After the guys finished the North American Tour and the Australian Tour last year, I wrote an article that touched the heart of many people. This story takes a look at how things were in the beginning.  When the guys first began to climb The Ladder of Success!

We need to start by understanding what it was like for the guys to come together, become Il Volo and to realize what it meant to immediately become stars! This story is The Reality, the Realization and The Bonding of their lives.

In the beginning the idea of being one in three was something that the guys needed to learn about. They had to learn how to sing together. It was no longer this is your song, learn it and sing it. No, now it was, this is your part, your take, your phrase, learn it and sing it. They begin to understand how music and recording actually work. They were starting to learn about being three in the form of one. Sharing! And, if that wasn’t enough, they had to learn something even harder, how to get along with one another.

I’ve told you, in some of my stories, about the problems, the disagreements. This may seem unusual but in reality, it was not. You show me three teenage boys who can be thrown together and immediately like one another and totally agree with one another. No, that would never happen.

Ignazio said….

We were only three kids accompanied by our parents. We still did not know each other well. At the beginning I immediately started to connect with Piero. Perhaps because he is Sicilian like me and maybe because we always found the opportunity to make jokes and have fun.

Gianluca said….

I was very shy and a little insecure but also a little immature and too instinctive.

In quarrels, for example, maybe it happened that I also answered in an annoying way because I was the one, I felt at that time, and I could not wait until then. Piero, for example, took some good kicks from me. I threw a pizza, at Ignazio, in front of the Universal Canadian official in a restaurant in Montreal. The shrimp flew off the pizza and hit the official of Universal, I mean really.

These were some of the obstacles. Some would easily be resolved and some would take a long time and a lot of trust to overcome.

By May 2010, things began to change.

Piero recalls….

We began to understand that something was only changing when our first record came out.

Ignazio remembers….

It was already May 2010, and the Il Volo album was about to come out all over the world. Maybe I was too small and naive, but I did not feel the anxiety of the job, like today.

 

The first major television show in which the guys appeared in America was American Idol, the world’s most famous music talent show.

The guys certainly took America by storm and slowly also many other countries in the world.

So, let’s see what the guys have to say about The Reality, the Realization and the Bonding….

Ignazio begins to explain the Reality….

In a few months I found myself having traveled the world, from Europe to the Americas, from Asia to Oceania. From 2010 to 2013 we traveled like crazy, without ever stopping. In three years, I had not been home for five months.

In 2013 at the end of the American Tour the guys found themselves at the door of Latin America and their South American Tour.

First stop Guadalajara, Mexico. And what better way to begin than on October 4, 2013, Ignazio’s 19^th birthday!

Gianluca recalls how the South American Tour began…

In five years, we have done a lot of concerts, we have been in a lot of places and, I absolutely agree with Piero when he says that it is difficult to remember everything, that things have followed so quickly that they seem confused, sometimes I almost forget. However, if I stop and think about it there are flashes that come to mind, for example the 2013 tour in South America.

One of the first things I remember is Ignazio’s birthday in Messio, on the evening of the first concert of the tour.

We arrived at the hotel that was a bit in the middle of nowhere, in Guadalajara. Here we met for the first time our drummer, Salvatore Corazza. There was a huge garden and we started playing soccer.

The most special thing about Ignazio’s birthday was that we celebrated with fans. And speaking of fans, there I lost my password for Instagram and, I started to go crazy because it is very important to keep in touch with the Volovers.

Piero talks about the Realization of it….

At the beginning, in South America, we realized we were really famous only when we arrived and the fans were in front of the hotel waiting for us. But it happened slowly, slowly. Slowly, relatively slowly, month after month. Because two months before we were in Argentina and there were twenty fans, the next one there were a hundred, the one after there were three hundred, and then a thousand, two thousand. Now the situation is unbelievable if you have not experienced it, you will not believe it because we are with bodyguards twenty-four hours a day. It’s another world.

I remember in Peru, in Lima, we land, we get off the plane and there were already bodyguards at the baggage claim. Usually, they are waiting for us after the baggage claim, two of them come to the entrance and two of them come to the exit to escort us.

