Here it is Thanksgiving Day, and I found a few extra minutes, so I thought, why not share them with my Il Volo Family! These last few months while I’ve been busy writing, I’ve been following Daniela Perani’s stories. I am so thankful to her for keeping us all up to date with the goings on of the guys.
When I read the article that Daniela translated this week about Piero by Irene Carmina in La Repubblica I got to thinking it’s been quite sometime since I wrote the early stories of the guys. So, I went back to Through the Fields of My Mind and found a beautiful story which talks a lot about what Piero is talking about in the article.
Piero is a great storyteller! In his stories he recalls every detail. He makes you feel like you’re a part of his story. When the story is over you know the event as it happened and there is nothing more for you to know. He’s told it all. He is very sensitive and very emotional when he speaks about his childhood and his family.
So, without further ado, let us begin with Episode One of Piero’s Story in the courtyard of the town square of Naro….
The heat of the day has passed, and the time of rest is over and it’s time for people to come out into the square. On the bench nearby are old men. Piero is playing soccer with his friends. They are playing with his SUPER TELE (a plastic football). The ball flies off in the direction of the old men and they shout, “Slow with the ball or we will cut it.” The old men frighten Piero with their threat.
My name is Piero Barone. I was born on June 24, 1993, in the Sicilian city of Naro. What can I tell you about Naro? For me, it is the most beautiful city in the world! There are dozens of baroque churches and above the city the Chiaramonte castle. Below the castle is the beautiful Valle del Paradiso with its green pastures and the green sea that separates Naro from the real sea… and there’s the Spring Festival Narese!
Piero would gather with his friends in the afternoon and usually they played until ten in the evening but there was always the fear that the old men would pierce the ball. Piero said, Five or six years have passed since the old men scared me. The old men are still on the bench but now when they see me, they come to meet me, to greet me. Before, they scared me, and now they hug me and have that look of being proud and moved. It’s too strong for me! Yet, I still can’t explain why I become ‘weak inside’ when I see them.
The truth is, I’m still that kid with his SUPER TELE.
I think it is an effort to remember when we were young. We were young the day before yesterday. In fact, all three of us, feel that time has run too fast. Yesterday we were children, and, in a moment, we found ourselves grown up with a great job to carry on. Its’ the most beautiful job in the world, what we dreamed and desired, but the truth is that none of us really imagined what would happen.
I remember in detail the years from one to fourteen. Details like how many euros of gasoline I put in my motorbike. That would be 10. Or how much gasoline I consumed each day.
I recall for a few months, during the summer, when I was nine years old, I went to work in my father’s body shop but because I had bad allergies and asthma I was not able to deal with the paints and powders so the decision was made that I would go to work in my uncle Angelo’s (my mother’s brother) mechanic shop which was just in front of my father’s shop. I clearly recall, at half past ten, on time, my uncle gave me two euros and I went to buy a sandwich at the supermarket. The sandwich was ham and provolone. How good was that sandwich!
To Piero, these are things that have remained in his head and will not go away. Piero recalls a morning in 2001 when….
At eight o’clock, as I was getting ready to go to school, a phone call arrived, my grandfather Francesco, my paternal grandfather, died. I was small, but the pain was great because I always had a wonderful relationship with my paternal grandparents. These are the sad things that remain in my head and will not go away.
Piero’s grandmother Graziella was always proud of what Piero’s father had done in life and she is so proud of what her grandchildren do today. In moments of happiness Piero’s thoughts go to his grandfather Ciccio. He recalls his father saying, “What a disappointment that his grandfather did not get to enjoy all the beautiful things that have happened to him.”
What does Piero say about all of this …when you love a person, that good remains inside you, you cannot forget it anymore.
What I’ve done in the last five or six years, I tend to forget. Not because I’m not happy to have done it, contrary, I am, very, happy. It’s to have the life I have and have a dream come true: living with music was all I wanted.
Piero recalls a very sweet memory….
When I was a child, I visited my father’s body shop. The shop was very big and was full of cars and lots of noise. This was my ‘first stage.’ I was not yet four years old, and I was starting to sing. My father lifted me up and placed me on the hood of a car that was jacked up and I immediately began to sing. The people in front of the shop looked out. Slowly one after another, they came out. I remember them, they stood there listening to me, their heads popping out of the door and, I sang and, it was the most natural thing in the world for me!
But what remains in Piero’s heart is what he calls the “campaign” of his grandparents.
How do I explain this campaign? I think ‘Campaign’ and I think ‘family’ a couple that cannot be divided.
Piero compares this campaign to his mother, Elenora, and his father, Gaetano. He sees their marriage as an example of love that he hopes to one day share with someone. Piero says, I want someone with whom I can carry on that love that is so great even in times of difficulty. But he is not naïve about love. He knows that in most families there are obstacles. He recalls, I happened to see some quarrels between my parents and, I did not understand. However, all things worked out and the two returned to be more united than before.
Perhaps the worse moment was when my mother had serious health problems. My parents left me and my brother with my grandparents and my father took my mother to Milan for treatment. They were always united and always facing difficulties together. A ‘campaign!’
My brother and sister and I are three pieces that cannot be divided. The oldest is Francesco he is 17 months older than me. I am very proud of my brother. Francesco graduated cum laude in Literature in 2015. I am very proud that he is working hard for his future. If he wanted to, he could travel the world with me, work with me. But, no, he wants to be known as Francesco Barone and not Piero’s brother and that’s why I respect him so much. I have realized my dream and he wants to make his own.
Piero and Francesco resemble each other and when they were young their mother dressed them as twins. Piero say, I tell you the same: same shoes, same pants, same shirt, we looked like twins. Everyone thought we were twins.
And then there is Mariagrazia. She is six years younger than Piero and he says, I love her endlessly. While she was in high school, she lived at home with her parents. Piero regrets he doesn’t see her very often and he says, I am sorry because I miss her very much.Although the three do not see each other often, Piero says, Francesco and Mariagrazia are my friends, the people I trust and with whom I confess, me.
I am proud to say mine is a real Sicilian family, one of those that on Sundays reunites at the grand house, the grandparent’s house. There are great lunches from the first to the sweets, things so good that you cannot even imagine them. And the saga continues, when summer arrives and, everyone moves to the countryside.
From the time I was one until I was thirteen, I spent every summer at my grandparent’s house. And who was there with me, my grandparents and my great-grandmother Lina (my grandmother’s mother). I swear, they were perhaps the most beautiful days of my life, and I will never forget them.
Piero’s grandfather Pietro, his mother’s father, had made a campaign with his hands. He built it all, the house, the plants, the land, everything.
I could not wait for it to be Saturday morning when we lit the wood burning oven. I went to collect wood around the ground, I helped to light the fire, and I helped to take out the pizza. In addition to pizza, we did ‘u pani impurnatu’, which is bread baked in the oven. How good it was! It kept that good taste all week. The week passed and the next Saturday we started over again. The bread was beautiful, warm and fragrant. We also made the ‘impanate’ which are rolls of pizza dough with vegetables inside, a typical dish of my area. In short, I ate a lot of good things and it was visible. (I was really fat.)
The ‘campaign’ was also the kingdom of my minicross. I always had a passion for motorcycles and cars. And at age six or seven my father gave me a minicross. It is a cross-country minimoto, but without the gears. Why did I tell you that I spent the best time of my life in the country because I was there with my minicross!
I have lived the most beautiful adventures in the garden of the Riolo family?
The neighbors in the countryside were the Riolo family. They were the owners of the villa that was right next to Piero’s grandfather’s house. They were the richest family in the country. They lived in Agrigento and since they only came to the villa once a month, the marvelous orchard that surrounded it was practically abandoned.
What was I doing then? I took the minicross, my grandmother would sit back, and we would get into what we called ‘a stradella pi ‘Riola’, the road of the Riolo. Their gardens were full of very beautiful fruits trees. The Riolo’s knew of the raids. My grandmother, Rina, told them that we went to collect the fruit and they gave her permission to do so. My grandfather had worked for Mr. Riolo for many years and they were family friends. But for me, what was I doing I was going to ‘steal,’ it was a secret.
There were no fences, so you could enter from anywhere. The fact that we entered through the gate in the saddle of the minicross gave me the feeling of really doing something dangerous and secret.
Grandma, where are we going? I said, even before finishing the road.
“Lemon trees” she answered.
Here we go! And off we go to fill the bag of lemons.
Grandma, where are we going now?
Pear trees. And off we go to fill the pear bag.
There were peaches, plums, there were fruits of all kinds.
One day, the Riolo’s came to the countryside with us and they carried a bag of small, round, burgundy fruits. I asked Mr. Riolo, what are these things? I had never seen them before. They tasted very good, very soft, very sweet. They were jujubes.
Where did you get them?I asked.
“There are many trees like this,” Mr. Riolo said. And while Mr. Riolo explained it to me, I already saw myself under the tree picking up the jujubes
But how did we get the bags home? I put a broomstick on the handlebars of my minicross, we hung the bags on both sides and we walked.
Also, on the ground were walnuts and prickly pears. We picked up the prickly pears, and then with my great-grandmother we peeled them, she cleaned them without even putting on her gloves, at the end she scraped away the thorns from her hands with the knife, rinsed herself with water, all right.
