On 11 December, as we all know, Il Volo was in Dubai during EXPO 2020, postponed to this year due to Covid.

Il Volo was a guest in the Italian pavilion, and performed a free concert, was invited to worthily represent Italy and Italian bel canto. Really a great honor.

In the afternoon there was a short press conference of which I will translate the part relating to Il Volo.

At the beginning, at the microphone is the Undersecretary of the Italian Culture Ministry, Lucia Bergonzoni.

LB = I want to leave the word to the guys of IL Volo, who tonight will be the great guests I really cared about, because I think they bring the Italian spirit to the world, and are truly the example of Italy and of the young people that we want.

P + I + G = Good evening everyone.

MAN = As announced by Undersecretary Lucia Bergonzoni, tonight we have a very important concert and we have the three protagonists here.

All together they are called Il Volo, but they are Gianluca Ginoble, Piero Barone and Ignazio Boschetto.

I leave the floor to them, so they can also tell us how much beauty they brought here tonight, and what you will go around presenting to the world with your tour that you are preparing.

The word to you.

IGNAZIO = Thanks!

Over time, this Italian spirit has grown in us, we have learned to love our flag, to love our culture and traditions and what we have always done is to sing the melodies of our traditions, starting from the opera, which was born in Italy and we, as young boys, try to bring it to the younger generations, to make known to the whole world, to the whole new generation, our culture, our Italian tradition.

PIERO = Tonight we are honored to sing and attend this event.

We will sing the songs that are part of our culture, of bel canto, from O Sole Mio, to Nessun Dorma, our song Grande Amore.
Soon after we will continue with a world tour, clearly we are coming out of a very difficult period, it is still a slow road, but we are proactive and therefore we are really happy to be back on stage.

We will be touring the songs from our new album which is a tribute to maestro Morricone, who is also an Italian patrimony, so we are truly honored. Thanks to Undersecretary Lucia Bergonzoni for thinking of us, and we are really happy to be here.

GIANLUCA = Yes, because at our age, we feel even more privileged to represent our country with our voices, in such an important event, the most awaited of the year, unfortunately it has been postponed due to Covid, (in fact it is Expo 2020). It is a difficult moment but this unites us, as music unites, so we hope with our voices to bring to life a moment of positivity but at the same time of liberation, a moment of joy for everyone, singing, as Ignazio and Piero said, the melodies of our culture.

We follow in the footsteps of the greats, like Luciano Pavarotti, who really brought this music, bel canto, out of theaters, breaking all barriers. So we too, humbly, try to bring this music to the new generations, it has always been our goal and always will be.

So thank you!

PIERO = Tonight there will be many young people on stage, congratulations for the idea of giving space to these two young talents, this is a great showcase for these two young talents, the guitarist and the violinist, therefore, when there is space for new talents, for art, we are always happy.

Thanks and see you later. (applause)

GIANLUCA = I just wanted to add that we are remembering, with a new repertoire, with a new recording project, the greatest composer in the history of Italian music, the great maestro Ennio Morricone. One year after his death, we celebrate him with a new project and we will also sing some songs from the repertoire of the most famous soundtracks. This tribute is called Il Volo sings Morricone.

MAN = In fact, I was approaching the microphones just to ask you this question.

We started this celebratory day that the ministry had it organized in Cinecittà (Cinecittà is the set of Italian studios where the best Italian films were shot), so we started talking about cinema, we close with bel canto, but the bel canto that returns to the cinema.

So my questions are:
“How did you come up with the idea of paying this tribute to Morricone?
Where will you take your project, and how will this tour take place?
What will this tribute be like, with which songs and in what way?”

PIERO = The idea to pay a tribute to maestro Ennio Morricone was born during one of the many meetings during the lockdown.
We used the time available, because during all these years, 13 years of career, time is our worst enemy, because we never have time to work well on the details of new projects.

We have dedicated two years to Ennio Morricone, in the recording studio, it is the first time that we pay him a tribute, with the support and trust of the whole Morricone family, starting with his wife Maria, whom we thank and his son Andrea Morricone, he too is a composer, his is the music of Nuovo Cinema Paradiso.

So it is an album with all the melodies of Ennio Morricone sung, and we will take it on tour, around the world, we will start in March, we will do RCMH and we will continue with another 100 concerts.

MAN = Congratulations on a nice idea, another example of Italy that goes around the world and makes itself proud, of Italian cinema that promotes all the beauty of Italy, the Italian industry, the made in Italy.

It is really a pleasure and an honor to have you here today (to Il Volo), I won’t let you talk too much because later you will have to use your voice for something a little more interesting.

IGNAZIO = I don’t want to add anything, I was listening.
(Lucia Bergonzoni returns)

LB = I want to thank all the people who worked to make today’s day work, even the commissioner of the pavilion and the many people who no one imagines, but who have to work for an event like this to work.

Now I call on the stage also Gibboni and Dalia (they are the violinist and the guitarist who won the competition with the highest marks), so we take a picture together.

IGNAZIO = Of course!

Final thanks.

And here is Il Volo with Lucia Bergonzoni.

And now, some photos during the concert:

Relaxing moment

Unfortunately, even if there was a link for the streaming connection to follow the concert, this did not work and there are only a few clips from the concert, grouped here in this video.

But also on 11 December, Il Volo was also a guest in a very nice and hilarious broadcast in Colonia (German), on the television channel ORF1.

It is a television quiz, by title  “Quiz Ohne Grenzen”.

Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca, after singing The Ecstasy of Gold, had to perform live and without a backing track, some very famous songs in certain films (avoiding to sing the refrain) and the two competitors had to guess the title of the film.

Really fun and our boys have lent themselves with skill and sympathy to this beautiful game.

You can try to guess the titles too, I did it!!

Of course this quiz was previously recorded, because, as we all know very well, Il Volo was present live in Dubai!!

Click on photo below to view the quiz show video.

Therefore, on the same day, I felt proud to be represented in such an important event as EXPO 2020 by Il Volo and at the same time I admired them and laughed in the TV Quiz in Cologne (Germany).

Of course, the name Il Volo is very apt, in a moment Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca “flew” from Germany to the Arab Emirates, what spinning tops, what men!!

Daniela

Credit to owners of all photos and videos.