Here seven, eight bodyguards arrive directly at the baggage claim. I did not understand. Why, for us? I thought of the fans, but it was the first time we went to Peru, it was really impossible that it was. Now imagine a glazed sliding door at the airport and you cannot see the other side. Imagine that you have just picked up your luggage, you approach the door, the bodyguard puts you next to the door and the door opens and … you find yourself in front of a wall, a wall of girls, all one above the other screaming, a single scream, something that stuns.

We were in our cars and they followed us with taxis. The taxi drivers overcame us like crazy, with the girls hanging out of the windows that sounded trumpets, waving flags. We spent three months of our year this way.

Gianluca says….

And, instead, do you remember Cuernavaca? It was 2013, I remember that we went in the room of Jerry di Pirro, who was our tour manager, to listen to Sade’s music. I remember the white curtains and a terrible heat, in the evening, the pool …

Piero interrupts….

… the insects! In that hotel I remember that I entered the room, we were in the middle of the forest and the white ceiling was completely covered with insects. My father and I spent half the evening crushing mosquitoes and other little animals with slippers. 

Then I remember my father talking to the Mexicans while he cooked me pasta. Because before singing, three hours before, I always eat a hundred grams of tomato and basil spaghetti. I love that moment.

He comes in the dressing room, brings me the spaghetti made by him (we bring the packages from home). And that year he started explaining to the Mexicans how spaghetti tomato and basil was cooked.

It was a tour de force, from one day to the other air travel throughout South America, but dad was always with me. One morning I woke up in Guatemala, I look at my dad and say: ‘Dad, what do we do today?’

‘We have to leave for another city.’

‘When is the concert? Tomorrow?’

‘No, tonight! And go! Let’s start.’

That is the real passion: come without force but go forward. Only passion kept me standing.

Gianluca says….

Now I do not know, maybe we would not do it this way anymore.

Piero continues….

However, Gianlu’ this year in July we have gone thirty hours on flights for appearances on TV in the United States. I went back to Detroit with that heat and the album to finish and the tour to do.

Ignazio recalls opening his mouth and, nothing comes out…

I tried to sing and my voice does not come out, there is nothing to do, it does not come out.

I only know that when I finished that tour in South America I was nicknamed ‘Ignazio the tank’ by myself: I had done twenty concerts with bronchitis.

The worst was in Caracas, Venezuela, six thousand five hundred people, at seven in the evening: soundcheck.

Let’s start with the first song. I try to sing and my voice does not come out, there is nothing to do, it does not come out. And here comes the most total panic, we stopped the soundcheck, the production calls a doctor and, I was punctured with Bentelan.

In short, for a month and half I sang only thanks to the cortisone and breathing technique that our teacher Sergio Bertocchi taught us.

Piero interrupts….

Our because he is also my teacher.

But maybe only say master. Sergio Bertocchi is the person who helped me most in singing, the one that solves my doubts and my problems. If I enter a lesson with a doubt, I go out and I am another Piero, happy and relaxed.

And he never leaves me alone: even outside of Italy, we do lessons on Skype, we solve doubts and problems on the phone.

When I thought that in the Grande Amore tour, I would have liked to sing an air of an opera, Bertocchi told me: ‘You can do it very well, but you have to study a lot.’ And so, I did. For me,  the study is fundamental, commitment and study.

Ignazio interrupts….

I know for sure that without his breathing exercises I do not know how I would have sung. Without a voice I was completely out of it.

Piero jokes….

Eh, Igna’, but the voice you had in that interview!

It was March 2013 we were in Argentina at the famous Los 5 edicion broadcast of QMusica TV. In practice the program works like this. The guest says something about himself and, between a piece and the other part of his story, presents a video of a song he likes, for a total of five videos.

What was the problem? In the meantime, we spoke Spanish and sometimes we were wrong, so we stopped the recording and got it back. So, Ignazio was already a bit tired out, let’s say.

But the worst thing is that in Argentina they do not have the Volo V, they have the B, they say ‘Il Bolo.’