In the countryside there were almonds. My aunt Lucia, my grandmother’s sister, had them on her land, and in the second half of August she had a ‘cugliuta di mennule’ (almond harvest). There were always two, three huge bags to be shared for the whole family.
Who peeled those almonds? My great-grandmother. Stone fingers, tac, tac, tac. And after who divided the almonds from the skins? I. So, my grandma tac, tac, tac, and I divided. An assembly line!
This was what happened to us in the countryside. They are images that I will never forget.
So, we leave Piero chopping almonds with his great-grandmother and we go back up “a stradella pi ‘Riola” and wait for Piero to arrive at Ti Lascio Una Canzone.
So that ends Piero’s Story for today.
But before I end the story, I want you to listen to this video. This was a recording session with Placido Domingo!
What I love about this video is the sweetness and sincerity of these young men. Their voices at such a young age were phenomenal! And listen to them speak. Very intelligent – intelligence beyond their years. You feel their voices because they feel their voices in their hearts, and they express that love to us in every song! And now fifteen years later, that love, that feeling they express in songs remains and, in fact, it has become their signature. Amazing young men!
Join me next time as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and open the door to a new adventure!
I want to wish all my Il Volo Family a very Happy and Holy Thanksgiving. Enjoy your family! Enjoy your turkey! And to our guys I wish you could share our wonderful Thanksgiving tradition! Have a happy Day!
You can read the article about Piero from La Repubblica translated by Daniela on the Il Volo Flight Crew website. http://www.ilvoloflightcrw.com
What I have written 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 Piero’s 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).
And let’s not forget the new album. On November 29th the International Edition of “Ad Astra” will be out.
Before I begin, let me say the cover picture on this story is my all-time favorite picture of the guys and believe me over the last four years I’ve gone through thousands upon thousands of pictures. Why this picture? Because this picture tells a story about Fifteen Years of a Lifetime! This picture is worth not a thousand words but ten thousand words.
Look at how proud they are! The smiles, the joy of sharing the stage with one another. When you’ve come this far you have to look to one another and ask how did we get here? How did we, just kids, succeed, and how do we continue the journey? This is a story that has it’s roots in Naro, Bologna and Montepagano. Three young boys came into this world with totally amazing, totally unique voices. They each were one of a kind.
Let’s take a look back a minute to their beginnings….
How did they find their way to the Ariston stage at the same moment in time. La Forza del Destino or the hand of God? It’s all the same, it’s the hand of God. I think God had a plan and He set it in motion, and it all came together one night on the stage of the Ariston theater during the 2009 season of Ti Lascio Una Canzone.
I’ve written about this many times and what I am saying is something that the guys have said many times. Faith, divine intervention brought them together.
For me, I see the day they sang together for the first time as the day their destiny was fulfilled. La Forza del destino (the force of destiny). I call it as I see it! This was God’s plan! His hand was always guiding each of these boys. How else could you explain how they happened to be in the same place at the same time? We’re not just talking about three teenage boys with nice voices, we’re talking about three teenage boys with phenomenal voices. Very unique voices! Truly one-of-a-kind voices! Their voices are like no other voices in the world. Am I saying they are the greatest singers in the world? Yes! They are touched by the hand of God!
It wasn’t just that the voices were extraordinary, no, it was that they complemented one another. It was natural and it was apparent from the very first note that these voices worked well together and that their voices are in tune with one another. The first time they walked out on the stage, their fate was sealed.
So how is this possible? For me there is only one way to explain it! Before the Lord sent these three amazing men to earth, He said what this world needs are three voices that can bring joy to my people. So, He chose three loving couples and sent each one a son who would bring joy to the world through his voice!
Alone each voice is phenomenal. Together they are a symphony! Listen to their voices when they sing. Their voices come from every direction like a symphony orchestra that is forming the music around you!
I talked about their individual voices and discoveries many times. Usually when you talk about someone being discovered it goes something like, “I was standing on a street corner singing when….” No that isn’t what happened here. The reason they are so unique is because they were discovered as children. Very small children! Three, four years old. They really had those intense unmistakable voices very early on. A voice that makes you stop in your tracks and say, “Am I really hearing that voice coming from that child?” They were born with those voices.
Who could imagine that these three young boys who stepped on the stage of Ti Lascio Una Canzone would travel around the world, join renowned singers and immediately become a part of an industry which, in reality, is so hard to break into? Yes, it was La Forza del Destino that led them to America.
After singing with Piero and Ignazio Gianluca said, “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.
What Gianluca realized in that moment was the uniqueness of their voices. So, let’s begin where it all began….
It is the fourth episode of Ti Lascio Una Canzone and the boys are given the music for O Sole Mio but in three parts. They thought it was strange because until then they were singing alone or doing duets.
They walked out on the stage, sang O Sole Mio and it was like they had been performing together for years. Absolutely flawless! Truly the hand of God. And so, it begins! And there is no turning back!
After that performance, things began to happen. Michele Torpedine would come into the picture and every big name including Universal would want to be a part of this great discovery!
Truly amazing things happened….
This video of them recording Tous le visages de l’amour brings us to the early days in the studio. So young but so talented! Listen to those amazing voices! Notes that take your breath away.
Ignazio recalls….
It was the beginning of 2010, our first time overseas. Destination Miami! What charm America! Everything was so different from Italy: the cars were different, the streets, the houses. I felt like I was in another world.
Immediately after Miami we went to Los Angeles. My first word? ‘Wow!’ Which was also what I said when I entered my room in one of the best hotels in the city, the InterContinental of Century City.
We were only three kids accompanied by our parents. We still did not know each other well. At the beginning I immediately started to connect with Piero. Perhaps because he is Sicilian like me and maybe because we always found the opportunity to make jokes and have fun. We especially enjoyed ourselves when we tried to make ourselves understood by people, since we spoke few words of English.
This was the first Photoshoot in LA. A Behind the Scenes treat!
But what were we doing in Los Angeles? We stayed there a week during which we were lucky enough to be part of the We Are the World 25 for Haiti with eighty of the most famous music stars in the world including Celine Dion, Lionel Richie, Santana and many others. After 25 years we all gathered together for We Are the World 25 for Haiti to collect funds for the earthquake victims of January 12th, 2010.
Can you even begin to imagine what it was like for these three teenagers to find themselves in the mist of some of the greatest entertainers in the music industry! I don’t think they even realized how amazing this event was and here they are a part of it! Remarkable, just like them.
In the beginning the idea of being one in three was something that the guys needed to learn about. They had to learn how to sing together. It was no longer this is your song, learn it and sing it. No, now it was, this is your part, your take, your phrase, learn it and sing it. They begin to understand how music and recording actually work. They were starting to learn about being three in the form of one. Sharing! And, if that wasn’t enough, they had to learn something even harder, how to get along with one another.
I’ve told you, in some of my stories, about the problems, the disagreements. This may seem unusual but in reality, it was not. You show me three teenage boys who can be thrown together and immediately like one another and totally agree with one another. No, that would never happen.
Soon things would change, America opened her arms and her heart to Il Volo….
PBS introduced Il Volo to America. You can say Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca grew up on PBS.
From their first concert on October 27, 2011, at the Detroit Opera House, they won the admiration of the American people and stole their hearts. PBS has been with the guys for every important event in their lives.
When they began, they introduced America to a new style of music. Operatic pop! A very different kind of music for teenagers. Their aim was to show young people how good this music is. They won over the children, parents and grandparents. They were an immediate sensation. America fell in love with them.
There’s no question that PBS played a major role in the career of Il Volo in America.
In 2013 the guys chatted with “Spotlight” producer Paul Larson just minutes before going on stage at Place des Arts in Montreal, Quebec. These were the early years. Larsen would come back seven years later to catch up with the guys!
In the beginning it wasn’t always easy for the guys but when they had a goal, they went for it! I keep going back to Ignazio’s words in the video, “This is Radio City! We hope, I hope, everyone hopes to go there to do a big concert for the American people.”
Back Then
What a dream! Who could possibly have thought that three Italian teenagers could have achieved this dream and stepped on to the stage at Radio City Music Hall and brought us all to absolute ecstasy with their voices!
And now!
Most entertainers want to perform at Radio City once in their lifetime! It’s a dream, it’s every entertainer’s dream! Our guys have done it year after year to sold out audiences! And every time is better than the last.
Five years had passed, and it was time to make a big courageous move….
Sanremo!
I’ll let the guys tell you what happened at Sanremo….
Ignazio….
The sixty-fifth edition of the Festival begins Tuesday, February 10th. We sing the second night, Wednesday the 11th. The strange thing is that normally my legs tremble before the performance, but mine trembled even after the performance! Perhaps too much adrenaline, it never happened before.
Piero….
Or maybe it was because we came back to the Ariston stage after going around the world. It was like coming home, because we experienced the beginning of our career here with Ti Lascio UnaCanzone. One thing that cannot be described: in Sanremo, in Italy, to sing and receive the applause of the Italian public. It cannot be explained.
Gianluca….
Can you imagine for me, this was also my birthday: I turned twenty on Ariston’s stage? Of course, I was moved in the end, and it was too much emotion to my sensibility to play bad jokes at times.
