Andrea Bocelli (Italian: [anˈdrɛːa boˈtʃɛlli]; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor. He rose to fame in 1994 after 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 90 million records worldwide. He has had success as a crossover performer, bringing classical music to the top of international pop charts. Bocelli's 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. My Christmas was the best-selling holiday album of 2009 and one of the best-selling holiday albums in the United States. 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", a duet with Sarah Brightman taken from his second album Bocelli, is one of the best-selling singles of all time.
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, Bocelli 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.
Bocelli was made a Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2006, and was later elevated to Knight Grand Cross in 2025. He was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 2 March 2010 for his contribution to Live Theater, and Bocelli was awarded a gold medal for Merit in Serbia in 2022. Singer Celine Dion has said that "if God had a singing voice, it would sound a lot like Andrea Bocelli", and record producer David Foster has often described Bocelli's voice as the most beautiful in the world.
Andrea Bocelli was born to Alessandro and Edi Bocelli on 22 September 1958. His sight was impaired from birth due to congenital glaucoma. He stated that his mother's decision to give birth to him and overrule the doctor's advice - to abort the pregnancy due to a high possibility of the child being born with a disability - was the inspiration for him to oppose abortion.
Bocelli grew up on his family's farm, with a younger brother Alberto, where they sold farm machinery and made wine in the small village of La Sterza, near Lajatico, Tuscany, Italy, about 40 km (25 mi) south of Pisa.
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. Bocelli started piano lessons at age six 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 seven, Bocelli 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 eye with a football. Doctors resorted to leeches in a final attempt to save his sight, but they were unsuccessful and Bocelli 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. Bocelli 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, and then studied law at the University of Pisa. To earn money, Bocelli performed evenings in piano bars, and it was there that he met his future wife Enrica in 1987. Bocelli completed law school and spent one year as a court-appointed lawyer.
1992–1994: Sanremo and Il mare calmo della sera
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. Pavarotti eventually persuaded Zucchero to record the song with Bocelli, and it became a hit throughout Europe. During 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 won the preliminary competition with the highest marks ever recorded in the newcomers' section. On 28 December, Bocelli debuted in the classical world in a concert at the Teatro Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilia. In February 1994, he entered the main Sanremo Festival competition with "Il mare calmo della sera", and he won the newcomers section, again with a record score. Following his win, Bocelli released his debut album of the same name in April, and it entered the Italian Top Ten, being certified platinum within weeks.
In May 1994, Bocelli toured with pop singer Gerardina Trovato. Four months later, he sang at Pavarotti's annual Charity Gala concert, Pavarotti International in Modena, where Bocelli sang Ruggiero Leoncavallo's "Mattinata" and sang a duet with Pavarotti, Maurizio Morante's "Notte e Piscatore". That same month, Bocelli made his opera debut as Macduff in Verdi's Macbeth at the Teatro Verdi in Pisa. He had been an agnostic, but around 1994, partly as a result of immersing himself in the works of Russian author Leo Tolstoy, Bocelli returned to the practice of the Catholic faith. He performed the hymn "Adeste Fideles" in Rome before Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Basilica at Christmas.
1995–1997: Bocelli and Romanza
As winner of the newcomers' section at the 1994 Sanremo Festival, Bocelli was invited to return the following year. He entered the main competition with "Con te partirò" and finished in fourth place. The song was included on Bocelli's second album, Bocelli, produced by Mauro Malavasi and released in November 1995. In Belgium, "Con te partirò" became the best-selling single of all time.
Bocelli's third album, Viaggio Italiano, was released in Italy in 1996. He was invited to sing a duet with English soprano Sarah Brightman at the final bout of German boxer Henry Maske. Brightman approached Bocelli after she heard him singing "Con te partirò" while she was dining in a restaurant. Changing the title lyric of the song to "Time to Say Goodbye", they re-recorded it as a duet with members of the London Symphony Orchestra and sang it as a farewell for Maske. The single debuted atop the German charts, where it stayed for 14 weeks. With sales nearing three million copies, and a sextuple platinum award, "Time to Say Goodbye" eclipsed the previous best-selling single by more than one million copies. In 1996, Bocelli topped the Spanish singles chart with a duet with Marta Sánchez, "Vivo por ella", the Spanish version of "Vivo per lei", recorded with Giorgia for his 1997 compilation album, Romanza. He also recorded a Portuguese version of the song with Brazilian singer Sandy.
The same year, Bocelli recorded "Je vis pour elle", the French version of "Vivo per lei", as a duet with French singer Hélène Ségara. Released in December 1997, the song became a hit in Belgium (Wallonia) and France, where it reached No. 1 on the charts. To date, it is the best-selling single for Ségara, and the second for Bocelli after "Time to Say Goodbye". On 3 March, he appeared in Hamburg, Germany, with Sarah Brightman to receive the ECHO music award for "Best Single of the Year".
During the summer of 1997, Bocelli gave 22 open-air concerts in Germany, and an indoor concert in Oberhausen on 31 August. In September, he performed in concert at the Piazza dei Cavalieri in Pisa for the home video A Night in Tuscany (Italian: una notte nella Toscana) with guests Nuccia Focile, Sarah Brightman and Zucchero. The concert was also Bocelli's first concert to air on PBS, as part of the In The Spotlight series. It also marked Bocelli's debut to American audiences. On 14 September, in Munich, Germany, he received an ECHO Klassik Best Seller of the Year award for his album, Viaggio Italiano.