And one, and two, and three, always ‘Il Bolo.’ At that point, Ignazio begins to correct the guy who was in the studio and repeating to us the things to say, and once, and twice, and three: ‘Il Volo, it is said Il Volo, V!’

Until the guy in the studio runs off of new ‘Il Bolo’ and Ignazio starts with a string of bad words in precise Sicilian that are still today immortalized in the off wave.

Ignazio interrupts….

Eh, however, guys, we are serious people, now. And, I have made a commitment to write.

Where were we? Oh yes. The end of the Latin American tour.

This is such a sweet video.

Christmas 2013 was approaching and the record company wanted to come out with a record of Christmas songs. So Universal decided to complete the EP that came out two years ago with just five Christmas songs.

So, after the Latin American tour we started promoting the Christmas album.

Then

Now

And then the harsh Reality as told by Ignazio….

My house began to fail me. Being four months away, changing cities, hotels and planes almost every day is not easy. From the age of sixteen, finding yourself catapulted into a world that was completely different from the one I was used to, was not a simple thing to manage. At first no, actually the first two years I thought ‘What a beautiful life!’ Then I realized that all that glitters is not gold.

To get satisfaction and achieve the goals you have set for yourself, you have to give up many things and work hard. Stay focused on your work. It’s not easy.

Many people ask: ‘But these guys never get tired?’ Well, yes, we get tired too, sometimes.

Personally, there was a time when I thought only of friends. I wanted to go out, I never answered the phone, the emails, the messages, I was out of this world.

It was thanks to my family, to the boys and to Michele that I realized that I was neglecting what was always important for me: music.

I remember, as I’m sure you all remember, your teenage years. Every day was a new experience, a new discovery it was life opening up and receiving you. I guess they had that experience, but it was different. It was different because they were different and it’s no wonder Ignazio wanted to run away from it all. Just leave everything and do what’s natural for a teenager.  The teenage years are very precious years. It’s the time to find yourself. To discover the world.  It’s taking everything you’ve learned at home and going out and finding your own way. 

Back to the story!

Gianluca agrees with Ignazio….

True, Ignazio is right. It was not easy then and, neither is it now.

In those years, in 2012 and 2013, no one knew us in Italy, we were just the three children who had come from Ti Lascio Una Canzone.

But in America, in South America, in Europe we were very well known. And not only there! After the release of our first CD, we went on tour even in places that none of us could have imagined we would go to: Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and New Zealand. In Singapore we also had a gold record with that first CD.

In 2012 we arrived in Norway, one of the few European countries that we had not yet touched. We participated in the concert dedicated to the Nobel Peace Prize – that year went to the European Union – in Oslo. A fantastic evening that allowed us to meet Gerard Butler and Sarah Jessica Parker, who were the presenters, and an artist like Kylie Minogue.

And then, in 2014 we were in Moscow twice, once guests in a concert by Toto Cugno and once with a concert of our own, and at the beginning of 2015 we were in Beijing, guests of a TV program for the Chinese New Year.

So, before Sanremo, we lived two lives, two completely different lives. Abroad we were stars and, we came to Italy to rest. I took refuge in Montepagano, Piero in Naro, Ignazio in Marsala. It was nice to come back to a ‘normal’ life.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the “Back to Brooklyn Tour” with Barbara Streisand.

In early 2012, the guys were in Atlantic City. Piero was the only one of the three who was of legal age, so he was responsible to sign all contracts. And this is where the contract to do the “Back to Brooklyn Tour” was signed….

Piero recalls….

The tour, which was called ‘Back to Brooklyn,’ was the first that Streisand made between the United States and Canada since 1994. It opened on October 4, 2012, in Philadelphia and closed on November 11^th in Los Angeles, passing through New York, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, La Vegas, Chicago. Can you imagine what it meant? And we sing with her.

So, I sign the contract, but the most anticipated thing was the meeting with her. Because Barbra is a diva, all speak of Barbra with so much desire. And to find yourself face to face with a person who has made history of international music, is known all over the world, who is seventy years old and still draws twenty thousand people every evening, is incredible.

And the meeting was surreal because it is absurd to find yourself talking to her about your hair, where you go to cut your hair and trivial things, it does not seem really possible.