And then, we felt the pressure in the air. Even though I was optimistic, the tension was there.
Although we had taken care of the smallest details of the song, we had tried and tried again, and we had taken care of even the smallest details of the clothing. The first evening look more rock: total black with leather jacket.
Because when we do our work, too, the image matters.
Piero….
Count, of course that counts.
At this point the guys get off track reminiscing and Ignazio pulls them back to the story….
Ignazio….
Yes, but what does that have to do with it, Pie? We’re talking about Sanremo.
Ignazio continues….
Sanremo 2015, from 10th to 14th of February, we sang on the second evening, legs shaking, Gianluca’s birthday.
Piero….
And the criticisms we felt in those days? People at home voted for us, appreciated us, and journalists gave us votes that we thought were postponed until September, I also said this at the press conference after the victory. Five that flew (Bad votes given by critics). But we see that the criticisms have done us good.
Ignazio….
Can I do too, a criticism of you?
Piero…
Ah, tell me…
Ignazio
You interrupted me. I was about to tell the final. Can I continue?
In short, the final evening arrives, February 14th. I realize from the shirt that in a week we have eaten more than sung.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, I’m a boy who does not say cat if I do not have it in the bag, then until Carlo Conti said….
Piero….
And indeed, whoever wins does not know it until the end! Sorry, Igna Speak you!!!
Ignazio….
Until Carlo Conti said: ‘The winner of the Sanremo Festival 2015 is … Il Volo!,’ I said to the boys: ‘No, guys, we do not win, it’s difficult.’ And on the one hand I had Piero with shining eyes and on the other Gianluca with a smug smile as if to say: ‘Do not worry.’
Gianluca….
The truth is that I was right from the beginning, and no one has ever listened to me, ever. I believed it so much that, if you notice, maybe I’m the one with the least surprised look when Carlo Conti announces the winner. Then, of those moments, one remembers little, there is great confusion, emotion. It was a dream to be able to shout, ‘Thank you, Italy!’ from that stage. I looked at Sanremo as a child when there was Pippo Baudo, and I was there and won because people were on our side and it was a dream, I repeat even if I have already said.
The emotion was only when my grandfather told me almost in tears: ‘Who would have told me that in life I saw Modugno win at the Festival and then I saw you win.’
In short, Sanremo was just a dream that brought us many different emotions.
These three men proved you have to go after your dreams. This dream was different because it was not a dream that in the end would make them superstars; they already were superstars! Their dream was to follow their hearts and win the hearts of the people of Italy. That was the dream! It was the dream that would make absolutely no difference in their lives except for being close to the people they loved. So, they ran with it and started chasing the Lion until they caught him on February 14, 2015! That night they brought the Lion home along with the hearts of the Italian people.
In 2019 the guys decided to return to Sanremo. Their song Musica che resta ranked third at the Festival!
After ten years….
Just like the rest of the world, the guys had to postpone their concerts, go back to home and wait until there was some control over COVID-19. Their concerts were rescheduled.
As the guys go soaring into their second decade, they meet up again with Paul Larsen.
In the interview the guys said, “Larson invites us back to a simpler time, when “social distancing” was not a common term.”
Larsen’s second interview with Il Volo happened on January 30, 2020, backstage at Place Bell in Laval, Quebec. No one was talking about postponing shows back then. No one was wearing a mask. Larson sat less than six feet apart from the guys and chatted about their 10-year career, and their sixth PBS special, shot in beautiful Matera Italy.
Let’s move forward five years. So much happened over those years but most importantly these teenagers grew into amazing young men and the time came to expand their horizons.
In their first Raiuno live for TV concert in Verona, we noticed that the guys had matured in body and mind and their voices have gone to another level of magnificence!
We watched them grow but this is different. There’s a beautiful presence about them now. A certain elegance! After fifteen years they haven’t waned, they’ve increased in strength and intensity! There is a certain power in their voices that grabs you from the first note of the concert to the last.
Each guy has grown into his voice and is showing a maturity and style the likes of which men who are approaching the end of their careers can only have imagined!
Fifteen years of a lifetime! I use that expression a lot because each year was like a lifetime with them. They never seem to stop. Like in their last Latin American Tour. Not only were there concerts but there were also late-night recording sessions. Thanks to the genius of Ignazio who turned his hotel rooms into a recording studio. And when the tour was over, it still wasn’t over. It’s called bringing your work home. There were still the recordings to deal with. Yes, it’s a lifetime full of wonders. One can hardly imagine what goes on. The tour takes on a life of its own. It’s an experience which most entertainers will never know. Or should I say, “have the honor of knowing.” For our guys, work is honor!
For Il Volo, 2023 was about new beginnings! So now let’s go to where these new beginnings began. The best place to start is the televised concerts at Verona in May. The beautiful Frederica Panicucci who was the presenter of the Il Volo concert had this to say about what would happen that evening. “During the evening Il Volo will show unpublished moments with solos and duets they never performed before. It will be their way of showing their different personalities.”
Yes, Federica was right, that night was different because we’ve heard these voices before but not in the way we heard them that night. The guys introduced us to their personal feelings about their music.
A great example of this is in Ignazio’s words before both concerts:
In the first concert Ignazio said, “I’ve always loved great female voices….”
And in the second concert he said, “I will try to take a trip to the most beautiful female songs in the world tonight.
So, it seems Ignazio still enjoys singing these (female) songs. And why wouldn’t he? He is the only one of the three that can sing that kind of song because they are songs that require a strong voice that is very clear, crisp and very lyrical and a lot of passion must be put into each song! I think I just described Ignazio’s voice! Let me add and, “very soulful!”
Next we met the real Gianluca in his rock mode and he introduced us to his feelings for Elvis, Sinatra, Dylan and the Beatles.
Piero brought us his perfect operatic voice. Whimsical and joyful. He has a great love and sincerity for this music. Opera is in his soul. He opens up that soul to us in these concerts with arias we have never heard him sing before.
During their solos, the other two guys sat on the side stage and listened. In these moments, we see the admiration these men have for one another. Truly amazing!
This was a nice way of presenting each of them.
I remember Piero saying, in his story, that when he did a solo he couldn’t wait for it to end when Ignazio and Gianluca would return. He has to love this new arrangement.
These concerts were different. They showed a beautiful evolution from where the guys were to where they are now. Their new direction! Their future!
This new arrangement is thrilling because there is a lot of feeling in the music. The songs they have sung from the beginning have always had feeling but in a different way.
Here we feel each man’s thoughts, ideas and mindset. In the soul of each man there is a longing to bring you their music unlike you’ve ever heard it before. It is the movement within their souls when they sing. They were restless to release these feelings and make you feel what they feel. They bring a feeling of sheer bliss to each note in each song. Think about expressing your feelings for someone you love. Put that to music and you have each guy’s mindset.
Amid a thousand points of light that sparkled like stars in the night sky, our guys were the brightest stars on the stage. They showed not just their love for one another’s music but their love and appreciation for the music of the other performers.
So where did this go? Individuality!!!
Their new concerts are giving us the opportunity to look into the heart of our guys through their music. It allows us to see them in a deeper and more personal way.
Their idea of “individuality” was not to dissuade you from one or the other. No, in fact, they want you to take a closer look at the other guy. Not to compare but to understand their individuality!
You may have found that some of the music they are singing now you like more than what they were singing or vis versa! It’s called taking a closer look!
Il Volo is magic, and that magic is on the stage, in the concert halls, in Arenas and Amphitheaters, on TV, in videos and CD’s but the true magic of Il Volo is in our hearts!
So it only made sense that in 2024, they would return to Sanremo in a new light in a new direction!
Their video won best video at Sanremo 2024! Their song should have won Sanremo! The song is spectacular! The voices are spectacular! They outperformed every entertainer at Sanremo 2024!
I know they went there with no great expectations. I know they wanted to celebrate fifteen years together on the Ariston stage, but they deserved to win! Some things never change. I know they were happy regardless of the results, as well they should be because they are the ultimate performers. When they are on the stage they give their all. And they have shared Fifteen Years of a Lifetime with all of us and from the bottom of our hearts we thank them!
And let’s not forget, Capolavoro went Gold!
Congratulations guys!
Join me next week as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and open the door to a new adventure!
The guys new Album Ad Astra is out. It’s available on Spotify, Amazon etc.
Let me tell you about the day I fell in Love. Not with one guy but with three. I turned on my TV and there they were three handsome teenagers stepping on the stage at the Detroit Opera House. I had seen them before on American Idol and Good Morning America but, on this day, I would lose my heart to them.
Every note they sang went straight to my heart! Just amazing! Ever song they sang was wonderful but when they sang El Reloj something happened to me! I knew no other group would ever take their place in my life or my heart. They totally reached me with that song! For me I wanted the CLOCK to stop at that moment in time!
Why this song? They sing so many beautiful songs. What was it that captured me that night? It wasn’t so much about the song as it was about the voices. It was how natural the delivery was. Teenagers with such maturity! Such strength in their voices. Voices that flowed through the air! It was the simplicity of this song and how they delivered it that captured me.
