He became totally blind at the age of 12 after hitting his head during a soccer game with friends -Bocelli suffered a brain hemorrhage which resulted in blindness a few days later, yet his sight was already impaired from glaucoma at birth. He received piano, flute, and saxophone lessons as a boy. His family members were not especially musical, but they were encouraging when Bocelli displayed an interest in opera music as early as age six. His family ’s farm was home to a small vineyard, from which his father, Sandro, still produces Chianti Bocelli. His parents sold farm equipment and grew olives and wine grapes. By 1998, Bocelli had performed for Pope John Paul II on four different occasions.īocelli was born on September 22, 1958, in the rural farming town of Lajatico, located about 20 miles from Pisa in Italy ’s Tuscany region. His roster of fans includes such luminaries as Pope John Paul II, Luciano Pavarotti, Isabella Rossellini, Cecilia Bartoli, Julie Andrews, and Madonna. Bocelli ’s debut album, Romanza, ranked alongside the Titanic soundtrack as one of the two best-selling holiday albums in 1997, and his second album, Viaggio Italiano, was on top of the Billboard classical charts in early 1998.
The PBS production was slated to run only once, but due to its popularity it ran three times. ”īocelli was a best-selling pop artist in Europe with more than 10 million copies sold of his debut album, Romanza, and after his exposure through the PBS special, his success in the U.S. According to the Boston Herald ’s Stephen Schaefer, Bocelli has been dubbed the fourth tenor, the leading Tower of Pisa, the singing Tower of Pisa, and “the most beautiful voice in the world. Bocelli aptly caters to both the pop and operatic worlds, appealing to ardent fans of both types of music with his remarkably lovely voice. Multi-platinum-selling Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli reached a mainstream pop audience with his beautiful opera renditions after a film of his live concert in Pisa titled Romanza in Concert: A Night in Tuscany was aired on a PBS fund-raising special at the end of 1997.
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