The fact is, however, that I am not one who dreams so much, I do not live above the clouds. I may not seem modest, but yes, I duetted with Barbra Streisand, but when I finished the show, I called Torpedine and I said, “What are we doing tomorrow?”

Ignazio recalls….

We were sharing the stage with one of the greatest living legends. These are difficult emotions to explain.

When our manager gave us confirmation of our participation in the tour after a few days of negotiation, we did not know what to say or what to do. Personally, I knew of Barbara Streisand, but I wanted to know more, so I watched Funny Girl, the first film she shot and with which she won the Oscar for the best actress in 1969. After watching that musical-film I was fascinated and excited a thousand times more to be part of the tour of that artist who had made me dream only through a screen. I did not even want to imagine what I would have felt the day we would have found ourselves on the same stage.

The first concert with her was in Philadelphia on October 4, 2012, the day of my birthday, so you can imagine what a birthday I had. It was nice and exciting to hear her singing close to me.

When I arrived at the sound check, before the concert, I do not know what happened, but I started thinking about everything we had done in the years before, how much gratitude the boys and I had for Michele who had never left us since the first day. We were sharing the stage with one of the greatest living legends.

Gianluca said….

In my case, if possible, and even more difficult because the thrill of singing with Barbra Streisand has added the excitement of singing in front of my grandfather. Imagine the Barclays Center in New York, a huge sports arena full, bursting of people. The capacity is around fifteen thousand places, but that evening was so full of people who seemed to me twenty-five thousand. The darkness all around and then the lights suddenly, the audience roar, the music, the concert.

And what did I see in all this? I saw only my grandfather in the middle of the Barclays Center who greeted me by hand. It was the best image of that tour, for me, a kind of film, yes, in a film it would have been really good.

I did not believe it, the more I looked at him the less I believed it. It was weird all in all: my grandfather at one of my concerts with Barbra Streisand in New York. I have always seen him in the square in the village, it seemed a mirage to see him there.

He made me like that with his hand and he was crying. And I was just looking at him, singing ‘Smile’ and watching only him.

Worse was when I just moved my gaze and I saw my father sitting next to him. And he cried too.

That time on stage I could not let myself go.

What a fantastic tour it was!

The night it all broke down….

Though this was Ignazio’s nightmare, it is in fact Piero’s story. It is the sudden Realization that someone important to you can be hurt or worse. It’s the night Piero realized that a stranger who became his friend could be lost to him forever. It’s the night the three guys became brothers. It is the ultimate Reality….Bonding….

This is the part of their story I don’t like talking about, but this story would not be complete if I didn’t include all the facts and the true Bonding….

It happened in Miami….

Let’s go back to just before the Latin American Tour. 

It’s autumn in Miami….

Ignazio begins….

After the tour we started thinking about the second album and at the beginning of 2013 we recorded ‘We Are Love.’

If I remember correctly, in April the album was released and in August the new tour began, from Vancouver, Canada. We will never forget that tour.

In September there was an episode that marked the relationship between us guys. It united us even more, made us understand that we three are the strength!

Miami, September 24^th, was an evening like many others: we decided to go out with a group of friends and go to one of the most ‘in’ Italian restaurants in South Beach.

The evening started well. We were having a lot of fun. The owner knew us well, had made us sit in the club that was on the top floor of the building where only members went. There were about fifty people there. We had dinner and from that point I remember only when I got on the sofa and when I woke up.

Piero continues….

Each of us lives bad, unhappy moments, sad moments, but I think that day, that night in Miami was the worst of my life. I remember every little detail and in a hundred years I will still remember it.  We were in a famous restaurant in Miami, which was a restaurant and a disco, and at some point, after dancing a bit, we went out to move to another nightclub with some friends. I got in a taxi with one of them. Ignazio gets into a car with someone else who has a two-seater red car. We make our way in the taxi to the disco, which was very close to the restaurant.

So, we arrive in front of the room.

I state that we do not drink. A glass of wine at the table, yes, but always in moderation. Sometimes we like to joke and pretend to be drunk. That night Ignazio was doing it with me, like talking on the phone with his wallet.

