We have been waiting for it for some time and in a few days the tour will start from Matera. Matera is a beautiful city in Basilicata (Italian region).
It is called the “City of the Stones”, due to the particular houses that were built inside the rock.
Matera is considered the third oldest city in the world.
It is part of the UNESCO world heritage and this year has been awarded as “capital of culture”.
Il Volo, will officially open the season of events in Matera with the concert on June 16, which will be held at the Cava del Sole.
But Matera, this year, will also be affected by the PBS special.
I will translate a piece from an article in the newspaper “La gazzetta del mezzogiorno”.
“The one scheduled in Matera at the Cava del Sole, is such a long-awaited moment to have interested PBS, an important American national television network, that two days before the debut – on the occasion of a private event, scheduled for June 14 in Piazza San Pietro Caveoso in Matera – will shoot the show of the three great Italian artists to make it an important overseas live show to program it in the coming months. In the television story in question, the Orchestra della Magna Grecia will serve as a precious frame to the extraordinary performances by Barone, Boschetto and Ginoble.”
So the two concerts will be in Matera but in two different places.
The tour start concert will be on June 16 in Cava del Sole, while the PBS special will be shot in Piazza S. Pietro Caevoso and will be a private invitation-only event.
But here is the photo of the beautiful square where the PBS event will be held.
Really a place full of charm.
It will be a beautiful special, with fantastic singers, magnificent songs and a wonderful panorama.
What more could you want ……. to be present at the event …… but unfortunately Matera is not very easy to reach, and in any case there is no doubt, we will all enjoy the video, and surely our hearts will all be there on June 14th.
Meanwhile, Alessandro Quarta also announced that he will share the stage with IL VOLO during the tour.
Fantastic!!!
I look forward to hearing “MUSICA CHE RESTA” with the violin accompaniment.
What will the program of songs have for us?
A lot of good past and present music, classical and pop and why not, something about the Latin CD, but it will be excellent music sung by our fantastic GIANLUCA, IGNAZIO and PIERO.
And the time has come, for the Italian MUSIC AWARDS.
They will be held, as is well known, in Verona, in the beautiful Arena.
During this show, the singers who have had more CD sales or more people at the live concerts, the previous year, are rewarded.
There will be no prizes for IL VOLO, because as you all know, the year 2018 didn’t have new CDs and there were few live concerts.
But our guys were invited as guests, and to promote their work.
Here they are during the rehearsals.
And here in a funny video, where they say “THANK YOU” in many different languages. 😂
Even Torpedine has fun during the rehearsals .
Piero says:“Tonight we have an exceptional drummer, Torpedine. Torp”.
Here on their arrival, with some fans.
They also gave interviews, here is one for which you can use the translator function. Activate it.
This is another interview with Radio Italia(one of the few radios that always broadcast IL VOLO songs).
Man= From the Arena of Verona, ladies and gentlemen: IL VOLO.
Gian = Good pronunciation.
Woman= with a slightly American accent.
Man= They are international artists, guys, come on.
Ignazio= In my country say “U VOLO, more international than that.”
Man= How nice to meet you guys, how are you?
Ignazio= Well, happy to be back at the Arena, we will be back again in September on the 24th.
Man= Will be the final of a tour that?
Piero= Yes, from July we will sing, from north to south, in all the cities of Italy.
Man= Also, you just did a tour in Japan, where you were.
Piero= Yes, a month of concerts in Japan.
Woman = Furthermore, you are young, but you already have 10 years of career behind you.
Ignazio= In fact, look, to Piero, white hair has already grown. It has been 10 intense years, Piero always says that they have gone on the fly. They have passed quickly, intense, we have traveled a lot, but above all, it is a concentration of emotions, because getting to different cultures has always been our goal, and succeeding, after 10 years also in Japan, is something that makes us very proud, and repays us for all the sacrifices.
Piero= In Japan, we were lucky, because they praise a discipline that is ice skating. Their champion, won the gold medal at the Olympic Games on the ice last year, with our song. So, we’re second in the standings.