Their voices form a symphony. Gianluca’s voice vibrates and expands to realms I’ve never heard before. Ignazio’s voice makes your heart stop as you journey along his notes that lead to absolute ecstasy. Piero’s voice fills all your senses and brings you to such heights that you have to stop and breathe.
If you want to present a voice, in this case three voices, this is the way you do it. They were together for such a short period of time and yet they were perfect! And it went beyond the voices. It was their personalities, their presentation, their interaction with the audience. They were young but they had it all. They won the people with their voices but, they totally captured them with their charm and personality.
PBS introduced Il Volo to America. You can say Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca grew up on PBS. From their first concert on October 27, 2011 at the Detroit Opera House, they won the admiration of the American people and stole their hearts. PBS has been with the guys for every important event in their lives. You might say it is The Marriage of PBS and Il Volo.
When they began, they introduced America to a new style of music. Operatic pop! A very different kind of music for teenagers. Their aim was to show young people how good this music is. They won over the children, parents and grandparents. They were an immediate sensation. America fell in love with them. But where did it all begin for them. Let’s listen to what the guys had to say about how they were discovered.
Piero will take us back to his grandfather, Pietro Ognibene’s, back yard where he is swinging on a swing that hung from a mulberry tree. His grandfather was sitting on the veranda, as he usually did, at this time of day. His grandfather has been blind for many years and so he always had a tape recorder with him which he used to record music and poetry. Piero’s grandfather is also a singer. On this day he was recording a little Sicilian song which Piero said his grandfather wrote. So, let’s listen to what Piero had to say…
I was swinging on the swing, I was about four or five years old, I was really, very small. I listened to him a little and at a certain point, when he stopped singing, I started: E lu suli, talia, talia, talia. Sopra ‘sta pedra luci ci duna. What can I tell you? It just came out like that.
His grandfather turned off the recorder and called his wife. Rina came out on the terrace and he asked her, “Unni è Piero?” (Where is Piero?)
She replied, “In Altalena” (He is on the swing)
Pietro asked, “Ma cu cantava? Iddu?” (But who was singing? He?)
She replied, “Eh, si.” (yes)
He told Rina to call him.
So, Piero got up and went to his grandfather. Pietro lifted him up and put him on the table next to the recorder and told him to “sing the song again.” Piero sang the song exactly as his grandfather sang it. And so it begins….
Ignazio’s discovery would come about because of Nina’s pianola.
Ignazio remembers, When I was three or four years old – I played with the piano my parents had given my sister, Nina. My mother says I was one years old when I played. Nina taught me to play Happy Birthday with one finger.
Nina’s famous pianola gave Ignazio a passion for music.
Ignazio continues,I do not remember the first day of school, but I certainly did not take long to get noticed. If you’re thinking of scenes of me being put in the middle of the class to sing, forget it. I had a passion for music but, I had an even greater passion for pranks. I tell you, since I started talking and walking, mine was an escalation of agitation.
But as Ignazio explains, this agitation passed and the most important event in his life began to take shape…
With the passage of time, I found something good to do at school, that is, an activity that was able to hold my interest enough to prevent me from slipping into some disaster. I joined the school choir. I always liked to sing, to be ‘in the middle’ of the music. And more and more passionately I began to understand how to make better use of Nina’s famous pianola. I learned how to start the musical bases and flip through them. And that’s when I discovered La Donna È Mobile. I liked it so much that I sang with the base and invented words. I don’t remember the words but, it certainly was a song about Pavarotti. Having seen Pavarotti on TV, I knew he always had a big handkerchief so I would invent text and sing on the air La Donna È Mobile.
It seems at three years old Ignazio was already composing wonderful music!
As we all know eventually, Piero and Ignazio performed La Donna È Mobile.
Gianluca tells us that his life was different from Ignazio but, in many ways like Piero’s.
My life as a child seems so far away. I remember very little of my childhood! I’m not like Ignazio I was born and raised in Montepagano. I was traveling only with dreams. What made me dream? Music naturally. Dad and mom realized that I had something special in my voice when I started to sing at the age of three or four years.
My parents tell me when I was three years old, I sang ’O Sole Mio’ in the town square in front of all the elderly gentlemen friends of my grandfather who, sitting around the bar table, were listening to this little boy with such a particular voice.
Each boy has now been set on the road to PBS so where did they go from here?
Over the years, each boy approached his musical education in a different way.
After his discovery in the garden, Piero embarked on a classical music education. He began piano lessons at the age of 8. At 10 years old he joined the Little Singers of the Philharmonic Association – Santa Cecilia of Agrigento. And then he began the competitions around Sicily.
In Marsala, Ignazio sang with his first singing teacher Lilliana Andreanò. He continued his singing lessons moving on to other teachers as he progressed. He took three years of piano lessons. He also participated in competitions around Sicily. Even after moving on to other teachers, Ignazio continued his relationship with Lilliana Andreanò. She advised him every step of the way right up to his audition at Ti Lascio Una Canzone which she convinced him to do.
Gianluca, unlike Piero and Ignazio, never had a singing lesson or piano lesson. He joined the Piccolo Choir of Roses. At one of their events, he was discovered.
As you know they all won on Ti Lascio una Canzone. But their biggest win was becoming Il Volo.
After American Idol, they did many shows but the one show that really set them “in flight” in America, was the PBS special “Il Volo Takes Flight.”
Their concert was shown on PBS stations across the US and Canada.
There’s no question that PBS played a major role in the career of Il Volo in America.
Most recently, in their first Raiuno live for TV concert in Verona, we noticed that the guys had matured in body and mind and their voices have gone to another level of magnificence!
We watched them grow but this is different. There’s a beautiful presence about them now. A certain elegance! After fifteen years they haven’t waned, they’ve increased in strength and intensity! There is a certain power in their voices that grabs you from the first note of the concert to the last.
Each guy has grown into his voice and is showing a maturity and style the likes of which men who are approaching the end of their careers can only have imagined! Fifteen years of a lifetime! I use that expression a lot because each year is like a lifetime with them. They never seem to stop. Like in their last Latin American Tour. Not only were there concerts but there were also late-night recording sessions. Thanks to the genius of Ignazio who turned his hotel rooms into recording studios. And when the tour was over, it still wasn’t over. It’s called bringing your work home. There were still the recordings to deal with. Yes, it’s a lifetime full of wonders. One can hardly imagine what goes on. The tour takes on a life of its own. It’s an experience which most entertainers will never know. Or should I say “have the honor of knowing.” For our guys, work is honor!
I’ve worked in this industry, and I’ve seen young people achieve fame and throw it all away on foolishness! Many have achieved fame but what they do with it makes the difference. These men have shared the fruits of their fame. They didn’t take their fame and run with, they cherished it and used it to help others. They could have gone home to their families until the next tour but no they shared their good fortune. This is what makes them so great. This is what makes them incredible. For this reason, these entertainers are loved by their fans in the most incredible way!
Over the last year I have met with many fans at the various concerts I attended. I asked the fans what it is that they love about the guys on a more personal level. Many said their openness and generosity with the fans. They consider them like family. Some said they are the son they never had or the grandson they admire. Much like the fans who write to me each week. There is a beauty about the relationship between the fans and Il Volo. Il Volo is family!
The fans were the ones who got them through it all when they were young, and they never forget to say thank you! They attribute their fame not to their talent but to the fans who come back time after time, year after year to be with them. No, the fans are not followers in a sense that most fans are! No, they are family that always want to be there for their boys!
It wasn’t always easy for the guys but when they had a goal, they went for it! I remember Ignazio saying in a video when they first came to New York. “This is Radio City! We hope, I hope, everyone hopes to go there to do a big concert for the American people.”
What a dream! Who could possibly have thought that three Italian teenagers could have achieved this dream and stepped on to the stage at Radio City Music Hall and brought us all to absolute ecstasy with their voices!
Most entertainers want to perform at Radio City once in their lifetime! It’s a dream, it’s every entertainer’s dream! Our guys have done it year after year to sold out audiences! And every time is better than the last.
But now I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me just say, all that followed in America was possible because of their concert on PBS. The Marriage of PBS and Il Volo was a marriage made in heaven.
Now let me turn my attention to a member of the Il Volo family who we are really missing today.
Vito Boschetto
Three years ago we all heard the news about the sudden passing of Ignazio’s father, Vito Boschetto. Each of us stopped to think about Ignazio and, how he must be feeling. There were no words we could expressed to comfort the family. We just kept them all in our hearts and in our prayers!
Over the years, as we watched Ignazio grow into a fine young man, we grew to understand that it was his parents’ guidance that made him who he is. They are a very proud family. Hard working people. This is a trait we see in Ignazio.
They gave Ignazio such exceptional values that it only made sense he would become the good, kind and compassionate person he is.
When Ignazio speaks about his family he speaks with a passion. The deep bond this family has is exceptional. Even as a very young child Ignazio said his family shared everything. No matter what happened it was discussed with the whole family. Ignazio has said that he admires his parents for their openness with him and Nina.
I write about Ignazio so often that I feel a special closeness to him and, today my heart aches for him. But Ignazio said something recently that touched my heart and the hearts of others. He said his mother told him, “Amore non finisce mai!” (Love never ends!) And this is true. Even when we are separated from the one’s we love that love doesn’t go away. It stays with you forever. It remains in our hearts.