I know him very well, but for a moment I thought he was really drunk, but the bad thing was that he was not at all, and we only found out much later.

So, the taxi leaves me in front of the disco. Ignazio and his friend drive around the block to find parking. I wait in front of the door to see them turn the corner and then come together.

At a certain point, I see our friend coming, but I no longer see Ignazio.

I say: ‘Excuse me, but where is Ignazio?’

‘He took a taxi and went to the hotel.’

Ah okay. But then I had a doubt! It came to me that flash of Ignazio pretending to talk on the phone with his wallet.

Excuse me ‘I’m going back to the subject, but, did you really see him get in the cab and say the address?’

‘No, I left him in front of my car.’

The nightmare started then. Do you know what the nightmare means?    

I pick up the phone, wait for three minutes – the hotel is close to me – and call the reception.

I say: ‘Excuse me, have you seen the guy from 320 come back?’

‘No, I do not know.’

I call our friend, who had entered the disco, and I say to him: ‘Take me straight to the hotel.’

I get in the car, and I think to immediately notify Gianluca, who was still at the restaurant and was to join us at the disco. I almost called him, but then I think: ‘What if Ignazio is in the hotel?’ ‘Better to wait to sound the alarm.

I arrive at the hotel and ask again: ‘Did you see the guy from 320 enter?’

‘No, I do not think so, we have not seen anyone here.’

At three-fifteen in the morning not many people pass by the entrance of a hotel, among those few people if Ignazio enters, you notice him, he is not one that goes unnoticed.

I say: ‘Excuse me, could you give me the key to the room and let me in? At least I can see if he is asleep.’

‘No, we cannot give it to you.’

‘We are in the same group. You know very well he is my colleague.’

‘No, unfortunately for privacy we cannot.’

I begged the gentleman, I begged him, but he did not give me the key.

I go up, I go to Ignazio’s door with our friend, and we knock.

‘Igna’! Igna’!’ we shout, beat and shout, but no one answered.

In that chaos, however, from under the door we see that the light was on. Ignazio is in the room!

I seemed to see him sleeping on the bed, or at least I hoped it, I hoped so much.

At that point, the doubt came to me, ‘What if the room is really empty and he’s in some corner of Miami that felt bad?’ So, I take my friend and tell him: ‘Let’s go back to the disco street and check around it.’ But it’s not that we only made the disco area, no, we made almost all of Miami up and down to find Ignazio. But nothing three hours and no results. I had anguish that took my breath away.

At that point I had to warn the others, and I started with Gianluca.

Gianluca begins….

It was not until six o’clock. My heart stopped.

I suspected something had happened because I had waited for Ignazio and Piero at the disco, but they never arrived. I thought they changed their mind, perhaps they were tired or something. Never, however, to think that it was such a serious thing.

At that time, when Piero called me, I was in bed, recently, but was in bed.

I did not even think for a moment that Piero was joking. It was too serious and, Piero is not the kind to joke about certain things.

I said only: ‘I wait you below.’ I dressed and went down to the hotel lobby.

You cannot imagine what I thought in just a few minutes when I waited for him.

It was the first time in four years that we did not know where one of us was.

It was a, very, bad feeling!

Piero continues….

It was at that point that, together with Gianluca, we decided to wake Barbara.

‘Barbara, we do not find Ignazio.’ I told her.

It was half past six in the morning. We had not heard from him for more than three hours.

Barbara says: ‘a joke?’

‘No, we cannot find him.’

We only worried about Ignazio, but Barbara then had another problem to manage. That morning at 9:50 we had to fly to New York because the next day we had a concert at Radio City Music Hall. And not just any show, sold out, and all our parents were going to New York to Washington, our lawyers had arrived, all those who work with us, Michele, because it was the most important concert of the whole tour.

‘However,’ I tell her, ‘from under the door you can see the light, maybe he’s asleep on the bed, only they won’t give us the key to the room.’

First thing, Barbara wakes up, gets dressed, and runs to open Ignazio’s door.

She basically threatens the one at the front desk, so she goes to room 320 with a bodyguard of the hotel and they open the room.

