Today I would like to give you a heads up about what will be going on at Flight Crew for the next few weeks! Our dear Pat has had surgery (which went well and is on the road to recovery!) and we will not be posting for a few weeks but, we will report any new and important news to you. What will go offline are our stories which require a lot of detail in order to be posted. This will be a short silence and when we come back it will be in full force.
In the absence of any news, requests for translations continue.
Albertine, sent me a video of a small interview with Il Volo and Billboard, during the presentation of the 10 years CD. During that time there were many interviews and I had not seen this one, I enjoyed listening to it and I think you will enjoy it too when you read the translation.
Good fun!
B = Music has been, is, and will be your life.
In 10 YEARS The Best Of, there are 19 tracks that you have selected, what were the criteria that made you decide to include these tracks, and, now, there were some tracks that were not chosen and that you regretted not to have inserted in the CD?
GIAN = We have chosen very carefully, what is our repertoire, it was not so difficult to choose the most famous songs in Italy and abroad, such as “Caruso” or an aria like “Nessun Dorma”, even unreleased songs such as “Grande Amore”. It contains our whole story, from “O Sole Mio”, which was our first single, when we were 14/15 years old, up to “Grande Amore” or “Musica Che Resta”. It is a choice of songs that represents us, I would say that it is our presentation, the identity card, even for those who do not know us, this is Il Volo.
B = You are the perfect evolution of what the Italian opera singers who preceded you were: Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli, a sort of 3.0 version, pop lyric, which is a little bit what happened to pop music that has winked, to the world INDIE, to then merge together and obtain excellent results.
What do you think of INDIE music? Is there anything you particularly like? Have you ever thought about a further indie-lyric evolution?
IGNAZIO = Indian is good!
PIERO = We are trying to follow the path, the message, that Pavarotti tried to do in the past with the famous “Pavarotti and friends”, to bring the belcanto out of the theaters, and to the general public.
Andrea Bocelli has been doing it for many years. We are three young 24/25 year olds who do something different, we can say UNIQUE, we try to bring this musical genre, which is part of our culture and tradition, to our peers, there are those who do not know it, they may like it or not, however, in our opinion, everyone must know what was born in our country and not.
IGNAZIO = Regardless of whether you like it or not.
PIERO = Absolutely.
We respect all genres of music. As for the INDIE, we listen to all genres of music, respect them and try to learn a little from everyone.
B= Let’s retrace these 10 incredible years, which probably, if, at the beginning of everything, you had been told about the success you could achieve, you would have thought it crazy.
The last crazy thing, in chronological order, you have done is the exhibition in Panama in front of the Pope, on the occasion of World Youth Day, January 26.
Before that experience, can you tell me, each of you, a moment that has left its mark on you?
GIAN= I start because a good moment came to mind: one of the best moments was in 2014 winning the LATIN BILLBOARD, and this is one of the most beautiful things (looks Piero and Ignazio in the face to confirm) or not, or am I wrong ? Nice, or not it?
IGNAZIO = Yes, of course!
PIERO = By the way, we can tell a nice anecdote…… always telling serious things ….. right in that event, all three, which nobody knows, we had broken pants, below (and he marks in the groin).
IGNAZIO= I don’t remember we had broken pants.
PIERO= All three, all three had broken pants.
GIAN= NO, we don’t sing with broken pants.
PIERO= It was a very delicate material. Since before the event, we walked on the “red carpet”, the material was a little worn.
GIAN= It was slightly worn.
PIERO= It was slightly, quite worn out.
IGNAZIO= So what was the anecdote?
PIERO= Receive the prize with the pants with holes in them.
GIAN= But they weren’t holes.
PIERO = They had holes in them, trust me.
GIAN = Yours.
PIERO= No, those of all three.
IGNAZIO= But if you had holes in your pants, why did you have to think that mine were holes too?
PIERO = Because they had holes in them.
IGNAZIO = They were your pants with holes in them!
GIAN = Okay, but tell us what’s your best time?
IGNAZIO + PIERO = The pants with holes!
GIAN = Come on!
PIERO = No, there are many moments, but I believe that the moment lived with naivety, the one that while you are doing it, you do not understand what you are experiencing, is that of WE ARE THE WORLD for Haiti, with Quincy Jones, Lionel Richie, and all great American singers.
At that moment, we looked at each other and thought: “What are we doing here in the middle?”, however it was a good experience.
IGNAZIO = I celebrated my 17th birthday, on stage with Barbra Streisand, so …… that !!
PIERO= And at fifteen, you high-fived Steven Tyler on American Idol.
IGNAZIO = Yes
PIERO = And what did you do the day before?