In the past, Ignazio has said about his parents. Is it the same if the images that I will never forget are …. the memories of my parents? It’s not that I’m crazy or strange, it’s right that my story would never have existed without my parents …. Of sacrifices they have made many and, big for me and for my sister but, more so for me. I do not spend days when I do not think about how proud I am of them. He said this when his father was still with them.
Vito Boschetto was a man who worked very hard for his family. He was a mason, a brick layer. He worked at this job right up to the last days of his life.
Vito we all miss you at the concerts and by Ignazio’s side. There is a big void but the love lives on because amore non finisce mai. Our hearts are with your family today!
For your Listening pleasure, I leave you with the PBS/Rai concert in Verona.
Join me next week as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and bring to you the next exciting adventure of Il Volo.
Capolavoro is available on all digital platforms including Spotify and Amazon Music
Who Wants to Live Forever is available on all digital platforms including Spotify and Amazon Music
If you would like to share a story with me, please email: susan.flightcrew@yahoo.com
There is less and less time left until Sanremo and every day new interviews and videos are published.
Today I propose this interview to you in the GRAZIA newspaper.
Pay attention to Ignazio’s words. ❤️
LOVE PUSHES US FORWARD
After the victory in 2015, the three singers of Il Volo return to the Festival with the song CAPOLAVORO, which talks about the feeling that changed their lives.
When I meet the three guys from Il Volo, I can’t help but notice all their differences. In their way of telling themselves, of understanding music and the world. But at the same time I feel a unique, consolidated, respectful entity.
Fifteen years after their debut, Gianluca Ginoble, Piero Barone, and Ignazio Boschetto felt the need to focus on themselves. They did this by preparing an album that for the first time will be composed entirely of unreleased songs and in which they promise a new story that they will take on a world tour.
WHAT TIME IS THIS?
GIANLUCA= We realized that we have based our career in the past, on the strong roots of our culture that we have brought around the world. For the first time, however, we now feel connected to the present, with an eye towards the future.
YOU WILL BE COMPETING IN SANREMO WITH CAPOLAVORO. HOW WOULD YOU TELL IT?
IGNAZIO= We understood that this was the perfect song for Sanremo. Talk about love. When you are in a relationship, you stop and say: “This story is a Capolavoro”, I’m getting married next year and for me the masterpiece is exactly what I’m experiencing.
PIERO= It makes me think of that very strong feeling that grows inside you without you knowing it. When you realize you have it you need to externalize it.
GIANLUCA= For me, love is like jumping off Niagara Falls without a life jacket. You know that you rely on a person with the risk of experiencing incredible pain.
HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT OF BREAKING UP YOUR TRIO?
PIERO= Never. We have lived intense years, without ever stopping. There wasn’t time to even think about it.
BUT IT IS NOT OBTAINED.
PIERO= Yes, but there was a lot of effort. Today others only talk about immediate success achieved with the least amount of effort. It’s wrong.
GIANLUCA PARTICIPATED ON BEHALF OF THE TRIO IN THE EVENING OF GRACE FOR THE DAY AGAINST VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. IT’S AN EMERGENCY?
GIANLUCA= For many men it is difficult to admit that they have weaknesses, there is a virility that is so flaunted and which can lead to violence.
PIERO= Each of us should make our contribution, even in small things, not laughing at squalid jokes and perhaps pointing out to our best friend that he is making a mistake in using certain words.
There was the long-awaited Radio Italia interview (I don’t like Gianluca’s trousers at all, my opinion) 🤪
WOMAN= Let me dream right away. Where have you been lately around the world? You are always around, I watch the stories, I would like to do all the trips you do. Where have you been?
GIANLUCA= We’ve been around, we’ve had the opportunity to tour, travel, but returning to Sanremo is always an emotion, because we were born here artistically.
WOMAN= It’s true, this is what I wanted to tell you, what it’s like to return, after all these trips around the world, to such an important stage for Italy and not only and above all for you who this stage has given you so much.
IGNAZIO= We have realized that we are coming to celebrate our anniversaries, it will be 15 years, we celebrate 15 years this year and it is not easy, it is not easy to be together for 15 years (Piero and Gianluca protest), let me finish, it is not easy to stay together for 15 years always with the same enthusiasm.
GIANLUCA = (to Piero). See, you don’t have to interrupt him.
PIERO= (to the person filming) Can you cut this piece?? (laughs) 😂Is not easy.
WOMAN= So what is it that keeps you tied to this enthusiasm?
PIERO= Enthusiasm keeps us bonded, the desire that unites us to always do new things, never lose that passion for the profession we carry out, we consider ourselves three privileged individuals, because we do what we love, we do it every day, so we don’t there is something more beautiful.
WOMAN= And so we return to Sanremo, the piece is called MASTERPIECE, tell me a little about it, a little spoiler.
GIANLUCA= A small spoiler that can be done….more than anything it explains the feeling that is love, but told in a profound way, because sometimes you realize that you love, only when you look back, and sometimes you realize how special this person is, like how did I do without this person before I met them. Sometimes it’s as if it suddenly falls from the sky, but it can be love for a child, love in general, universal love, how important this feeling really is that moves the world.
PIERO= For us who sing it, each of us sings it in a different way, feels it in a different way, for me CAPOLAVORO speaks in a romantic way about hope, because maybe when you don’t find it in yourself, in the most difficult moments you hope for something outside of yourself.
WOMAN= So you hope something comes…..how you turn it is a nice message.
GIANLUCA= Yes, there are people who can really change your life. Growing up, doing introspection on yourself is important, to be able to understand, to recognize love as a feeling, then there are people who can enrich your life and make it better.
PIERO= It can be dedicated to someone, something, that feeling that literally changed your life, not just people.
WOMAN = Even a little awareness when you feel certain things. Guys, we were immediately a bit philosophical, but the piece requires it, because it actually has a beautiful message. I thank you, see you in Sanremo.
IGNAZIO= Thank you very much.
PIERO= Remember……it’s not easy.
WOMAN= With this enthusiasm, it’s not easy.
IGNAZIO= However you’ve seen, nothing has changed, they won’t let me talk. 😂😂😂
And then there is this which is not an interview, but a long reflection that makes you think a lot, a long tirade made by Luca Maggitti to the administration of the municipality of Montepagano and Roseto degli Abruzzi, read it and try to understand that it’s very ironic. I really liked it, well written Luca Maggitti, sometimes you need these “little digs”.
I remind you that Luca Maggitti is a journalist who lives in Abruzzo and who met Gianluca who was walking with his grandfather and they drank a coffee.
I bring you an old photo of Luca Maggitti and Gianluca.
Gianluca Ginoble – Il Volo THE AMBASSADOR OF ROSETO AND ABRUZZO IN THE WORLD RETURNS TO THE SANREMO FESTIVAL
In short: there is no two without three.
Gianluca Ginoble – from the ancient village of Montepagano in Roseto – will return to the stage of the most important Italian event in terms of occupying television, social media and any other space. Tens of millions of people in Italy will talk about the event (Sanremo Festival) and billions around the world will in some way be involved in the various references to the event.
Every time such a media circus takes place (all the media attention for Sanremo) I think of Gianluca sitting drinking a coffee in Roseto, speaking kindly to anyone who comes to say hello. And I have the image of a Ferrari left in the garage, for some souped-up Vespone to race in competitions where class and speed are needed. (Maggitti compares the kind and polite Gianluca to a beautiful world-class car, a Ferrari that is left in the garage, to race a Vespa, a famous Italian motorbike, remember the film Roman Holidays?)
Yes, because I ask myself: is it possible that Gianluca goes to Sanremo and no one in the Municipality (of Roseto) or Region (of Abruzzo) calls him – eight days before the start of the event – to congratulate him, incite him, encourage him?
Let’s be clear, we talk about politics and government at various levels and I certainly don’t expect the administrators to call him because they truly love the artist or his genre or appreciate this exemplary boy for education and culture, who has remained very polite despite a global success that we even have hard to imagine.
(Maggitti is really scolding the municipal administrators here, because Gianluca should be called not only because he is a great artist, but also because he is an exemplary boy in terms of education and culture, despite his great success)
I don’t expect this. Furthermore, I am biased because I have always respected him.
No, I want to be cynical and wretched to the core!
(Maggitti means that if they had been cynical, the administrators would have had to call Gianluca for at least other reasons, which he will now list)
If I were a public administrator – at various levels in Abruzzo, since Gianluca was appointed, years ago, ambassador of both Abruzzo and Roseto degli Abruzzi in the world – I would call him because Gianluca creates media hype. Because its social profiles generate more interactions than all those of the various municipalities, provinces and regions combined. Not to mention the Volo one.
I see Gianluca who for almost 15 years – in a few months it will be 15 – has spoken well (more: he speaks with love) about Roseto degli Abruzzi and Abruzzo, truly helping these territories to be known.
On the other hand, I don’t see equal interest on the part of those who govern, especially the tourist-cultural part of the territory. And I ask myself: why?
What is the point of this masochism?
A final reflection, remaining in Roseto, in the limited area of via Latini. And talking about tourism and – more generally – territorial promotion.
