……..where were we? Even if it’s summer and it’s very hot, our boys can’t stand still for a minute.

In fact, the day after the Pooh concert, Saretto di Bambar publishes a video and a photo with Piero and Ignazio who are in Taormina.

Saretto video – Click Here

SARETTO = My friends, he was abstinent from slushes, now he has come for a few hours and ate…..

PIERO= For a few minutes…. how many are 8?

SARETTO= I think it’s 7 or 8 granitas.

PIERO= 8 and a brioche.

SARETTO= Bye guys!

I was wondering why, maybe there was something we didn’t know anything about or was it just a quick trip back to Sicily?

In fact there was also a specific reason, a prize awarded to Piero.

On July 10, Piero collected the Ignazio Buttitta special prize, which is a prize for a literary competition, but as a special prize, it is also recognized for those who spread Sicilian art and culture.

It is an award established by the province of Agrigento, of which Piero belongs.

And here is the video of the award delivery and the motivation.

MOTIVATION = Pure singing talent, he gained international fame and popularity together with his travel companions : Il Volo.

In his short but intense career he has performed on the most prestigious stages in the world and has undertaken collaborations with the people of the musical firmament.

His singing ductility allows him to face any repertoire, from the more properly bel canto one, to pop.

Strong musicality, desire to improve, mild and strong-willed character, in a perfect mix, make Piero Barone an extraordinary artist witness of the best Italian musical culture in the world, congratulations!!

And here is Piero’s short answer:

Piero’s short answer – Click Here

Special Presidency Prize, Piero, you made truly extraordinary flights to be here tonight (evidently Piero managed to be present between one engagement and another).

PIERO= I did it willingly, good evening everyone.
In recent years I have never taken any recognition for granted, I believe that every recognition, individual or collective, human, artistic, is always important. I’ve always thought that recognition ennobles success.

Back to Sicily, I’m going home.

Piero with a journalist.

Now I’ll update you on the free event in Ascoli Piceno with the translation of this beautiful article.

ALL IN A LINE FOR IL VOLO

Picene Chronicles article – Click Here

ASCOLI – The ticket office opened at 8 this morning. After 30 minutes the tickets were finished, and only the very long queue of those in possession of the precious “number” remained. Fans from out of town and even foreigners too. Some have spent the night in Piazza del Popolo in the loggias under the Palazzo dei Capitani. The countdown officially kicks off to attend the gift to the city of Battista Faraotti who celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of his Fainplast.

All lined up for “Il Volo”. This morning, Monday 10 July, at 8:00AM the distribution of tickets for the concert of the most famous trio in the world, scheduled for 21 July in Piazza del Popolo, began in Ascoli.

A free concert, a “gift” to the city of Battista Faraotti who is celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of his company, Fainplast.

As was widely expected, the ticket office in Piazza del Popolo was stormed. There are those who even lay in wait during the night to earn a front row seat, even sleeping in their sleeping bags close to the Palazzo dei Capitani. Many people, even not very young, queued shortly after dawn.

Many for hours under the scorching sun, including those who have come from outside the region and also several tourists. Two of them, Americans, managed to grab the ticket.

An man from Ascoli arrived very early in the square. There were already a few dozen people, and he then took the initiative to organize numbered slips of paper which he distributed to those present while waiting for the various procedures to begin: the arrival of the City workers with the barriers, the security, the Municipal Police and the State Police. All aimed at finally getting hold of the ticket.

The comings and goings of enthusiasts who don’t want to miss out on the most eagerly awaited event of the year are continuous, like a river in flood. Tickets sold out within half an hour. 600 tickets were distributed, considering that each person could take a maximum of two.

There are two women from Ascoli who managed to pocket the precious coupon. “For the love of Il Volo I’m here in the Piazza from 5:40AM, finally says Pacifico Mariotti, who arrives from Fabriano (province of Ancona).

“I’ve been here since 6:00AM, I come from Montalto Marche and I’m in the company of two friends from Offida,” says Rosanna di Silvestre.

Among the hundreds of people in line, also the city councilor for commerce and sport Nico Stallone. “I arrived in Piazza del Popolo at 6:30AM and I already had 200 people in front of me. A first group of 280 people was made, then another. I had the pleasure of meeting the first person who arrived tonight”.

On July 12, Ignazio posted a nice photo of Budapest, will he be there for a short vacation?

But before evening, Gianluca also publishes a photo of leaving for Budapest.

Instead Piero is with his family and publishes a photo with his brother and sister Mariagrazia who graduated.

