fervent Catholic, is a great honour for me. St. Augustine notoriously reminds us that singing is an extraordinary form of prayer. And this is my goal, my purpose and my joy: to pray together.”