Man= Boys, it must be beautiful.
Woman = That is, he introduced you to Japan.
Piero= Do you know who is first in the standings?
Man= Who is first in the standings?
Ignazio= Bohemian Rapsody
Woman = But, what an honor, second only behind Bohemian Rapsody.
We thank Radio Italia, and for the interview and always spread the beautiful music of the boys.
The day was long and hot for the boys, but now we have arrived at the time of the show ………. here they are !!!!!
This is the video of the only song the boys sang, but before and after them, there were many singers and …… trust my judgment, the guys of IL VOLO are spectacular, their voices are unique. “I’ve heard so many singers who have sung so many false notes.”
Always in excellent shape, an amalgamation of perfect voices, and the high notes of Ignazio ………. excellent !!
Their live performances, however, never disappoint.
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 officialIL 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 beatifulIL VOLO’Svideo, 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.
What I want to tell you today, can be considered a beautiful story, a modern history of our times.
It all started a few months ago, when IL VOLO announced that the expected US concert tour had moved from 2019 to 2020. 😢
Among the many sad comments, the one in particular that caught my attention was the comment from SUSAN, a member of the FLIGHT CREW, she was very sorry because with so much love and dedication, she had prepared a surprise to deliver to Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca, during a meet and greet after their concert.
The surprise had been ready for a few months and Susan was worried because it would be at least another year that the puppets would be in her home and not given to the boys.
I exchanged a couple of comments with Susan and then we privately communicated with emails. Susan immediately made me aware of what this surprise was that she had prepared for IL VOLO…three beautiful puppets, with the features of Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca.
When I saw their picture, sent to me by Susan, I immediately thought, “They are really beautiful.”
Susan told me that she herself had made the design of these puppets, establishing measures, deciding their appearance and their clothing and arranging an internal function to be operated by a small button. Yes, because these puppets can also sing! Of course everyone has a different song – Gianluca sings “Can’t Help Falling In Love”, Piero sings “My Way” and Ignazio sings “Torna a Surriento”.
Susan personally followed the details and worked with a professional puppet maker to actually construct them, but always deciding on the smallest details such as Piero’s hat, Ignazio’s earring, an Italian soccer ball dog tag for each, ear buds for Gianluca, brooches (like Lardini’s) on the jackets’ lapels and all of the American accessories to welcome them to the United States for their concerts.Formidable a job well done and well prepared!
But Susan wanted the puppets to go to their masters, without having to wait another year. And so, together, we looked for ways to get them to come to Italy.
It wasn’t easy. The puppets were a nice size, three feet each. Every package had to be prepared very well in order to avoid damage, moreover the journey to Italy was long, so all the necessary precautions had to be taken.
And, someone here in Italy had to receive them.
Susan is a perfectionist, she did not want the puppets to arrive in Italy with untidy hair, and so she called her hairdresser to her house. The hairdresser was able to comb and apply mousse and hairspray, because the hair was made of synthetic fur.
Now they were ready!
Having overcome all these problems, the puppets started from the US, 🇺🇸 destination Italy. 🇮🇹
It had to be a fast and trouble-free journey ……… I said I had to, because of problems and delays there were so many, just say they had to arrive in a few days …….. and instead!!!!
How many problems, mainly due to customs, the puppets had to pass endless passages through the scanner and delivery delays, but then on the third attempt, and after Susan had spoken to UPS International Resolutions three times already, they were delivered after having been scanned 18 times during their journey!
Incidentally and by pure luck, Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca, at the time of delivery, were together and so all three were able to see their own personal puppet at the same time!
The boys were impressed by the beautiful gift, in particular the details used and the beautiful idea of Susan.
Everyone could have kept their own puppet, but it was a pity, because it meant dividing them and so they thought to keep them together by putting them in a common place: Naro’s HouseTeca.
The idea also appealed to Susan, what better place than that, which is visited every year by many fans? So they would be visible to everyone.