Ignazio was not there! My world collapsed. My blood froze.

At that point Barbara calls Michele in New York. ‘Michele, there’s a problem Ignazio is not found.’

‘It’s a joke.’

From there Michele mobilizes everyone. He calls all his friends in Miami, everyone. Meanwhile, Michele also had to understand whether or not to cancel the concert and how to cancel it. I could not put my head around it, my only fear, and my biggest nightmare was the fact that Ignazio was not there.

Barbara, in the meantime, calls Flavio, another friend of ours in Miami and he arrives with his motorbike. Let it be known that Barbara has a fear of motorcycles, she had never ridden in her life. She got on the motorbike and went to the police station to ask if they had arrested a boy in a green shirt and then she went to the hospitals to see if some ambulance had brought in a guy with a green shirt.

We turned Miami upside down.

What was I doing?

Gianluca….

Piero and I took turns at the hotel, watching all the taxis and we hoped that Ignazio would descend.

Piero….

Every taxi that arrived, we prayed to heaven and earth.

Ignazio….

The police woke me up the next morning on the lawn of South Beach’s main street, telling me that if I did not get up, they would have to take me to jail. At 9:50 on that September 25^th we had a flight to New York and on the 27^th we had the most important concert of the tour at Radio City Music Hall. The concert was sold out for a few weeks. There were six thousand people.

Time to wake up and I realize that everything is gone, my cell phone, wallet, and jacket. They had stolen everything. What do I do? And above all, what time is it? Something told me it was late. So, I start running.

‘But where are you going?’ I told myself at a certain point. I stopped to see where I was. I was between the seventh and eighth, quite the opposite of the restaurant and our hotel that was on nineteenth. I definitely had to hurry up. So, I start running again, but the problem remained to understand what time it was.

I stop and ask a gentleman, who answers me: ‘It’s 9:50…man.’

The first thought? ‘The flight!’ In the sense of the plane … Then I start to run, but this time like a bolt in the Olympics, but I realize that the hotel is too far. A taxi, a taxi was needed.

I glanced down the road and one was passing on the opposite lane. I start running wildly without checking if any cars are coming. Fortunately, there was no one. This street in Miami is always busy but, at that precise moment no one passed. Do we want to call it ass? (Luck)

Anyway, I get the taxi. Driving was an African American woman and I asking her to take me to the hotel. In fact, I do not even know how I could remember the name of the hotel.

Piero….

It was already 9:30, the plane was already gone, and Ignazio was still not found.

I was desperate. I no longer knew who to pray or what to think. They have kidnapped him, they will have killed him, they will be threatening him.

Barbara arrives from the hospital and from the police station without news.

So now I’m going up, riding on the bike with Flavio. What do I do? This time I start going around the alleys of Miami. The nightclub was on Sixteenth Street. The hotel was on nineteenth, so three blocks away, it was close. I asked every bum I met: ‘Excuse me, have you seen a boy with a green shirt?’

‘A dollar’ I heard a lot of times. And while I was shooting there, Gianluca was waiting in front of the hotel for all the taxis coming hoping to see Ignazio descend, while Barbara had been on the phone for so long that she no longer knew who to call.

Hopes were already lost from New York.     

Ignazio….

When I arrived at the hotel, I saw Barbara and Gianluca sitting on a bench as if waiting for someone. Then I got out of the taxi and asked them: ‘Excuse me, do you have any dollars to pay for the taxi?’ They both looked up together and …

Gianluca….

… I burst into tears; I started screaming. It was as if they had taken a weight off my shoulders that crushed me to the ground and prevented me from breathing.

Ignazio….

Barbara paid the taxi and started to call Michele, who I later realized, in the midst of all that concern, also had to find a way to solve the problems that would have caused a possible cancellation of the concert in New York.

My mother, who was already there, had understood everything, because I did not answer the phone and she had news of what happened from Gaetano and Leonora, Piero’s parents and Gianluca’s mother.

Piero….

While I was riding on the Lincoln Road with Flavio, my phone rings: it was half past ten.

Gianluca shrieked….

 He has arrived, he has arrived, he is here!

