Andrea Bocelli

Andrea Bocelli (born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor.

After performing evenings in piano bars and competing in local singing contests, Bocelli signed his first recording contract with Sugar Music.

Bocelli was born with impaired sight to Alessandro and Edi Bocelli on 22 September 1958.

He was born with congenital glaucoma.

He stated that his mother's decision to give birth to him and overrule the doctor's advice was the inspiration for him to oppose abortion.

Bocelli grew up on his family's farm where they sold farm machinery and made wine in the small village of La Sterza, a frazione of Lajatico, Tuscany, Italy, about 40 km south of Pisa.

He finished secondary school in 1980, and 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.

The track was licensed to feature in a series of television commercials for TIM in the late 1990s, which eventually became very popular in Italy.

In 1992, Italian rock star Zucchero held auditions for tenors to make a demo tape of his song "Miserere", to send to Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti.

After hearing Bocelli on tape, Pavarotti urged Zucchero to use Bocelli instead of him.

Zucchero eventually persuaded Pavarotti to record the song with Bocelli, and it became a hit throughout Europe.

In Zucchero's European concert tour in 1993, Bocelli accompanied him to sing the duet, and he was also given solo sets in the concerts, singing "Nessun dorma" from Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot.

Bocelli signed with the Sugar Music label in Milan after Caterina Caselli heard him sing "Miserere" and "Nessun Dorma" at a birthday party for Zucchero.

In December, Bocelli entered the preliminary round of the Sanremo Music Festival in the category of Giovani, performing "Miserere".

He rose to fame in 1994, winning the newcomers' section of the 44th Sanremo Music Festival performing "Il mare calmo della sera".

Since 1994, Bocelli has recorded 15 solo studio albums of both pop and classical music, three greatest hits albums, and nine complete operas, selling over 75 million records worldwide.

He has had success as a crossover performer, bringing classical music to the top of international pop charts.

His album Romanza is one of the best-selling albums of all time, while Sacred Arias is the biggest selling classical album by any solo artist in history.

In 1998, Bocelli was named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People.

He duetted with Celine Dion on the song "The Prayer" 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.

In 1999, he was nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards.

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.

His mother and younger brother Alberto still live in the family home; his father died in 2000.

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 vision completely after being hit in the eyes with a soccer ball.

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.

My Christmas was the best-selling holiday album of 2009 and one of the best-selling holiday albums in the United States.

Bocelli was made a Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2006, and was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 2 March 2010, for his contribution to Live Theater, and he was awarded a gold medal for Merit in Serbia in 2022.

Singer Celine Dion has said that "if God would have a singing voice, he must sound a lot like Andrea Bocelli", and record producer David Foster has often described Bocelli's voice as the most beautiful in the world.

The 2019 album Sì debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and US Billboard 200, becoming Bocelli's first number-one album in both countries.

His song "Con te partirò", included on his second album Bocelli, is one of the best-selling singles of all time.