IGNAZIO= What had I done ??
PIERO= It’s very funny, it still makes me laugh.
IGNAZIO= But you are strange, age hurts you.
B= Let’s talk about the tour, after you returned from Brazil, where you performed in front of tens of thousands of people, you are ready, already in 2020, to restart with the North American Tour and you will perform in 11 countries, in places such as RCMH in New York, do you have something different in mind or some surprises to celebrate these 10 years in all these places?
GIAN= Surely we will strive not to repeat ourselves with our shows, and always do something new, it is clear, the repertoire is that, we certainly add some more songs, as we did in the DVD, adding classics, we also sing individually, everyone has the his space, we also sing in duet.
Maybe there will be some guests, as we had Alessandro Quarta guest on our tour this year, a great rock violinist, very strong.
We are working on this, even with the artistic or stage production, to enrich the show a little with many things.
B= During all these years, you have seen and visited many cities, thanks to your European and world dates. Many Italian artists have decided to move abroad, or to live there for several months a year. Is there a city that has aroused this feeling in you, or the love for your country is too much, so, will you want to stay here and have not thought about this thing?
PIERO= It is difficult to choose a city outside of Italy. I could say San Francisco, but after a couple of months, I would definitely want to return.
IGNAZIO= It is difficult, I would never think of going to live outside Italy, I would like it as an idea, ……but I am more and more convinced, that…. I live in Bologna and I love Bologna, today I came to Milan by car and thank you, that I live in Bologna because it is a city where you can move, without taking 40 minutes to cross the city.
GIAN= During the recordings of the first album, also of the second, we can say that we spent two years in Los Angeles, we lived for months in Los Angeles, and going back there wouldn’t be bad, or living in New York for a few months ….
IGNAZIO= You go there, then we meet.
GIAN= ….. to do a full immersion, not only for the language, which we now speak, but to experience New York, to experience a different city.
B= Guys like you, who in 10 years have conquered, and obtained what many artists will never obtain, how do they find new stimuli?
GIAN= Actually it is not true that we do not miss anything, maybe this is coming, but we have many goals, and still many dreams and desires. Also because so many things have happened, our life has allowed us to mature and grow faster, but it is clear that there are still many things, many dreams to be achieved.
PIERO= The desire to make music is great, apart from today we announced our new album, but above all the next events, the next concerts in Italy, we will sing on August 30th at the Verona Arena and September 4th at the Ancient Theater of Taormina (unfortunately both postponed for Covid) and on November 19th, we advise you not to miss our concert on Canale 5, Live from Matera.
B= Perfect, thank you very much and good luck for everything.
G + P + I = Thank you, die the wolf! (it is a way of responding to the phrase good luck)
Have you already seen and read this interview?
I know there is an automatic translator, but the words are often distorted, plus many of you can’t activate it.
I hope you liked it, and made you laugh with the squabble about broken pants!!
Over the last seven months I’ve been writing about the lives of Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca from the day they were born to the present day. As I wrote each story, there were certain highlights in some stories that I thought should be put aside and revisited in another article. These were, what I consider, Moments to Remember.
If I asked you “What would you consider to be a memorable moment in the career of Il Volo?” I’m sure you could come up with at least 10 if not 50 moments. So, I needed to take these moments and decide what I thought were the most memorable and I actually got it down to 13 memorable events.
So where do we begin? Well you might say the night the three won first, second and third place (Gianluca, Ignazio, Piero) of Ti Lascio Una Canzone. Yes, that certainly was a memorable moment but, I think there was a moment before then that was more memorable. Gianluca points to that moment, “I thought there were three hundred thousand boys singing like me, and instead that night I discovered that there are only two: Ignazio and Piero.” Of course, Gianluca was referring to the night they sang together for the first time on Ti Lascio Una Canzone. So, let’s begin there!
Ti Lascio Una Canzone, Night 4 and Michele Torpedine – I have to put these two together because one wouldn’t happen without the other!
It is the fourth episode of Ti Lascio Una Canzone and the boys are given the music for “O Sole Mio.” They walked out on the stage, sang “O Sole Mio” and walked off stars!
Alone in his apartment, Michele Torpedine was sitting on his sofa with the volume off on his TV. The show he was watching was Ti Lascio Una Canzone. He keeps looking at the screen and he suddenly thinks, Ignazio reminds him of Luciano Pavaroti, Gianluca seemed similar to Jose Carreras and Piero is similar to Placido Domingo. He still had not heard them sing. Out of curiosity, he raised the volume and Michele says, “Here I am aware of another element, that is even more important than the first. The three casually put together to sing a song of the program possess an incredible vocality for their age.”