And then they left for another trip, but this time shorter and at the end …………. here they are, they arrived at their destination !!!!
This video demonstrates the happy ending of the story, here are the three puppets which arrived at their destination and were placed exactly under the banner of the victory of Sanremo. They seem right there to witness the beautiful victory.
Well the long journey is over and the three puppets have had a beautiful place of honor.
Susan, you had a fantastic idea. You had a lot of patience and dedication.
The boys will have been impressed by this gift of yours and we also want to congratulate you, for the good idea and for having followed the whole project with such dedication.
When good articles are published about our guys, we all enjoy it and this is a really nice article published by IL CORRIERE DELLA SERA in the section: The beauty of people – The interview. The article is by Maria Egizia Fiaschetti.
Il Volo: “We are antipathetic? Who insults is perhaps ashamed of his origins.”
Irritating, snooty, bimbiminchia (a really bad word that means so many bad things about the guys) …. The “tenorini” del Volo, have received so many criticisms – Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto and Gianluca Ginoble – up to the insults in the press room in Sanremo while they climbed on the podium, behind Ultimo and Mahmood, with “MUSICA CHE RESTA”.
More mud in 2015: from a hotel in Locarno they accuse them of having devastated a room. The manager of the structure denies, but the online shaming machine, the web lynching, has already been set in motion. Yet, looking at these three boys in their twenties with the face of those who have learned to manage success but not to the point of not caring about the attacks, one wonders what causes such dislike.
Why do they have it in for you?
Boschetto: “Many do not know us, but in Sanremo we had lunch with some journalists and they changed their minds. We tend to label a person, a bit like judging a book from the cover. We are aware that our music is not in step with what Ghali, Sfera Ebbasta, Frah Quintale do … perhaps we are unpleasant because we propose a genre that pleases, but is not fashionable”. Barone: “Our manager (Michele Torpedine) launched Andrea Bocelli and told us that, at the beginning, he also received the same criticisms”.
As the trappers advance, don’t you fear being anachronistic with your lyric pop?
Barone: “It is as if those who call us ancient are ashamed of their origins … At World Youth Day in Panama we sang the “Hail Mary, Mater Misericordiae” before Pope Francis and a million people. We respect any musical genre and we are happy for the trappers because we do not take anything away from them, nor we from them”. Ginoble: “We make popular national music which has now become a derogatory term, but is rooted in the most authentic traditions of our country”. Barone: “We are unique, we propose a genre in which none of our peers has tried. We do not enter the radio, and we suffer a little, but our strengths are others. We offer the most symphonic version abroad because we are the ones to bring the Italian tradition to the great American arenas after Modugno, Pavarotti and Bocelli”. Ginoble: “But the new album MUSICAis dedicated more to the Italian public thanks to Sanremo, where we proposed a song with contemporary sounds, less set. For our country we have chosen a modern repertoire, which is reflected in the vocal evolution: it is the proof that we are able to excite even with different things”.
You are still boys, but you find yourself already celebrating ten years of career: do you ever think that, after such an unstoppable rise, the public can lose interest in your music?
Barone: “We must know how to reinvent ourselves every day, but without losing our identity. Then, of course, we are mature enough to recognize our limitations. We can’t do reggaeton if we’re IL VOLO.” Ginoble: “It is one thing to manage the career of IL VOLO in other countries, another in Italy. Here you eat pasta every day, in America one evening out for dinner. Our music abroad is a bit like gastronomy, but not only do emigrants like it … (Gianluca says this, because critics have said that IL VOLO’s music abroad was heard only by emigrants = Daniela) Heads of state also come to our concerts, I would like to tell that journalist who, years ago, claimed that we sang in American pizzerias … maybe he doesn’t know that we performed at Radio City Music Hall.”
After ten years together, how can you keep the ego and the ambitions of soloists in check?
Barone: “Fortunately we all come from small towns with a few thousand inhabitants and this has helped us maintain maturity in the group. Then every now and then the spark escapes us, but … ” Ginoble:“The whims are there, especially in times of stress, but we have the strength to look at each other and admit mistakes.”