I scream from the bike to vent all the evil I had inside. I cried. Do you know when you run with the bike, and you have all the tears? What’s this? And I punched Flavio, I gave punches from happiness.

We arrive at the hotel, and I see Ignazio in front of the reception with that blessed green jersey. He had gone out the night before with a blue jacket and they had stolen it, along with his wallet and cell phone.

What did I do? I call my mom because Ignazio was not well. I understood that they had given him something. My mother tells me to let him drink a lot of water and give him spoonsful of honey. And you see Ignazio lying on the bed and I with the spoon, you know when you give the syrup to your son? With the honey spoon to make him eat everything he could swallow.

Too sad and, also hard to tell.

Ignazio….

The boys have accompanied me to my room, they helped me take a shower because when I looked in the mirror, I realized that I was full of bruises and scratches on my face and body, some bump here and there and I was also half lame.

The two of them together with Barbara had been around Miami all night, from three thirty in the morning to ten, in taxis, motorbikes, between hospitals and various police departments to look for me, while I was sleeping in the fresh air on a green lawn.

That night they beat me with blows. They threw me right and left. But I had not gotten drunk, I had just accepted a drink that had been drugged without my noticing it. Do you know one thing? From that day on, if I go to a pub or a disco, I always ask for closed drinks, I have to open them myself.

My biggest rage of that night is I do not remember anything, as if they had cut the film of a camera roll and had it attached to a later piece.

It’s not nice to not be able to remember.

Barbara, in the end, managed to move the flight, we left later and arrived at the hotel. Our parents were waiting outside, with shining eyes and the desire to hug us was like never before. Shortly afterwards, my father arrived. He was stuck in London and, poor man, had to travel from London to New York without knowing if they had found me.

In the end are the result that matters, I can say that this experience made us grow a lot and made us want better for each other.

That concert at Radio City Music Hall was one of the most beautiful concerts we’ve ever done. We sang like never before maybe because we had just found out what it meant to lose everything in a moment.

I guess you can understand why I don’t like talking about Miami. It’s very emotional. It is important to the story but the terror of the night that Ignazio felt, the fear that Piero felt, the sense of loss and anxiety that Gianluca felt was very important because it brought them to the next step in their relationship. This was the night that three strangers, who became friends, finally became brothers.

Through the Reality, the Realization and the Bonding the guys climbed The Ladder of Success but they paid a high price to get there. They paid with their teenage years. And they experienced things that most men would never experience in a lifetime.

One last note.  Something Michele Torepdine wrote in his book “Ricomincio Dai Tre” sums up who these guys are now….

These three guys have very clear ideas and I have never seen them impressed in front of audiences that many would shake their legs. I never heard a wrong attack, and if some inconsistency arose that made something happen professionally, they knew how to handle the problem at the origin. They are always extraordinary, their voices grow with them, they mature in body and soul. There is no other team or artistic team so complete.

You are so right, Michele. I couldn’t have said it better.

Join me next week as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and open the door to a new adventure!

If you would like to share a story with me, please email:  susan.flightcrew@yahoo.com

To read more Il Volo stories visit us at www.ilvoloflightcrw.com

*Quotes are excerpts from Il Volo, Un’avventura straordinario, La nostra storia.

 

After four long years, World Youth Day with the Holy Father has returned. This year it is in Lisbon. I have the great fortune of attending but before I get to that, I would like to remember World Youth Day in Panama when our guys had the great honor of singing for the youth of the world and Pope Francis.

It was a memorable event with 600,000 young people in attendance and it was televised to hundreds of millions perhaps a billion people worldwide.

Witnessing Gianluca, Ignazio and Piero, so close to Pope Francis, was a special moment for me as I’m sure it was for all Il Volo Fans.

I can’t even begin to imagine what the guys were feeling as they looked out over a sea of young people who gathered together in peace and joy! I’m sure it was very emotional, and I know the guys considered it a great honor! Can you imagine singing the Ave Maria, Mater Misericordiae for Pope Francis with all the world in attendance.

