With the holidays over and all the surprises behind us it’s time to get back to the story.
As I always say, Gianluca is very different from Piero and Ignazio. I don’t know why but in everything he does he is different. In how he handles things, he is different.
It seemed that Piero and Ignazio were street smart. They knew how things were and how they worked, especially in music, but Gianluca, no, he just led a simple life and he loved to sing but that was just part of who he was!
In Montepagano, Gianluca was moving along in his life, attending school, playing soccer, hiking in the mountains and singing with the choir. While Piero and Ignazio attended school, traveled everywhere for their singing lessons and competed in competitions all over Sicily.
Gianluca’s life was really good. It was laid back and the life every teenager should have. Then one day a lady came along and threw a monkey wrench into it and suddenly, his life changed forever.
Thinking back over the years, Gianluca speaks about how Destiny Knocked on His Door and he found himself on the road to Ti Lascio Una Canzone.
Let’s listen to Gianluca’s version of how he got to Ti Lascio Una Canzone and what destiny had in store for him….
Do you see destiny?
The story of Ignazio shows that things come, and you do not have to force them to arrive. My story is not different from Ignazio. Better, but a little bit different because, apart from the Little Choir of Roses and those modest performances with my father’s theater company, I’ve never done anything else, no competitions, no festival. At home we do not have a bulletin board with the prizes that I won in the singing competitions because I did not want to do them, I never thought about it.
I participated in the Festival of the Adriatic, it could be 2006, and I won it, and in 2007 in Ascoli Piceno to that of young talents, always at the local level and always for fun. I sang at weddings, that’s it, I sang Schubert’s Ave Maria, and they paid me. My first money earned with music. And for fun, in 2007 I recorded a CD in a studio in Roseto degli Abruzzi: it was called Start from Here. The study was by Vincenzo Irelli, a very good musician. His band has accompanied names like Pierangelo Bertoli and Giuni Russo, as well as many others. I remember he’d heard me sing, probably in one of the Little Rose Choir’s performances, and he’d said to my father, “He’s good, Gianluca. Take him to me “. I had chosen songs by Bocelli and Alex Baroni, the singer who died in 2002 and famous for songs like Change and Write Something For Me and that was another of the voices I liked a lot. We spent a couple of weeks recording the CD and then we gave it to all the relatives. If I think about it today, it makes me smile. But never, never would I have thought that it would not be the only one that I would do. I never thought I could make music my life. I told you: I only sang because it made me feel good, when I was singing. I was happy.
Then what happened?
It was 2008 when my father received a phone call from Licia Giunco. It is difficult to explain who this lady was, an incredible woman, known throughout Italy for being the creator of an annual event called Sport for Life, a great international ice-skating gala. The event had reached its thirtieth edition, although the last one organized by Mrs. Giunco before leaving was the twenty-sixth and continues in honor of this extraordinary person who has decided to use the sport to raise funds to donate to charity. For the gala, skating champions come from all over Europe and singers like Alessandra Amoroso and Biagio Antonacci also take part. It is a very well-known event throughout Italy. The reason for Mrs. Giunco’s phone call was my performances with the choir. “We have a great talent here in Roseto” she tells my father. “We must bring him to RAI.” My father had never thought about it. My parents had never even imagined I would participate in competitions, let alone send me for an audition for television.
“Let’s try,” he replied to her. “It would be a great opportunity.” What dad thought was just a different experience, something that could make me have fun. Mrs. Giunco made available to us her contacts: we would talk to Franco Fasano, whom Licia knew, and he would take us to audition with Roberto Cenci for a broadcast of RAI. It was not a talent, maybe it was this that I liked: the idea that it was only a life experience to do, an experience that would allow me to sing for a while. My parents, as they had always been until then, did not force me in the least and, as enthusiastic as they were about the idea of what I could do, they completely left the decision to me. I had not the slightest idea of what awaited me, but I decided instinctively, with my belly, that yes, that audition I really wanted to do it.
The audition….Ti Lascio una Canzone.
Aside from the one Festival in 2006, Gianluca never competed in anything! This would be his first real competition. Piero and Ignazio knew how to deal with the competitions, but Gianluca, though inexperienced, was in a good position because he was effectively selected to do this audition by people who were out there looking for talents like his that were very unique. Little did they know that they would wind up with three such individuals.
What happened in 2009 at Ti Lascio Una Canzone was so unique that it will probably never happen again. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Gianluca was now in place to meet his destiny! This was the day that Destiny Knocked on His Door and his life would change forever. He would never again live the simple beautiful life he lived in Montepagano. From here on it would be a life of partnership and new realities. He would no longer climb mountains. He would climb the ladder to fame!
(You didn’t think I would leave out my favorite song that Gianluca sings)
I think Gianluca has learned to accept this way of life, but I don’t think you ever forget the simple life that made you happy. Success only comes with great sacrifices.
And sacrifice he did, in fact, they all did. They all left behind their lives the day that they set out for Via dei Gracchi. A road that had no straight path just a sharp left turn that would bring them all to Ti Lacio Una Canzone!
Next week we arrive at the moment we’ve been waiting for. The moment the guys all come together in the same place. The place where the journey really begins!
Join me next week when I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and meet the guys at the Audition.
*What I have written here are excerpts from the book the guys wrote about their lives. “Il Volo, Un’avventura Straordinario, La Nostra Storia.” (An Extraordinary Adventure, Our Story) This is just a small piece of each mans’ story. The book is written in Italian. If you can read Italian, I would highly recommend that you read it. It’s wonderful! If not, I can only hope that someday it will be translated into English. Or you can use Google Translate to translate it.
I also recommend you read their second book “IL Volo: Quello Che Porto Nel Cuore” (What I Carry in My Heart)
If you would like to share a story with me, please email: susan.flightcrew@yahoo.com
