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Andrea Bocelli (born September 22, 1958 in Lajatico, Tuscany, Italy) is a
singer, writer and music producer.An operatic tenor, he has released four
complete operas (La Boheme, Il Trovatore, Werther and Tosca) and over eleven
other albums, both classical and popular in style. He has two sons Amos (b.
1995) and Matteo (b. 1997). He was married but has since separated from his
only wife, Enrica. He is blind.
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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 undertook singing lessons from
Maestro Luciano Bettarini, taking up music full time. He has never stopped
his vocal training, attending a master class with renowned tenor Franco
Corelli in Torino, for example.
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 performed the winning entry
Il mare calmo della sera in the San Remo Festival, which lead to his first
Golden Disc. That year he debuted as Macduff in Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth,
sang at Pavarotti's benefit concert at Modena, and before the Pope at
Christmas.
In the 1995 San Remo festival Andrea won fourth place singing Con Te
Partirò.
International recognition
In 1996 in Germany with soprano Sarah Brightman he sang an English
version of Con Te Partiro, 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 the
Vatican, and 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 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.
Andrea's albums top the US classical album charts. In 2002 Andrea repeated
his America tour, winning two World Music Awards. Since then, Andrea has
continued to expand his career with concert appearances throughout the world.
Charitable and other works
He has sung for many charitable events and occasions, such as at Ground
Zero in October 2001; several of the "Pavarotti & Friends for Children"
events; participated in the Sharon Osbourne CD project for tsunami relief;
and performed in a large, televised concert in Italy in March 2005 called "Music
for Asia". Not limited to singing, Andrea has contributed to several written
works, including a short piece on friendship in a compilation by Dorris
Platt, and the foreward to an Italian book about shared custody. He also
published a thinly-disguised autobiography named "The Music of Silence" in
2001.
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