But not even a day goes by and Piero has also flown to Budapest, what will there be? There is no event or concert at the moment.

Here is the mystery revealed, a press conference in Budapest for the new concert on October 9 at the Budapest Arena.

The Hungarian singer with whom they will collaborate is also present at the conference: Gabi Toth.

These are her words:

Great honor for me that the world famous Italian opera singers pop trio formed a joint song.

Il Volo October 9 – I will perform in the Arena and the concert will be previewed. 🙏🏻

I look forward to working together as this is a new challenge and an exciting musical journey. 🙌

After the press conference a nice and long interview was published of which I translated the most interesting questions and omitted the part where he describes Il Volo from its beginnings to today.

Index article – Click Here

QUESTION= Let’s go back to the beginning. How do you remember your childhood, was your talent already manifested then?

GIANLUCA: On behalf of all three of us I can say that we owe a lot of gratitude to our parents, who have believed in us from the beginning. I’m very happy because they always gave me the chance to show my talent and believed in me. I was never told what to do. This is the most important thing to support the emergence of the talent of a young man who is just trying to express himself. The main direction in my life was that I wanted to be a singer. It’s the one thing I’m good at that my parents recognized and helped me figure out who I really am.

QUESTION= Your career started in a talent show where you competed individually. What do you think of the current talent scouts?

GIANLUCA: Sometimes I have the feeling that the singers in the TV show are just part of a big machine. It’s not easy to find new talent every year or even every month, and only a very small percentage of them manage to unleash their talent. It’s like they sacrifice everything on the altar of quality. That’s why it’s very important that singers who want to be famous try to express themselves as much as possible. A strong personality is essential, which is not easy to find, but social networks and TV shows are also based on it. I think there are a lot of talented people in the world, they just do something different. It’s also important to be able to plan ahead, and talent is useless if you don’t know how to use it. Just getting bad advice from someone and you can already be lost. This is why many still do not know how to express themselves.

QUESTION= It has become obvious in the search for talent that opera is closest to you. Why did you choose this genre?

PIERO=  Actually our genre isn’t even opera. The pieces we perform are all part of Italian culture, interpreted in recent years by singers such as Luciano Pavarotti and many others who have brought these compositions from the theater and brought them to the public. They are traditional songs known all over the world, and perhaps people confuse them with opera due to the powerful sounds, even if it is bel canto. To hear an opera you have to go to the theatre. However, our program does include some opera pieces, including La Traviata and Nessun Dorma. Whoever comes to the Budapest show will feel as if they were in Italy for one night, it will be a trip through the last 14 years. In addition to Italian sheet music, we have previously covered American compositions as well, including My Way. Our most characteristic song is Grande Amore, with which we had the opportunity to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2015.

QUESTION= You mentioned the Eurovision Song Contest. You took part in the competition in 2015, where you finished in third place. What memories do you have of this period?

PIERO= In Italy the only way to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest and represent the country is to win the most famous festival, the Sanremo Festival. Thanks to this, we also managed to enter the competition in 2015 with the song Grande Amore , as we won the festival with it. At that time, the Eurovision Song Contest in Italy was not as well known as it is now, but we have good memories of it. The passion with which every interpreter displays the flag of his nation. We had the best time of our lives then, because overall our only goal was to represent Italy, as we felt the love and support of our nation.

QUESTION = In 2021, another Italian band, Maneskin, won the competition. In the history of Eurovision, they managed to do it for the third time among Italians. Did it mean a lot to you that an Italian band finally won?

PIERO = We were happy that Italy could finally win and host the next Eurovision. In fact, we were invited as guests to Turin to perform that evening. We performed another English version of Grande Amore and believe me, seeing the Eurovision Song Contest in Italy gave a completely different feeling of freedom.

QUESTION= It’s already official that you will duet with the singer Gabi Tóth at the concert in Budapest, why was she chosen?

PIERO= It was introduced to us via Spotify, because when we travel to certain countries, we like to collaborate with artists there. We got to her with the help of an agency and we liked her. If only because a great experience connects us. She has also performed in front of Pope Francis which is quite amazing. When we first met, we had a chance to talk a bit and it became obvious what feelings drive all of us.

QUESTION = In 2021 you sang in honor of Ennio Morricone in a concert, and then you released an album in his memory. What did that composer mean to you?

PIERO= He has done a lot for our culture, he is an icon and we all grew up listening to his songs. While many people may not know at first when they hear a song that he composed, we’re also talking about an Oscar-winning artist. As Italians, we are very proud that he was also Italian, and we want to thank his family for believing in us for this project, as well as we are grateful for his melodies, which fill us with emotion when we hear them on stage.