The part of via Latini that goes towards the sea, the one after via Nazionale, has a system of decorative lights at the top with the words of the famous “Nel blu painted di blu” (Volare) by Domenico Modugno. Good, great.
(He intends to remember that in the town of Roseto some lights have been installed with the words of Volare)
But, I wonder: we have Gianluca Ginoble who won the Sanremo festival at 10 years old, at his first participation, he chose to live in Montepagano di Roseto, where his roots are, he always speaks well of his birthplace and the territory, he is always available when it comes to visiting associations that work for the good of the area… and don’t we put “Grande Amore”?
Is it possible that it is so incredibly difficult to insert the words of “Grande Amore” on the “rambla” of Roseto degli Abruzzi (via Latini, in the part that goes towards the hill), perhaps by having him turn on the lights for the first time and have him sing alone and live a cappella the song?
Is it so difficult to respect an international pop star who lives where she was born and who has the only flaw of not being haughty? Not for him, I repeat.
He (Gianluca) now travels from Rai 1 upwards, from Canale 5 upwards, from Corriere della Sera upwards. (Maggitti means to say that the most important programs talk about Gianluca and Il Volo)
For us, for our struggling territory, for tourism with less than 100,000 visitors in two years… for the fact that no one queues there and that the very expensive VisitRoseto.it gets as many likes or visits as a site set up by a elementary school, to teach children to use the web.
Is it possible that we prefer to keep the Ferrari in the garage and go for challenges with the souped-up Vespone? But what’s the point?
Mayor Mario Nugnes, do you remember when I brought Gianluca Ginoble to the Oratory of the Campo dei Preti at the request of my friend Father Antonio Ghidoni, who wanted to meet him and who defined “Grande Amore” as a prayer, and in the homily invited the faithful to vote Il Volo?
Mayor, do you remember? You had frizzy hair and were tutoring in the afternoon, and Gianluca came to hug you (him, you!), telling me that you had been his afternoon teacher when he attended the Oratory?
If you don’t remember, I’ll put the photo from that day here.
Mayor, can we ask Ferrari for the favor of lending a hand to this little village, which is slipping more and more towards numerical inconsistency and which desperately needs a great recovery plan?
I don’t know if Gianluca Ginoble – who is preparing for yet another world tour on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of Il Volo – has time, but I know for sure that a photo of him, a reel or a thought is worth the sum of all the sites’ efforts, little sites, pages and little pages of our parts.
And if I say this it is because I myself have found my articles about him translated into English, Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese and more, on the web. And I am a poor journalist who would never otherwise have been translated! 😂
I, for the umpteenth time, put these reflections into it. You rulers – at any level – will do what you believe. I only hope that you are illuminated by the beacon of the common good and real progress in your daily work.
Whatever the case, my best wishes to Gianluca Ginoble and Il Volo, remembering the emotions of the 2015 victory, when he turned 20 exactly on the day of his debut as a competitor at the Festival.
Dàje sìmbre fùrte, Gianlù! (Abruzzo expression to say: “Come on, always strong, Gianlù “)
(Another old photo of Luca Maggitti with Gianluca)
Who knows if it was because of the article published by Luca Maggitti that the municipal administration of Roseto woke up??
We want to think that it wasn’t the article, but today, Friday 2 February, there will be an award for our Gianluca in Roseto. 🎉🎉🎉
This is the motivation.
On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the birth of ‘Il Volo’ and in view of its participation in the 74th edition of the Festival of Sanremo, the Municipal Administration of Roseto degli Abruzzi organized a ceremony to pay homage to the Rosetano singer Gianluca Ginoble who was a guest in the Council Room, at 11 am on Friday 2 February. In 2015, Gianluca Ginoble was awarded the title of ‘Ambassador to the World of the City of Roseto degli Abruzzi’ and the other two members of the ‘Il Volo’ trio, Piero Barone and Ignazio Boschetto, were awarded the honorary citizenship of Roseto degli Abruzzi.
The ceremony, conducted by Francesca Martinelli, represented a moment to make the entire Rosetan community feel the affection towards Gianluca Ginoble, to relive his great career with him and to pay homage to him with a gift created for the occasion.
And here is the video of the awards ceremony.
The mayor expresses words of esteem and good wishes and Gianluca thanks everyone and tells little things about life in his town and the emotion he always has when he talks about his city which he will always carry in his heart. ❤️
And another video by a journalist, Luca Maggitti Di Tecco, from Il Messaggero who was at the event.
The administration gives Gianluca a jewel representing a Presentosa Rose and asks him to wear it also on the evening of the festival and Gianluca wears it immediately. Then Gianluca thanks and also wants to remember his brother Ernesto who collaborated with the team. 🥰
Then there was a really nice video by Antonella Clerici (she presented TI LASCIO UNA CANZONE) who wished Il Volo her “good luck”. ❤️
The guys from Il Volo are extraordinary, I met them in the first edition of TI LASCIO UNA CANZONE and they were put together, that is, they introduced themselves alone, Ignazio and Piero are Sicilian, while Gianluca is from Abruzzo. Since they were three “lyricists” even if with different voice tones, we formed this trio and it won all the episodes, it was really very, very strong. So it was clear that they had great talent, then it was Tony Renis who first brought them to the United States, then their manager Michele Torpedine understood their potential and first they had great luck in the United States, and then also in Italy.
I remember when they showed up at their first Sanremo festival with GRANDE AMORE, which was hosted by my friend Carlo Conti, I told him: “Carlo get ready because they will win the Sanremo Festival, I’m sure of it”, because in the televoting they were too much, too strong and also very good, then they were three young guys, people liked them, I knew their potential and in fact it was like that .
And now I wish them a big “good luck” for the next Sanremo festival.
As I have already told you, many newspapers of all kinds are talking about Il Volo.
This is a Gossip magazine, it talks about Il Volo’s girlfriends. I assure you that some are not reliable news, so I don’t waste time translating them.
Even the RAI news programs talk about Sanremo and therefore also about Il Volo.
WOMAN= Sanremo Festival, on the Ariston stage, among the competing artists Il Volo, with the song CAPOLAVORO, and on the cover evening, the homage to Queen. (a video starts)
MAN= Grown up, born on the Ariston stage at TI LASCIO UNA CANZONE, in the end you know Sanremo well.
PIERO= In 2009 we met at the Ariston, then we left and returned in 2015 with GRANDE AMORE, now, after 15 years, we are returning to celebrate this great achievement, which is both professional and personal.
MAN= Who knows what Ignazio was up to at 14 years old in the back stage of the theater.
IGNAZIO= But because I, sorry…..we combined all three. It was a way to grow quickly, because in the end we grew quickly.
MAN= CAPOLAVORO in Sanremo, isn’t it a bit risky to say it right away?
GIANLUCA= In fact we wanted to title it CAPOLAVORO in brackets perhaps…..
PIERO= Let’s hope….
GIANLUCA= Let’s hope. Obviously it’s not about us…
MAN= Queen for duet, this year.
PIERO= It will be a great moment to be able to share the stage with Steff Burns and we would like to thank Vasco Rossi (well-known Italian rock singer) for lending us his guitarist, thank you Vasco!
.……..and this is Vasco Rossi’s response!
Happy to lend my guitarist STEF BURNS to Il Volo in Sanremo…..on the cover evening….he will perform a Queen solo, WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER, I’m proud of him.
This interview on Radio Subasio is also very beautiful. Since at the beginning the questions are the same ones that are repeated several times, I start translating about halfway through the video.😉
RADIO SUBASIO
WOMAN=……do you sometimes argue too? Who is the most rebellious of the three? (Piero marks Ignazio with his hand)
WOMAN= Ignazio?
GIANLUCA= Every now and then it explodes, yes yes. But we have three completely different characters, but thank goodness it’s like this, because if we were the same, that creative spark wouldn’t strike, so everyone brings their own ideas, there are often contrasts but in the end we always manage to find the solution and the best for the group, well, this is important.
WOMAN= Of course, of course. But then in recent years a few things have changed in your life, we used to talk off the air, there are those who have coupled up (Ignazio), those who have exploded (Gianluca), what is the situation like, those who are single among you, do we want to say it?
PIERO= We have always tried to respect our private life and I believe it is also our duty, because we often say that we live two parallel lives, the professional life which takes up ten months of our life every year and our personal life, and we also want this to be the case. keep it.
WOMAN = It seems very right to me….
GIANLUCA= But anyway Ignazio is getting married!!
WOMAN= When Ignazio, when the happy event?
IGNAZIO = Next year.
WOMAN= So next year. Guys I wanted to tell you something else, in recent days we spoke with LA SAD (a punk group with colored hair that will be in Sanremo) and I asked them which artist (from Sanremo) they felt most in tune with and they told us Il Volo.
I even considered a collaboration with them and they said yes, absolutely.
How about? How do you respond to this proposal?
IGNAZIO= Well, they are young guys who…..
GIANLUCA= Young people, they are older than you Ignazio….(it’s true the members of La SAD are older than them)
IGNAZIO= Yes, but they are young kids in the sense of sending the message (Ignazio means that they are listened to more by young kids)
WOMAN= But can something be done?