Can you imagine how these young people felt experiencing Il Volo’s voices for the first time and realizing they were young adults like them? Many of these young people already knew who they were because the guys are very popular in Latin America but for most it was a first but I’m sure not last time they will listen to the guys. Il Volo sharing World Youth Day with the youth of the world, it doesn’t get better than that!

Can you imagine how awesome it was for the guys to witness these young people united by moments of prayer and truly unique contemplation. All around them was silence which was only broken by their magnificent Ave Maria. Surely this experience will always remain in their hearts. I know for Piero; this was the highlight of his career!

Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca gave Pope Francis a gift of a jewel created for him.

The guys made a video before the event with a message for the young people in attendance at World Youth Day.

Piero: This is a message for all young people like us.

Gianluca: We are honored to be here in Panama at WYD, you are so many, there are almost a million young people.

Ignazio: It will be a great emotion, also because for us it is the first time we sing for the Pope, we will sing a very special Ave Maria, we hope to be close to all the young people, with music, on this spiritual day.

Piero: Long live the WYD and the Pope.

Gianluca: bye

Ignazio: bye

In an article about World Youth Day, Daniela included the following interview.

I am very happy that you all have also been able to enjoy the event live. By testing we saw that the TV2000 streaming channel was often stuck and so Pat did a search and saw that the EWTN channel was better for you.

Sunday, here in Italy, they sent on television, this little interview:

Interviewer: Yesterday at the vigil Il Volo sang, let’s see how this performance went.

Piero:  Some time ago we had met Pope Francis in a private audience, and we gave him, an AVE MARIA, a special record, just for him.

Ignazio: Surely it was a great experience of life, both for our personal lives, and for our career.

Piero: This was the perfect opportunity to understand how beautiful and important it can be, to share all kinds of music.

Gianluca: We can say that it was one of the most beautiful experiences of our lives.

In her article, Daniela concluded: It all passed very quickly, but it was an indescribable moment.

The boys were very serious, as it should be on these occasions. They are never out of place, always appropriate to the event. I was very proud that Il Volo had this wonderful opportunity, it was an honor, and they certainly did not waste it.

These are the words of the boys: If someone had told us that one day we would sing for the Pope, we would hardly have believed it…. Never stop chasing your dreams.

And so, concludes World Youth Day 2019 but to give you a better understanding of what happens at World Youth Day, I will include some words about World Youth Day Lisbon 2023.

The event began on August 1^st and runs through August 6^th. The youth of the world are already arriving. For me and my group of 74, we started out in Spain stopping in Avila before going on to Fatima. I have been in Fatima for five days. Why am I here? Because this is where most of the young people will begin their journey to World Youth Day.

The youth come from all over the globe to meet with the Holy Father. Every continent and every nation is present.

These are some of the young people I met at Valinhos on the road the three little shepherds took every day to graze their sheep. This is a road of peace and many peaceful young adults from around the world will walk this path of faith this week!  

Yes, that’s me with some of the Seminarians from the Diocese of Bridgeport, CT.

Everyone stops to greet one another and each present their flags. USA meets Poland!

While waiting in line at the Basilica I met two lovely Italian ladies!

Philippines meets France.

I also met two lovely ladies from Bangladesh.

At the Candlelight Procession all come together to march in honor of Our Lady.

On Sunday I met groups from every corner of the world. In my group besides the teenagers and young adults from the Diocese of Bridgeport I have a Bishop, five priests and nine Seminarians. It’s a joy sharing World Youth Day with them. 

On Thursday they will meet Pope Francis which brings me back to our guys. These moments have brought back memories of World Youth Day in Panama when our guys sang for Pope Francis.

I hope you have enjoyed this short story about our guys and understood what World Youth Day is about! I took a break from my vacation to write this story because I wanted you to remember World Youth Day with our guys and I wanted you to feel the joy these young people are feeling as they gather together in peace. These are the faces of the young people of the world. They are the hope for our future! 

And now for your listening pleasure the full concert from Radio City Music Hall 2013.

Join me next week as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and open the door to a new adventure!

If you would like to share a story with me, please email:  susan.flightcrew@yahoo.com

To read more Il Volo stories visit us at www.ilvoloflightcrw.com