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Revision as of 00:16, 12 March 2005 by 138.92.177.231 (talk) (→National recognition)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Andrea Bocelli (born September 22, 1958 in Lajatico, Tuscany, Italy) is a singer, writer and music producer.
An operatic tenor, he has released two complete operas and over eight albums. He has two sons Amos (b. 1995) and Matteo (b. 1997).
Bocelli was born with an inherited form of glaucoma, which only got worse as he aged. When he was twelve years old, he was hit with a soccer ball and went completely blind. Andrea wrote that blindness is in no way a tragedy to him.
Early musical life
As a child Andrea was already playing the church organ and at the age of 12 won the Margherita d'Oro in Viareggio with O sole mio, his first competition win. After working for a year as a lawyer (he graduated as a Doctor of Law from the University of Pisa) he takes singing lessons from Maestro Luciano Bettarini, taking up music fulltime.
National recognition
The Italian rock star Zucchero Fornaciari first auditioned Andrea while scouting for tenors in 1992; upon hearing the tape Pavarotti urged Zucchero to use Andrea instead of himself. In 1994 Andrea sings the winning entry Il mare calmo della sera in the San Remo Festival, which leads to his first Golden Disc. That year he sings at Pavarotti's benefit concert at Modena, debuts as Macduff in Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth, and sings before the Pope at Christmas.
In the 1995 San Remo festival Andrea wins fourth place singing Con Te Partirò.
International recognition
In 1996 in Germany with soprano Sarah Brightman he sings an English version of Con Te Partiro, entitled Time to Say Goodbye, which breaks sales records and stays in the German top ten for nearly six months. In subsequent years Andrea sings at Paris, Bologna, Torre del Lago and the Vatican, and releases further albums, until entering the American market in 1998 with a concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington and a White House reception. Both that year and in 1999 Andrea embarked on tours to North and South America and duets with Celine Dion. Andrea's albums top the US classical album charts. In 2002 Andrea repeated his America tour, winning two World Music Awards.
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