GIANLUCA= It would be interesting, we recently met in Sanremo during rehearsals, a relationship of great respect was born, because everyone expresses their emotions in their art and it’s nice to see these differences. Everyone has space to demonstrate what they really are and we are all different, there is no right or wrong, better or worse, this is the beauty of music, so it will be wonderful to see these contrasts between Il Volo and La Sad, certainly in Sanremo .
WOMAN= Of course I agree, that’s why we’re very intrigued by this idea, this image of a collaboration between the two of you, have you ever seen it? I want to play a little game with you, to test your memory, if you agree.
PIERO= This worries me. 😁
WOMAN= Remembering the festival of a few years ago, for example Sanremo 2000, concentrate, Sanremo 2000…
PIERO= I was 7 years old….
WOMAN= You remember who won, even from hearsay, I will help you anyway because I give you three options…
IGNAZIO= Jo di Tonno (Italian singer).…
GIANLUCA= No, it was 2006…
WOMAN= I’ll give you the three options…
GIANLUCA = (to Ignazio) Jo di Tonno and I are the only people from Abruzzo to have won the Sanremo festival…
WOMAN= Oh yes, you see it!
PIERO= Do you know that I am the only Sicilian to have won the Sanremo festival?
GIANLUCA= Oh no, boy, he (Ignazio) is Sicilian…
PIERO= He’s from Bologna!
WOMAN= Guys three options for the 2000 festival, be careful: Gigi D’Alessio, Ivana Spagna or Piccola Orchestra Avion Travel? (All Italian singers)
GIANLUCA= Ah yes, “Sentimento” (it is the title of the song by the Piccola Orchestra Avion Travel)
WOMAN= Well done, great Gianluca, see what a memory! Instead, who was presenting the festival? Do you remember it? Who was there in 2000?
GIANLUCA= Fazio (an Italian presenter)
WOMAN= Good, you didn’t even need the help. Oh Gianluca, damn what a memory, well done, congratulations, you haven’t won anything, but thanks for being with us guys.
Good luck for the Sanremo Festival, we’ll meet again to hear about the fresh emotions we just experienced on the Ariston stage.
Thanks Ignazio, thanks Piero, thanks Gianluca.
Il Volo on the Sanremo 2024 stage, bye guys, thanks!
And to the happiness of many fans, this year’s summer concerts have been announced, all in Italy, here they are!! 🥳🥳🎉
But now the most beautiful interview, made by Gianluca Gazzoli for BSMT. There is the automatic translation and I urge you to activate it, because it is truly a beautiful interview, different from the usual ones, and to which our boys responded with sincerity and maturity and also with a lot of spirit.
To turn on captions click the gear button in the lower right corner of the video, then Subtitles. Then choose English from the list that appears.
The comments under this interview suggest that some people, seeing it, have changed their minds about how Il Volo has always been perceived (thanks to the Italian press)
Don’t miss this interview!!!
From school desks to the most prestigious stages in the world. Three boys who, at just 15 years old, have fascinated and conquered everyone with their extraordinary talent. Well yes, Il Volo passed through the BSMT.
An extraordinary career, started as teenagers and built with sacrifice, commitment and a lot of ambition. Ignazio, Gianluca and Piero told us how their lives changed suddenly, transforming them from simple fifteen-year-olds to world stars. Successes, family, friendship, recognition, surreal anecdotes, changes and much more. A chat in which their three very distinct personalities emerged and in which they indulged in confidences like never before.
FROM A WHOLE DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE! IL VOLO passes through the BSMT
Certainly Caterina Boschetto’s words, at the beginning of the interview, contained a lot of truth.
“Know that if I sign your life will change, know that the responsibilities will become more, know that you can play but not like before, know that many things will change.”
I warned you that the media exposure of Sanremo is notable, and what I have reported to you are the best interviews of these days, but at every moment there is something new.
As I promised last week, while I am researching, I will post old stories. This is the first of those stories!
This story if from 2021! Enjoy!
This has been an amazing week. How often over the last year have we said we missed the guys. Well they sure made up for it this week. One spectacular event after another.
So let’s start in the beautiful region of Apulia, Italy.
“La Notte della Taranta”, is one of the largest Festivals in Italy and one of the most significant manifestations of popular culture in Europe. The final concert of La Notte della Taranta, has had as many as one hundred and fifty thousand spectators in the past. It takes place in Salento, in the municipality of Melpignano, at the esplanade of the former Augustinian Convent specifically for the rediscovery and the enhancement of traditional Salento music. It is not limited to traditional music. It also allows for rock, jazz and symphonic music. This year’s host was Albano.
Listen to the voices of our guys coming alive backstage! It’s a calling! “Who sells olives.”
Meanwhile Albano awaits their arrival on stage. He tells us about the song. It is from the region of Apulia, the region where he was born. He says, “It reminds me of the autumn song. It is the November song.”
November is the time of the olive harvest and a man would always pass with a cart of olives to sell to the people. Albano and Ignazio sing a phrase in the Apulian dialect (“Who has olives, I have to buy them.”) Albano said when Modugno sang in the Apulian dialect he was very proud of him. Ignazio said, “So let’s hope, with this next song we will sing, to make you even more proud of your land.”
Albano tells the guys, “You know that I am proud to have you here beside me…”
Gianluca responded, “and we are happy ….”
Albano (continues) “…simply because I baptized these two..”
Albano is referring to Ignazio and Piero who he performed with on Ti Lascio Una Canzone. I remember those performances and that Albano was in awe of both of them. Then Albano continues about Gianluca who he didn’t perform with at Ti Lascio una Canzone.
Albano says, “And to you, (Gianluca) you I baptize this evening.”
Gianluca responds, “One day, sooner or later, we will sing together. But it is nice, I can say, that these events make it possible to spread a musical culture like this of the Taranta, and it is right that young people are attached to the roots of these great events. We must not lose this desire to carry on traditions, we too, as young people, are proud to be here tonight.”
Ignazio elaborates on this thought in one of their interviews…
“It is certainly one of the most important cultural events in Italy, and welcome, because I always say that Italy is a nation full of different cultures and traditions and certainly these events give space to make known their own traditions and culture, and therefore we are honored to be part of it, alongside Albano, an Apulian DOC, who has never forgotten his origins and there is also Madame (she is a singer) who is a young woman, like us. Hence the importance of carrying the roots, ALWAYS, in any situation, in any place.”
When the music begins our guys sing the National Anthem of the region in Griko which is a mixture of Italian and Greek. Another language to add to their list!
Griko is unique to this region but there are other regions, in Italy, that speak languages other than Italian. In many Arberesh villages where the people are Italian, Albanian and Greek they have their own languages. My grandfathers’ town Vaccarizzo Albanese is an Aberesh town and they have retained the archaic features of both Gheg and Tosk dialects. Many of the words they spoke at the festival, I understood. It was a beautiful experience for me.
The guys performance was magnificent. From the first larilò larilò lallero to the last, the whole stage was alive with their voices and a rhythm and beat that I can’t get out of mind! You could see how much the guys were enjoying it. Their interpretation of this beautiful song was awesome! Festivals are at the heart of the Italian people. They love them! This song is so full of joy and happiness.
The dancers were wonderful! Through the dance, they told the story of the people, of their labors and, their joys. The hardship of life and the happiness of home and family! Their singing and the dancing was very uplifting. And the guys’ interaction with the dancers and musicians on stage brought the whole story together. They brought the audience into the song and together they presented the history and culture of the people. This was very unique and the guys helped us to see another culture within their Italian culture. A magnificent delivery of the beautiful Anthem of the Griko people! Truly an amazing event!
Next stop Venezia! Talk about an exciting event!
Where do I begin…
In the afternoon the guys attended the award presentations where they were presented as winners of the 78th Film Italy Movie Awards. Upon exiting the building, they were interviewed by an unknown man…
Man: This is not Sanremo, this is the cinema exhibition!
Piero: But it seems a little like Sanremo, we meet, all familiar faces.
Gianluca: We are preparing a very ambitious recording project which is a tribute to maestro Ennio Morricone. We had the opportunity to collaborate with Vittorio Storaro in a music video, so we are here in the company of a great master of cinema, Vittorio Storaro.
Ignazio: He chose our voices for a tribute of the video of “Your Love,” which is shot in the Frasassi Caves, and therefore it is beautiful, this is not the first time we come here. It is always a beautiful atmosphere. Venice is a place that is stupendous.
Later in the day, the guys appeared in their transport to Lido. What do we see here? We see three elegant young men who are on the brink of a new direction in their lives. Not leaving all that they are and all they always will be, we know they will never leave the concert stage, but taking the next step on their road to greatness!
What we’ve been watching these last few months, every time we see the video of the Frasassi Caves, is the guys embarkation on a new and wonderful experience in their lives. They are the stars of this Short Film. They are what makes this film possible. Vittorio Storaro’s genius and the presence and voice of Il Volo have made this movie an award winning production.
To help you understand this better let me tell you what Storaro had to say about this…
The idea actually comes from what we have been through all this last year, the disgrace that has happened to us from the pandemic, which has closed all the arts a little.