What are you fighting for?
Barone: “Today, for example, this individual (Ignazio) woke up at 11:30 am while we were already in a meeting at 9 am. He didn’t know anything, he says, but why doesn’t he care? He doesn’t have a secretary, I’m a colleague of his …”.
Have you ever had a fight before a concert?
Barone: “For that matter, even on stage, it happened last year in Taormina. Ignazio is a Juventus fan, who lost 4 to 1 in the Champions League final. To tease him I kept repeating: ‘Mamma mia, how hot it is today’.”
And he?
Boschetto: “I told him: ‘Out do what you want, but, on stage, don’t break the cabbasisi.’ (Sicilian dialect word, the meaning of the sentence is “do not break the balls” – Daniela)
Do you recognize yourself in the image of ancient boys?
Barone: “We are very responsible and disciplined. Gym, healthy food … This generation, on the other hand, scares me. I am worried about the lyrics of certain songs, too explicit, which do not convey positive examples. Once the messages were ‘I’m not worthy of you’ by Gianni Morandi, ‘red roses for you’ by Massimo Ranieri … I don’t say we should go back to that language, but neither boast of not using condoms or taking drugs.”
The transgression, however, has always characterized a certain way of making music.
Ginoble: “The artists of the Sixties and Seventies based their career on transgression, it was a lifestyle. Today it is a fashion. Vasco’s reckless life is true, he had it ….” (Vasco is an Italian singer – Daniela)
Boschetto:“Getting close to hard drugs scares me, I get anxious just thinking about it.”
Are fans writing to tell you about their problems?
Boschetto: “Yes, I remember a girl in Argentina full of scars, she cut herself. She said to me: ‘Thanks to you I don’t do these things anymore.’ Today, they almost instigate you to do it ….” Barone: “It strikes me that many teenagers, when we take a selfie, stay out of the frame, we only see the eye … I ask: ‘Why don’t you enter the picture?’ They answer: ‘No, I’m ugly.’ They fear the judgment of others.”
Yet on social media it’s all a show off.
Barone: “Social media is the spectacle of nothing.”
The old-fashioned air, the antithesis of the beautiful and the damned, does it work?
Ginoble: “At the age of 15 they were already knocking at our hotel rooms in three, four. We watched from the peephole and, if they were not to our liking, we asked the reception to call security ….”
Did you do it even with the prettiest?
Ginoble:“Do you think that three teenagers who are a little unlucky, who find themselves performing all over the world from the country, have had problems getting them in?”
In short, gentlemen or conqueros?
Barone: “The only important story I had was recently closed, it lasted seven months …”.
Why did you leave?
Barone: “I don’t talk about this, but I can say that I’m looking for a simple, dynamic, sporty girl … one that when I call her from the other side of the world and ask her what she’s doing, don’t answer me: ‘I’m bored.’” Ginoble (the only one of the three with a girlfriend): “The woman to marry must be elegant, sensitive, intelligent.”
Like your Francesca?
Barone: “At every meeting he makes video calls, in fact why don’t you call her now?” Silence. A hint of blush, while showing a picture of a bunch of flowers on the phone.
Is that your gift?
Ginoble: “Yes, for our anniversary, on the 13th of the month, we got together in July.” Boschetto: “We are still at the ‘mesiversary’ (month anniversary) … I, on the other hand, have always been afraid of a relationship, if I am not one hundred percent convinced I prefer to stay one step back. I’m not the type who uses women in a relationship, I always put the feeling.”
The next commitments?
Boschetto: “In May the tour in Japan. In summer we will be all over Italy, then in Europe, the United States and South America until 2020.”
Finally a nice interview in a newspaper.
Yes, I must say that something has changed in the critics, towards IL VOLO, after the bad episodes of Sanremo.
Our boys have not changed, but the negative attitude that many journalists had towards them in an absurd way has changed.
And we are happy with this.
Daniela
Credit to owners of all photos and videos.
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