58daniela

There are things that happen, so, by chance.
Remember this beautiful fan-art from IL VOLO that I used for a post?

I found this beautiful image on the official IL VOLO fanclub. I liked it immediately and so I asked who had made it, permission to be able to use it.

In this way I met Xinjie, a sweet Chinese girl who has lived in Rome for seven years. She is a graphic designer.

We have established friendship, started chatting and getting to know each other a little.

Looking through some photos of her Facebook profile, I found this beautiful photo.

Really a beautiful girl, but did you recognize the landscape in the background? It is just what you think: Capri.

I see Capri and I immediately think “A CHI MI DICE” and the beatiful IL VOLO’S video, and I write, a little amused: “But are you perhaps one of the three chosen girls to watch the video shoot?”

And she immediately replies “Yes, I am”.

You can imagine my amazement, of course I asked Xinjie many things about Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca and what she felt during that day.

She had no photos of that day, she had not been allowed to take pictures of it, but the photographer had taken pictures that would later be published.

These days the photos have come out and so I thought I’d do an interview with Xinjie and publish it for you.

Here she is among our boys. That is a nice picture. I’m happy for her, but the envy !!

D = How did you manage to be chosen to watch the video?

X = I replied to the email of the official IL VOLO fan club that asking those who wanted to assist, to send the request to watch the new video resume. It would have been shot in central-southern Italy and asked to make the whole day available. I sent the membership and after a few days, the staff contacted me on the phone telling me where I should go and that I had to keep the secret.

D = How long have you been following IL VOLO?

X = Since I came to Italy seven years ago. I came for study and work and I came alone. At the beginning it was very hard. One day I was looking for videos on you tube and by chance I heard “O SOLE MIO”, sung by Il Volo, it was immediately love, but I had no one with whom to share this interest and on radio and TV I heard little about them.

D = Who were the other two chosen girls?

X = The other girls came from Campania (Italian region with Naples as capital). They were 14 and 27 years old. But I have been more with Sara, the girl from the official Fanclub, she is very kind and pleasant.

D = Had you met Ignazio Piero and Gianluca before that day?

X = Only once, this year in Rome, at the Instore at the Discoteca Laziale.

D = How did they seem to you?

X = They are very beautiful. They are normal boys, but more kind and nice

D = So many people, say they are nasty and haughty boys, to you, how did they look?

X = They are the most sincere and nice guys I’ve met, real angels.

D = How long were you with them ?

X = It was supposed to be from about noon until 6:00 pm, unfortunately they arrived three hours late, because the video footage around the stacks was longer, but the wait was also nice.

D = What did you do when they arrived?

X = They were so hungry !!!! They had not had lunch, so we looked for a restaurant together for lunch. They asked us if they wanted to have lunch with them, but we had already had lunch so we said no. So we watched IL VOLO eat!

Then, when they finished lunch, Ignazio asked me: “Coffee? Ice cream?”, And I said “Yes”, so they got ice cream for us.

D = Were they embarrassed about your presence (as they were eating) or were they very natural?

X = Absolutely very natural.

D = Who was the most witty or who spoke the most?

X = Ignazio, but also Ignazio and Piero together.

D = Did it seem to you that between the three of them there really is an understanding as brothers?

X = They are really good friends.

D= After lunch, did you all go somewhere else or did you just stay at the restaurant?

X = We left but stayed close, they took some scene.

D = Don’t you mind that they didn’t record you in the video?

X = Absolutely not, I thought we were invited only to assist from afar and instead we were together with the boys.

D = You girls could take pictures?

X = No, it was not allowed.

D = But the photographer took some very nice pictures of all you and you Xinjie are really a beautiful girl.

X = Thank you.

D = Were you excited for that meeting?

X = Very much.

D = Have you been to a concert already?

X = No, never, this year I will go to Rome and then to Verona.

D = Do you want to hear them in concert?

X = Yes, at 10,000%, I can’t wait any longer. My Japanese friend who met IL VOLO only this year (thanks to me) went to the Tokyo concert before me, I was jealous !! Also for her it was the first concert and she said she was moved. She said that their voices were divine. She wanted to come to Verona this year, but it’s hard to take this vacation now, maybe she’ll come to Italy for their concert next year if they do it in Sicily.

D = What’s your favorite song?

X = In this CD is “VICINISSIMO”.

D = If you were to win a dinner with one of them, who would you like to go out with?

X = It’s a difficult question for me, because I can’t really choose.
Fortunately I have already had a lunch with them in Capri !!

D = Yes, but they ate, and you three girls ate them, with your eyes !!!