But then there was an idea which came from Pirandello, who said: One, Nobody, One Hundred Thousand (the title of a Pirandello novel), and in this case becomes a Once Upon a Time, as the project of Il Volo and the music of Ennio Morricone, start from Once Upon a Time in the West, directed by a great director, Sergio Leone, with the music of Morricone, the subject of Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento, so there is a whole series of characters that carry some new message.
A message that also becomes a hope, not only in the present, but also in the future, because if before, once upon a time there was Nobody, where art enters, in this case Music and Singing, which is represented by Il Volo, the song with the music of Ennio Morricone “Your Love,” brings a new energy, energy that practically becomes: Once upon a time there was no one, and now Il Volo ~ over and over!
So we will see that Gianluca, Piero and Ignazio multiply.
When they descend from that blessed rope where the first boys went down here in the caves many years ago (50 years ago), it is a little like entering a seed into mother earth and thus forming a new generation, which is the generation of the future.
Il Volo, in this case becomes a symbol, as, not only does it enter the womb of the earth, it first regenerates the energy of life, but it can do it in all the squares, in all the theaters, in all the places of the world, and that, certainly is what music is, nevertheless it carries a great message of love.
Storaro was so right that carrying their music around the world will revive the music industry through this project. Through it the music will be alive again.
So that also sums up where our guys are headed! A part of their new direction. Presenting this movie throughout the world. It is our guys bringing a message to the world. A message of hope and love for all people and all nations!
So let’s rejoin the guys on the red carpet.
Along with the Storaro family we find Storaro’s newly adopted family Il Volo.
These guys certainly lit up the red carpet. Elegant in their Dolce & Gabbana tuxedos there was no lack of interest in their presence.
How did the guys feel in this moment? Perhaps the words of Ignazio in a Rappler interview sums it up. “It was amazing working with Maestro Vittorio Storaro, remembering all the most beautiful moments that he spent with the Maestro Morricone….It is our dream. The three of us will be on the red carpet with Vittorio Storaro.”
Of course Ignazio was referring to, Vittorio Storaro, their director, the veteran director who won three Oscars, including one for Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece, Apocalypse Now, which he and the director shot in the Philippines.
The new short, dedicated by Storaro to the master composer, Morricone, who passed away in 2020. A clip of the movie was premiered at the fourth edition of Filming Italy Best Movie Award on the occasion of the 78th Venice Film Festival. And as you know Storaro won a Best Italian Film award and so did our guys for their starring role and their song “Your Love.”
Next the cocktail party…
Did you notice where all the women flocked to? Our guys! Who could resist these gorgeous guys. They grace the room with their presence. When they enter a room it lights up.
Italy what have you to say about your guys now. You have got to be so proud of them. Look at how they shine in the world! But there was never a problem in recognition. We in America have always been proud of them and called them our own. I hope this project will allow them to spend more time in the US! Maybe at the Academy Awards. Although we will only see the film for the first time on September 25th at the premier at the Frasassi Caves we already know how important this project is and how beautiful this film is.
Let them lose on the red carpet again! Our red carpet in America!!!
From this project we can see so many more projects like this on the horizon.
We are so proud of the award they won at the 78th Venice Film Festival, but that was only the beginning!
Next stop Verona…
Do you ever feel when they’re in Verona, they are home? I certainly do. To me they own the Verona Arena. Every performance there is phenomenal!
They returned to the Seat Music Awards to sing their beautiful song, “Your Love” and to pick up their second award for the week!
While writing this I remembered a year ago when they were at the SMA. It was to restart the music industry.
I’m going to go back to the story I wrote about the event last year. “Turn on the Lights”
I know we will never forget the night before the performance when the guys went to the Arena to check out the lights. It was beautiful and funny at the same time. Let’s pop in to listen to the guys conversation:
Ignazio to Piero: What are you doing?
Piero: What are you looking at?
Ignazio: The light that is there.
Gianluca: It’s Beautiful.
Ignazio: The gorgeous light. Gorgeous! Gorgeous!
Of course, Piero pulled out his phone and started to video.
But what was it about the lights that got Ignazio’s attention? Well they were as Ignazio said, “La Luce Stupenda! “The lights were gorgeous,” but I think he was thinking about the last lights that he saw on stage. When they turned off the lights at their last performance in the US and went home to a country in pain from a pandemic!
When the guys arrived on stage, they had a message for the world and all people in the industry:
Ignazio: 2020 will be remembered as the year where the world would be constrained to be turned off.
Gianluca: For the music employees the verb “turn off’ means the end of the show, when the curtains close and it is the waiting moment for the next show, but this time the waiting lasted more than expected, the silence was unavoidable.
Piero: Now, the world is getting ready to start again! Now the moment has arrived to raise the curtain! Now, we will turn on the music!”
This beautiful statement was followed by the performance of the evening. Their choice of “Nessun Dorma” sent an even stronger message. It’s says we may have to perform under these new world conditions, but we don’t have to change who we are or why we’re here. In this ancient Arena we look to the past while following the path to the future.
From their first note the whole arena lit up. Their voices were clean and crisp. Their presence was illuminating. Their notes rose above the Arena into the night sky to let the world know music is back! The final note of their song sent the final statement. All three voices rose in unison and their voices sent forth a note that took our breaths away! It said We Have Returned! ”Turn on the Lights.”
Isn’t it ironic that one year later they win an award for the short film Frasassi Caves for which they are represented as regenerating the energy of life? Music is their energy!
They so deserve this award.
So let’s get back to this weeks’ performance at the Arena.
Prior to the guys performance, the stage was set up with multi color lights but when the guys arrived on stage, I think they were even surprised. The stage was lit as it was for last years performance. Very simple, very plain but what was going on in the audience was a totally different story. All phones were lit up. It was magic.
They stepped on stage in their beautiful but informal all black attire. Elegant in its simplicity!
As they come face to face with the audience, I could see the emotion in their faces.
Look at how these people love them and how they love their fans!
And then it begins. …
This song is slowly becoming a signature song! A song that reminds us of sadness but brings us to a new and exciting time in the lives of our guys! It’s as if Vito left them a final gift, a new and exciting adventure in their lives. It is the song that will lead the way in their new tour around the world. Always before them will be this song and the movie which has already and continues to make its mark in history!
At the end of the song, Vanessa Incontrada and Carlo Conti spoke with the guys about the Tribute to Ennio Morricone at the Verona Arena.
Gianluca greets everyone, “Good evening!”
Carlo: “Il Volo, to start these SEAT Music Awards in the best way.”
Vanessa: “And what an atmosphere theycreated for you (the audience), with all the mobile phones on, great emotion I saw in your faces.”
Gianluca: “We are happy to see you again.”
Vanessa: “Us too.”
Carlo: Us too, us too.
Gianluca: Finally in the Arena.
Vanessa: Finally, but it has now become your home.
Carlo: In short, I mean, you did an extraordinary event on RAI1 just dedicated as a tribute to Maestro Morricone.
Piero: We had the honor of paying homage to Maestro Morricone here at the Arena of Verona, for us, the audience, for an artist, for a singer, it is oxygen. It was an evening full of guests, but for us, the biggest guest was the audience. After a year and a half, to see them again, sing for them!
Vanessa: We understand these words well, but will you take this event to the world? I guess so.
Ignazio: Yes, we start in March 2022, we finally start with the world tour and we finish in September – October, from America, we end up in Japan and then New Zealand, so beautiful.
Vanessa: You have many things to do, let’s say.
Ignazio: Yes, but it is wonderful, after almost two years, to start singing again. I remember that a year ago, in this same program, we said …. let’s hope it starts again, the music can’t stop and meet again after a year and see that the music has never stopped, it’s beautiful!
Vanessa: Seeing them (the audience), as you said, involved with you, is nice.
Carlo: A beautiful concert, a beautiful television event, but there is a tribute album to Ennio Morricone, when will this album be released?
Gianluca: Let’s say that it is a very ambitious project, that with great responsibility, right on tiptoe and a lot of humility, we decided to undertake this path which is a musical project that is a tribute to all the most beautiful soundtracks of the maestro Morricone.
Piero: And tonight we announce the date.
Gianluca: Yes, because this record will be released on November 5th, from Cinema Paradiso, to Once Upon a Time in the West, to the Good, the Ugly, the Bad.
Vanessa: His greatest songs, let’s say.
Gianluca: And we can’t wait to start the tour.
Carlo: Well a great album and therefore it will be released on November 5th.
Then Carlo presented the guys with their DIVA award…
Carlo: I seriously read the inscription: Arena di Verona Award for Il Volo, for the tribute project to Ennio Morricone, represented with great success right here at the Verona Arena, live on RAI1, and for the over 10 years of career, which led them to be known and appreciated representatives of Italian music in the world.
And so we come to the end of the events of the last week. But….
We’ve gone from Melpignano to Verona but what about Beyond. I said the end of the events, not the end of the story. So we follow the guys no matter where they go from Melpignano to Verona and Beyond but, where beyond?
Let’s listen to what Gianluca had to say about their future….
“Our dream is to see The Ecstasy of Gold performed at the Academy Awards.”
That works for me! Onward to the Academy Awards! Hope to see you there!
Join me next week as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and open the door to a new adventure!