At this point Michele’s head is spinning. He’s thinking these guys are good and again repeats it to himself, they’re good! He thinks, “What if I try to put them together seriously? A trio, he tells himself.”
The rest is history!
“We Are The World for Haiti” – In 2010 shortly after arriving in America, the guys were invited by Quincy Jones to join “We Are The World for Haiti,” together with 80 international artists such as Celine Dion, Bono, Lady Gaga, Carlos Santana, Barbra Streisand, Enrique Iglesias, Usher, Natalie Cole. Il Volo were the only Italian artists to be invited. The three voices from the background caused such a sensation. “Who was that?” Everyone present couldn’t believe what they were hearing but, “Who were they?” Soon they would find out!
Barbara Streisand’s Back to Brooklyn Tour – In 2012 Barbra Streisand invited the guys to be an integral part of her “Back to Brooklyn” tour. They performed with her in America and Canada. They were not an opening act, no, they shared the stage with Barbara. To the guys this was a dream come true!
2014 Latin Billboard Music Awards– In 2013, “Más Que Amor” was certified “Gold” in Mexico and Argentina. And this catapulted the guys into the Latin market. From that day on they took the Latin market by storm. In February 2014, they receive two nominations at the 2014 Latin Billboard Music Awards, as “Top Latin Albums Artist of the Year, Duo or Group” and “Latin Pop Albums Artist of the Year, Duo or Group.” At the awards show they were awarded as “Best Group of the Year in the Latin Pop Album” category and they also won the “El Pulso Social Award,” as the artist who dominated interactions on social networking sites during the Billboard Awards. This is unheard of! Three Italian kids taking over the Latin market! What a win!
The Christmas Concert at the Italian Senate, December 21, 2014. Ignazio wrote in their book: “We want to talk about the thrill of singing in front of the highest offices of state! What twenty-year-old boy has something like that happen? It happened to us, and it seems to me a beautiful result, an honor. You cannot imagine the emotional feeling to be called “guests of honor” inside the Senate. We were accompanied by the, fantastic, Filarmonia Orchestra Veneta conducted by Diego Basso. Half the beauty of the song is in the orchestra.
The most exciting moments? Everyone! But the hymn of Mameli was the heart-pounding one, the first song, singing in that place, with everyone singing along with us, including Giorgio Napolitano, (President) and Pietro Grasso (President of the Senate). It is one thing that I cannot explain.
And then, of course, the pleasure of shaking hands with the President of the Republic and of feeling that he knows Marsala, he has been there.
Sanremo Music Festival 2015– On February 14, 2015, the guys participated in and won the Sanremo Music Festival with “Grande Amore.” This is the top award in the Music Industry in Italy. With this win the guys really came home. They were finally recognized by the Italian people. This win also gave them the opportunity to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015.
Eurovision 2015– As Italy is a member of the Big Five, Il Volo went straight into the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest, which was held in Vienna on May 23, 2015. Grande Amore came in 3rd with 292 points but, they won the televote with 366 points and won the Marcel Bezencon Press Award, as best song according to the collective voting of the accredited press. The extended play Sanremo Grande Amore was released in Italy on February 20, 2015 and it was certified triple platinum by FIMI. At the Latin Billboard Awards, they dominated the social networking sites and now, they win the televote and the best song according to collective voting by the accredited press. The people speak!
Ignazio’s Accident in Tampa March 7, 2016– While they were singing in concert in Tampa, Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca brought 3 children on to the stage. The stage was narrow and, Ignazio picked up a child and carried him in his arms to take him to the center of the stage. There were electric cables on the ground and Ignazio tried to avoid them, but he tripped, and fell on the stage with the baby in his arms. To defend the child, who in addition to the fall would also have Ignazio on top of him, Ignazio twisted his body, so that his shoulder hit the ground and the child was protected. The two of them immediately got up and Ignazio finished the song.
When Ignazio began the next song, it was clear he had a problem with his arm but, he managed to finish the concert. He did not stay for the final greetings instead Barbara immediately took him to the hospital. At the next concert he had a splint on his arm and for the next two concert his arm remained in the splint. It was also recommended that he rest. Fabio Ingrassia, Ignazio’s dear friend, was in Miami, and he immediately came to help Ignazio. Ignazio was disheartened by the experience and Fabio remained with him to help him through it. Fabio made a nice drawing to dedicate to the fans with two hands that clasped. What a Friend!!!
Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, July 1, 2016 “Notte Magica”– 2016-2017 were the years dedicated to the “Notte Magica” project, the tribute to the 1990 event where the Three Tenors, Josè Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, enchanted the whole world from the stage of the Baths of Caracalla. On July 1st in Piazza Santa Croce in Florence Il Volo presented on stage “Notte Magica – A Tribute to the Three Tenors,” which was broadcast in prime time on Canale 5. The guys were joined by Placido Domingo who conducted the orchestra. This marks the beginning of the world tour of “Notte Magica – A Tribute to The Three Tenors” which debuted on March 4, 2017 at the Radio City Music Hall in New York. The show was sold out. After 15 stops in the United States, all sold out, the tour is extended to Europe from May 5, 2017 for 29 performances and from September it extended to Latin America. The concert “Notte Magica – Tribute to the Three Tenors” was filmed and broadcast in the United States by the national television network PBS, and in Italy by Canale 5 and, starting in June, it was broadcast in over 500 cinemas in Italy and around the world.
Ignazio Conducts the Asti Symphony Orchestra while the guys sing with Marcello Rota Jul 5, 2017 – During the rehearsals of the last date of the Notte Magica Tour in Naples, Ignazio steps in as conductor of the Symphonic Orchestra of Asti while Maestro Marcello Rota sings Ignazio’s tenor part! They sang “Libiam ne lieti calici.” Ignazio had everyone in awe of his performance as a conductor. The guys enjoyed singing with Marcello who usually conducts for their Concerts. Gianluca enjoyed it so much that he hugged Marcella in the middle of the song! All good sports! They all had lots of fun! A unique performance!
Mexico Earthquake September 8, 2017– On Thursday evening September 8th, at 11:49 PM Mexico City time, (in Italy it was 6.49 on Friday) an earthquake of 8.2 on the Richter scale sowed panic in the country. The earthquake, defined by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto as “the strongest since 1932”, had its epicenter off the south west coast of Mexico, but its strength reached the capital where the guys had just finished their concert at the Theater Metropolitan. Gianluca gave Facebook a short message shortly after the earthquake: “Thank you all for the messages, we are fine despite the strong shock that hit Mexico a little while ago.” Read the full story here!
World Youth Day Jan 27, 2019– If you ask the guys after winning Sanremo, which truly brought them home, “What was your greatest performance,” they would probably answer, there were two. Singing for the Holy Father at World Youth Day was one of the most amazing events in their life!
Por Una Cabeza, Il Volo at Luna Park Buenos Aires October 30, 2019– So I will end by going back to the beginning. This last moment tells me how far the guys have come and how the strangers became brothers.
When these three young men started out, they were 15 and 16 years old. Think of being 15 or 16 years old and you have a dream, and someone tells you that that dream, needs to be shared. To fulfill that dream you have to leave your family, your friends, your home, you have to go to another country and you have to share this journey with two people who you really know nothing about except that they had the same dream you did. You have to trust that the decision that was made by you and your family, was the right decision. If not, it’s back to square one! You’re going to be lonely and you have to learn to survive without the people you love. So, you learn to lean on one another. That dependence turns into a friendship and that friendship into a brotherhood. It enabled them to trust enough to collaborate and perfect something truly amazing. Something that revolutionized the music industry. Let me go further by showing you a collaboration by these three amazing, very, very talented, young men that is so unreal that it boggles your mind. This is a collaboration of love. You will notice that the whole Orchestra is in awe and Giampiero Grani can’t stop smiling. Stop and listen to this performance of “Por Una Cabeza”.
Look at how they smile at one another during the performance. A smile that says yes that’s it! Their faces are ablaze! Their expressions let one another know that it works. And, finally, when it’s over, they are so excited they can hardly contain themselves. Look at their smiles, their faces are lit up in joy and their embrace says it all! They are brothers who love one another! This is truly a Moment to Remember!
Il Volo is having an influence on the pop music world even though it is rather small
right now. However, I am confident it will grow as time goes on. How is that? It has
to do with the way they keep perfecting their art. The answer later in this article.
First let me start with this premise: the human voice is too often taken for granted and
poorly treated partly because it is an instrument inside us and not tangible like a violin
or clarinet or piano, etc. Everyone can sing and, in fact, you are doing a form of
singing when you talk. It is the same set of muscles, and you are using pitches when
you talk- just not a lot of different ones. But with all that as a given, a person is not
born with the knowledge of how to use the voice to the best of its ability. Training is
needed.