QUESTION= Most singers and musicians have some sort of mission through music. What is your main motivation?

GIANLUCA= Next year we will celebrate our 15th anniversary and we have created a very strong show. In addition to songs belonging to our culture, we have already sung Smile by Charlie Chaplin with Barbra Streisand, among others, but currently our goal is to have our own repertoire and be able to sing for our generation as well. This is a very difficult challenge, but we strive to achieve it with our new songs. We are already thinking about the distant future and let’s imagine the next 15-20-30 years together.

QUESTION= Among the younger generation, music genres like r’n’b or pop are considered mainstream these days. How can you make them fall in love with bel canto?

GIANLUCA= We are young too and we love this music. We have different audiences in different parts of the world, for example in South America 80% of people belong to our generation. It all depends on the country we are talking about. In Japan and Europe, for example, we are mostly listened to by adults. The goal is to make good songs, because if we do that, people will listen to our music.

QUESTION = You have already proved yourself to Hungarian fans in 2018 and 2019. What is your experience with this audience?

GIANLUCA= Hungary was one of the first places we went after the Eurovision Song Contest. We were constantly on the road and playing concerts. It was very touching to see the arenas full even outside of Italy and to experience the love we received from the Hungarian audience.

QUESTION= As mentioned above, during your career you have performed duets with, among others, Barbara Streisand. Who else is left out of the line-up you would like to work with?

GIANLUCA= We never know who life will bring us together with, and we can also mix different musical genres. We have achieved so much in our career so far and now a new chapter begins as we want to bring our music to an even bigger audience. This is one of our goals.

QUESTION= Do you have other role models?

PIERO= Hans Zimmer, is one of the most brilliant composers.

QUESTION= Is there an artist whose career you would like to have?

IGNAZIO= Ourselves.

PIERO= There was a singer in Italy who was asked who he wanted to be, and he replied: myself, the best form of myself.

GIANLUCA= You have to reach your goals and dream big, but at the same time you have to recognize your limits. It wouldn’t be true if I said I wanted to be like Michael Jackson. You have to realize that you have to give yourself in life, you have to believe in yourself and, as Piero said: you have to be the best. If I only express 60 percent of my being with my music, I have to think about how to reach 100 percent. This is what we stand for.

And the second concert with POOH has also arrived, this time at the stadium in Rome.

Once again a good experience, they sang the same one song: Uomini Soli (lonely men).

At the beginning Ignazio says that he has studied the song well these days, otherwise Red gets angry.

Red replies laughing that Ignazio is a scoundrel, because in the afternoon during rehearsals he pretended to get the song wrong and Red really thought he was wrong. And Ignazio says he does it on purpose to make Red angry!! 😁😁

This beautiful photo was posted by Red (he has a red jacket), with these words:

“THOSE GOOD GUYS FROM IL VOLO – 

They are like us, three different worlds, but which complement each other… they are kind and they are certainly very good. Singing with them was a real joy… and we also laughed and joked a lot… they are three little pests and Ignazio managed to deceive me, during rehearsals, by pretending to get the verse of Uomini Soli (lonely men) wrong and I fell for it like a pear tree… but there’s time… and I’ll do it again 🤣”

________________________________________________________________________

But there is yet another news, which Susan has already informed you about, it has been published that Il Volo will participate in the “match of the heart” a football match with a charity background, where the teams will be:  Singers versus Artists.

And here is the promo video, to advertise the match.

It’s always a wonderful initiative, and with a very honorable goal, but I wonder how the guys will do, given that they have to be in Ascoli Piceno for the free concert the next day?
Let’s hope they let them play in the first half.

Lately they have been spinning like tops, they don’t have a moment of time for themselves and their families, in fact in this period there were also the birthdays of Ignazio’s mother and also of Gianluca’s father and Ignazio and Gianluca were in the company of their parents, just one day and that’s it, just like Piero just one day for his sister Mariagrazia’s feast. 

The things they said in the interview in Hungary are really interesting, they are preparing big surprises for their 15-year career and different music that can also involve the youngest, but as Gianluca reiterated: “The goal is to make good songs, because if we do that, people will listen to our music.”

So don’t be afraid, Il Volo will not distort its nature, it will promote new beautiful music and of course it will always have its baggage of bel canto and opera that we all know well, I’m sure of it and I really hope they will succeed in their intent.❤

But July is not over yet and there are still many events, see you soon!!

Daniela 🤗

Credit to owners of all photos and videos.