LINDA

It’s our FIRST ANNIVERSARY!! It’s one year since this site started!! I’m having a problem wrapping my mind around this. Check these numbers, From 131 Countries we’ve had 344,000 views to this site and over 14,000 comments. Il Volo has done so much to make my life better. From 2011 when I was channel surfing and stopped when I saw this boy with a chubby face and amazing dimples sing his part of “Il Mondo” with such joy on his face. He seemed so surprised that this amazing voice was coming out of him! I then heard Piero and Gianluca sing. I sat there incredulous and knew I had to find out more about them. I  scoured the Internet, saw videos and read newspaper articles. I wondered why the whole world didn’t know about them. I eventually wandered on to their website. I started to comment but got nervous about not saying the right thing. As you can see I eventually got over that and over the following months met other people who loved them as I did. I met Marie, Loretta, Kelly, Elaine and Michele and many others. Our banter everyday was so enjoyable. After a while the site changed, making it difficult for us to communicate. Long story short, Il Volo Flight Crew~Share The Love was born. In this post we’re going to hear from the Board members and their thoughts about our anniversary, please feel free to comment on your memories too.

 Thank you all for your love and continued support!!  Much love to Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca, you are the inspiration for it all!!  Linda

MICHELE

My introduction to Il Volo was much as Linda described. I saw them on American Idol and then Il Volo Takes Flight. That was all it took to get me hooked! When I traveled to Italy, we were serenaded at dinner every night and I brought home a lot of music. So I already knew and loved some of the same songs Il Volo sings!

 I also took many of the same steps as Linda did to get to know all I could about Il Volo and their music! This included going to their website everyday. I was so excited the day I came home from work and found tickets available for the filming of their PBS specials ‘We Are Love” and “Buon Natale!”  As I have said before, I moved heaven and earth to go – even worked remotely from my South Beach ocean view hotel room that was within walking distance of the Fillmore! I met another Il Volo fan from New Mexico on her way to “We Are Love” crossing the street to the Fillmore. We have since attended 3 concerts together, 2 in Philly and 1 in Boston. Incredible isn’t it? Elaine and I were in the audience together at both of the concerts at the Fillmore in Miami and now we know our seats were close by, what a shame we didn’t know each other then!  That was the beginning.

When the Il Volo site changed so dramatically, we were ready to make another home for ourselves and others to support Il Volo. Kelly and I had already talked about the idea of a website, Kelly had the technical knowledge to do it! The changes on the official site gave us the push and “Il Volo Flight Crew~Share The Love” and its Board were born!

In so many ways it is hard to believe it has ONLY been one year! It feels like forever really – in a good way! We have all been through so much ‘Il Voloing” together!  I have met and actually been able to have a real conversation with Piero and Ignazio on a few different occasions, in the last year, which was really unexpected. I did not know what would develop or how things would turn out – but I must say to all of you and the rest of the Board members, Kelly, Elaine, Marie and Linda – it has been an amazing year!

Thank you all for the love and support you show Il Volo and our website!
Michele (aka MFA and mfazzara)

KELLY

 Gosh…One year already?  Where did the time go?  It’s truly gone by in the blink of an eye.  Yet somehow, it seems like forever.  Like I’ve followed and loved Il Volo all of my life.  Which is funny because everything about and leading up to this last year has been a complete accident.

Who would have thought that accidentally seeing a little Facebook ad–the kind I usually don’t pay two seconds of attention to–would ultimately lead to this website?  It was that little ad that popped into my head the evening I was channel surfing and accidentally happened upon PBS and Gianluca’s sweet face on the screen…followed by (don’t be mad at me, Guys….please… ) two other baby-faced teens…all three with these big, man-sized voices and…well you know the rest of the story. You all went through the same thing.    😉    I still don’t know how I knew that I was watching Il Volo at that moment; I just did.

Like Linda and Michelle before me, I set myself to scouring the Internet for anything I could find about them.  I was thrilled that “We Are Love” was coming out in two days–which I downloaded the minute my eyes opened that morning.  Two days later, I downloaded “Takes Flight,” and between the two albums, it was pretty much wall-to-wall Il Volo for weeks.

In my search for information, I of course ran across their individual social media accounts, but didn’t really feel like I could/should join in with the fans that were congregating there at that time (it had been awhile since I was a preteen–I’ll own it), so I was very happy to accidentally land at the old site with all of you–not once, but twice.  It seemed pretty deserted the first time I was there, so I’m not sure why or how I found my way back.

I was just as upset when that site didn’t work out but never really thought about seriously doing anything to replace it until my board sisters said it needed to be done.   I only knew how to help because I had worked on a blog in the past but was no longer involved because I accidentally upset someone.

So maybe it wasn’t all an accident; maybe it was bigger than that.

Either way, I never expected any of what has happened since.  We were just looking for a place to “crash,” but we have a site that is growing in the number of followers everyday.  We had the opportunity to meet so many of you this summer, and that was a humbling thing for me.  More than a website, I think that we’re family.  I know many of us have met lifelong friends here.

I’m posting my picture with Gianluca because…well, I love it so much; I’m not gonna lie 😀  (Thanks Marie!).  But more than that, I’m posting it as a symbol of what can happen in one short year.  I never in a million would have thought I’d ever be able to have that picture or would talk to Piero or would have Ignazio reach out to me through the fence to hold my hand (well, it was a chain link fence, so it was more like holding fingers, but same thing  😀  ).  I never would have dreamed that they would see our badges, murmur, “Oh; Flight Crew…,” and that I would see the lights turn on in their heads.  That really happened…with all three of them!

What a year it’s been!  Thank you for taking this journey with us; all of your comments mean so much.  Marie, Linda, Michelle and Elaine, I’m so happy I get to work with you here and that we finally met in June.  It was like we’d known each other for ever, wasn’t it?  I’ll have to get down to FL to meet you, Linda!  I can’t wait to see what the next year brings!

And to Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca…what can I say?  Love you guys, and thanks for making our evening in Elgin so memorable!

~~Kelly

ELAINE

Sincerely, Elaine

MARIE

Could our dream come true
to include all of you?

This new way
for friends to play?

With love on our mind
and determination in kind,

We needed more than a word or two.
Folks, it worked because of you!

You’re here again
with stories to spin

 all the love you share
goes out everywhere.

You talk of the talent of three young Guys.
To us it’s really no surprise

That you all cherish them as we do
and write on pages we made for you.

My Board Sisters all live miles apart.
I love each one with an open heart.

I’m proud, so proud, of what we’ve done.
Each day my smile wakes the sun.

Thank you all for giving me
a reason to tell Il Volo history.

My poetry you’ve been kind to read.
It overflows the love I need.

If I live to a hundred you’ll still see
a very, very, grateful me.

Thank You and
Happy Anniversary!

~Marie

P. S.  Join us in a Twitter/Facebook Voting Blitz to encourage voting for Il Volo in the last few days of of Premios tu Mundo Voting! 

Please post this on Facebook or on Twitter with the hashtag #ILVOLOVERSPOWER:

Click here —> http://movil.telemundo.com/video.php?show=premiostumundo&id=DnuhTPFsIYnRWQbtiVHX&key=multimediaVideo 

Tomorrow, Sunday August 10th, Beginning at 10 am Eastern Time, and then on the top of every hour after that until 6 pm.  We’re hoping to get ‪#‎ILVOLOVERSPOWER‬ trending worldwide, so use the hashtag as much and as often as you can!

Count down with us by watching the widget on the left!

~~ Kelly