If you are given a violin or clarinet or piano and want to play it to the best of your
ability, you take lessons from a trained and degreed expert – i.e. a private teacher with
a B.A. Or Master’s degree – and learn all of the proper methods and techniques needed
to produce great quality. A singer – just as with those instruments – should take
private lessons and put those techniques to good use. You are taught by a voice
teacher (advanced is a voice coach) with a Master’s degree in vocal pedagogy ( rough
definition: the science and craft of teaching the art of singing) . Yes, anyone can sing,
and some are born with a wonderful natural instrument which they put to use with
little or no knowledge of good techniques while others take that wonderful natural
instrument and add the proper training and end up with an incredible instrument of
limitless beauty, power, grace and elegance.
IL VOLO ‘ s place
Each of these guys at a very young age had the love and passion of singing instilled in them either by their grandpa (Gianluca and Piero) or by the family and community
they lived in (Ignazio) or both (all three). Each of these boys was blessed by God
with a magnificent natural instrument. They had parents that were smart enough and
caring enough to realize that such natural beauty deserved proper training and got
them good voice teachers. Those same parents needed to provide the support and
emotional space to allow them to grow artistically. Takes a lot of patience from the
parents some times. Then comes the contests and festivals and competitions (more
parent partnership).
Picture credits to Don Ercole and Mundial
As the group was finally put together as Il Volo, they added a voice coach to sustain
the great work already started and, also, to teach them how to preserve and protect
those wonderful instruments. When you ruin a clarinet you go out and buy a new one
but when you ruin your voice you are done. You can’t buy a new one.
With all this work going on we, the public, have been enjoying wonderful pop music
(with a classical flair ) presented to the heights of quality and perfection. Since they
are so young and not in their 30’s or 40’s, they get more attention from all ages. The
youth thing really works in their favor so well. The result is that they have become
very popular with a wide variety of ages in the USA.
This has not escaped the attention of some well established big names. Barbra
Streisand had planned a tour in 2012 but after hearing Il Volo and seeing what their
coach has done, she decided to add a coach to her prep work for the last 4 months
prior to tour. Recently, I have read that Justin Timberlake has hired a voice coach to
expand the range and improve quality of his serious singing. He has mentioned
wanting to do a Broadway musical and that requires a well-trained voice. He very
much knows the “Il Volo sound” There has also been some talk amongst certain
female singers that they want to get a little of the “ Il Volo “ edge and clean up their
voice and their singing.
Il Volo is not the only group with good training but they are the youngest and the best
out there right now. They are having an impact on the pop music business. Gianluca,
Ignazio and Piero have raised the bar. They have raised the standards. Let’s hope that
impact keeps growing.
Picture credit Laura Batke at The Mall of America
Coming soon: an article looking at two of the concerts Il Volo did during the winter
season.
I’ve been reading comments since Thursday night, and I can tell that we’re all still completely stoked about The Guys’ win the other night. And why shouldn’t we be? It was so amazing! I know we’ve all watched and re-watched this video more than once, but I think we need to have a special place for it here, don’t you? 😀
Thank you to, PauLina SaLcido
I was so proud of them from the beginning of the night to the end. Looking so handsome and being so genuine and in the moment….
Latin Billboard Awards, 2014; Telemundo
Latin Billboard Awards, 2014; Telemundo
Latin Billboard Awards, 2014; Telemundo
Thank you, Billboard
Thank you, LasGringasBlog
In fact, they made enough of an impression that Yahoo Music wrote an article that I was easily able to find at the top of Bing’s search results,
ILVolovers the world over did their part admirably during the show, tweeting #ElPulsoBillboard for @ilvolo to keep them at the top of the list of “Most Tweets” for the night. My lovely hosts commented on it more than once, saying, “OK. The Il Volo fans have got this. It’s not even a contest, and they are winning! It’s not even close!” There was a brief moment when they mentioned that Il Volo had dropped to number three on the list, and well…let’s just say that ILVolovers took care of that! 😀 Way to rock those tweets guys!
Another honor of the night–in my opinion at least–is that they were asked to present an award as well, which they did for Latin Pop Song:
Thank you, Caty Corraliza
To me, asking Il Volo to present an award and having them walk away with a win shows an acceptance that goes beyond their adoring public. It means that the industry has taken notice as well, and that is something that can take their already amazing career to the next level.
When I think about that, I have to think about how far they’ve come in such a short time, and have to wonder what is going through their minds. From thinking that Ti Luscio una Canzone would be it and that they would go back to their regular lives, to celebrating their first industry award in five short years…what a journey!
And how fitting that they have come full circle…appearing on Ti Luscio una Canzone again yesterday, singing, “Il Mundo,” fresh off of such success. I’m guessing they were an inspiration to every contestant that is currently on the show, a living, breathing example that dreams can come true.
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Pictures of yesterday’s performance were provided by Alessandro La Vela on his Facebook page,