X = But they also talked to me a lot. At one point, Ignazio and Piero (especially Ignazio) started talking to me with Sicilian words and then they explained to me. Then they tried to pronounce my name and they were good.
Gianluca didn’t talk much, but when they said my name Gianluca said “Who is better? Me or him? (Ignazio)”, but they were good both, they did the right pronunciation. After lunch, Ignazio looks at me and says: “But you’re shy, don’t talk at all,” and Gianluca replied: “She is shy like me.”

D = Were you sorry when you said goodbye? Did they hug you?

X = They had to leave with the boat, yes, they hugged us. Then Piero, from the boat, greeted us calling all our names, even mine !!! Mine is hard to remember, I know, and I’m so moved.

D = After meeting them, do you think they deserve all the success they have or, in your opinion, are too valued or undervalued?

X = They deserve all possible success. They are really the best, most confident, good and positive guys ….. I can say that they are perfect guys.

D = Was it sad to leave them? If you were to go back, would you do this adventure again or is it not worth it?

X = I wanted to stay in that moment, I thought: “Ah, how I would like this moment to become eternity”.
And then I realize that it has already become eternity, with the video that has been made. For me it was a divine day. It was my real “THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE”.

Thank you, Xinjie, for giving us all these nice details of your special day, we really appreciate it.
We are all very happy with this beautiful experience of yours and we wish you, with all our heart, to be able to have so many other meetings with Gianluca, Piero and Ignazio.

Surely they will remember you very well, you will have left your mark of beauty and kindness.

A hug from the whole Il Volo-Family!

Daniela

Credit to owners of all photos.

When Il Volo won Sanremo in 2015, everyone looked for news on Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca and also on who had followed them in their artistic path. Among these is the master Sergio Bertocchi.
Sergio Bertocchi is an Italian tenor born in Molinella, the same birthplace of Ignazio.
This beautiful interview was published by the Bologna newspaper: IL RESTO DEL CARLINO.

MAESTRO ARTICLE

I translate it for you.

The ability to hover in a song, explained, Gianluca, Ignazio and Piero learned it in Bologna. And who knows if anyone has ever met them on the streets of Bologna, every time they took the plane to fly to the master Sergio Bertocchi, their vocal mentor, the one who taught the three singers how to breathe and how they lean, the sounds by controlling them. Il Volo, a trio of golden uvula that won in Sanremo, the techniques to be successful he learned just at the court of this Bolognese tenor who sang all over the world and who at 71 years opted for a quieter life, with teaching.

Master, how did your meeting with Il Volo happen?
“The first one I met was Gianluca Ginoble three years ago. My manager Virginio Fedeli had asked me to meet him in the studio in Rome at the request of Tony Renis, the one who believed in them after participating in the talent led by Clerici. I worked with him on the first album of the group, I needed a technical job to gain more certainty in singing, and in fact my name appears among the thanks.”

(picture credit from article…)

Then he became the vocal coach of all three singers?
“Yes, because the other two, Ignazio Boschetto and Piero Barone, have also asked for my advice and have come to my house many times. Then when they went to America they asked me to go with them to play the vocal coach but I had to give up, for health, and as soon as they returned we resumed work.”

So what they are now, they owe a lot to his work …
“Yes, I taught them a method but I must say that when I met them I thought they were three phenomena, three boys with an incredible gift and that they would have gone very far. Indeed, they have already burned several stages for their age.”

How would you describe their voices?
“Each has its own great characteristic. Gianluca has a very warm baritone voice in the notes of harmony, Ignazio has a soaring lyric tenor voice, Piero as a heroic tenor and this is his path.”

They were all born in the early nineties of the last century …

“They have a great awareness of what they are and have this great passion that leads them to commit themselves to the maximum. I, in the environment, am known as a very strict one, who does not easily gratify, but with them there have been no difficult moments because they have the innate discipline of those who want to arrive.”

So young and already so famous; will they manage to manage success?
“First of all they are fortunate to be supported and followed by families, which is very important. And in this regard I am pleased to recall a coincidence, that Ignazio was born in Molinella, just like me, and then moved with his family to Marsala. Then I always kept them with their feet on the ground, they are also prepared to be heavily criticized, but they face everything calmly because they are safe. And anyway … if they haven’t lost their mind until now I think they won’t lose it anymore … they are international stars even before winning Sanremo.”

Did you feel that they would do it?
“I heard them the first night they sang and I thought that the song had taken so much, on the audience that had been conquered by a free song that flows and emotion us … and I felt something. They are different and despite the snobby criticisms they are not a table-created product, they are three pure talents.”

Surely it is very nice to hear the opinions of “experts” who talk about Gianluca, Ignazio and Piero.
If then these people say comments like “they are three pure talents,” there is nothing else to add.

Daniela

(credit to owners of all pictures…)

There are things that happen, so, by chance. Remember this beautiful fan-art from IL VOLO that I used for a post?