This is one of my favorite interviews! Ermelinda shared such beautiful memories of Ignazio with me! She truly loves him and was and still is one of his biggest fans. It gives me great joy to share this amazing interview with you!
Competition before Ti Lascio una Canzone
A couple of years ago, someone shared one of my stories on Facebook and Ermelinda De Bartoli commented on it. She said: “Susan, Ignazio was my student until the second year of high school when after being launched with the others in the Italian broadcast they were discovered. After then he really took off … I really saw him take off.”
When I read this I said, wouldn’t it be great to have Ermelinda tell us who The Real Ignazio is and what he was like as a teenager! Ermelinda graciously accepted my invitation to be interviewed. The interview was in Italian. Below is my English translation.
Susan: How many years were you Ignazio’s teacher?
Ermelinda: I had Ignazio in class the first two years of social economic high school.
Susan: How would you describe Ignazio as a student?
Ermelinda: He was a quiet student who attended with good interest.
Susan: Ignazio’s mother said Ignazio was always very serious and responsible! How would you describe him as a teenager?
Ermelinda: I met him when he was only 14 years old. He was at the beginning of adolescence, and he was always joking. He was very attached to his family. He grew up in Bologna because the family moved there for work and at the age of 10 he moved to Marsala when the family decided to return. In Marsala he attended middle school and two years of high school. At school he was playful and sociable, with a very open and modest character. He often told us about his passion for singing which he studied with a teacher. His life as a teenager was not hard, because, as soon as he started his career at the age of 15, his life changed due to the numerous commitments linked to his success and the new path taken with Il Volo.
Susan: Would you say Ignazio was shy?
Ermelinda: Ignazio has never been shy! As I said he was always joking. In class, he was a driving force in terms of sociality and aggregation.
Susan: They call Ignazio the funny one in the group. Was Ignazio funny when he was your student?
Ermelinda: In the classroom it was fun because even though sometimes he was not very prepared in some lessons he intervened trying to repeat even what he did not know but he did it with such sympathy that we smiled at each other … and he also made a lot of self-irony about his being chubby, he lived this state of awareness without any concern or sympathy. His beautiful character dominated everything.
Susan: Ignazio is very kind and compassionate. Was this something you noticed about him as a teenager?
Ermelinda: He was very generous and affable to everyone. In particular, he was very compassionate towards some pupils with disabilities, with whom he often conversed, holding them in high regard and showing empathy. I remember an episode one evening after he won Ti Lascio una Canzone, the whole class with me and another colleague went to the pizzeria. Ignazio was just fifteen and, when it was time to pay the bill, he came to me and said: “Professor, you are my guest.” I understood that in him there was so much kindness in his manner and in his soul, in this case, a kind gesture towards a woman.
Susan: Were you amazed when you first heard Ignazio sing?
Ermelinda: During the hours of musical education, we turned on the PC monitor, we put on the Karaoke and, while not being able to hear the music due to lack of speakers, Ignazio would stand there and sing a cappella and his voice was already so powerful that it expanded to the corridors and from there a little bit in front of our door, where pupils gathered from other classes. They were ecstatic! Given the exceptional nature of the moment they had permission from their teachers to leave the classrooms to listen to him sing. The other thing is that while he sang, I felt shivers and so did many of his companions who expressed the same sensation.
Susan: When Ignazio was your student, he was already studying with Lilliana Adreanò. Ignazio said he had a great passion for soccer and, he loved to play every afternoon but, it had been less so after he started taking singing lessons. He said, “I had less free time and then no free time and I realized that singing was more important than all the rest.” How do you think Ignazio saw his future at that time?
Ermelinda: It is true to study singing he began to leave other hobbies. After Ti Lascio una Canzone, despite having being praised by these great Italian singers, who sang with him, I remember that he told all this with great modesty and simplicity and despite the fact that he had won he never spoke of great expectations nor did he delude himself, at least, until the moment in which Michele Torpedine and Tony Renis hired them after a short time, to form Il Volo. I heard the comments on him by experts such as Claudio Cecchetto and Al Bano who, when he told him that he had recently taken singing lessons, was amazed.
Another detail that I noticed is that while he sang he always kept his eyes closed and he told me that he was doing it because having recently lost his grandfather, who he adored, while he sang it was he who Ignazio thought of and he sang with his heart.
Susan: How did you see Ignazio’s future at that time?
Ermelinda: During that winter he went to Rome every week for the broadcast, he was still attending school. The problem arose when they signed the first contract and then he could no longer attend school because the tours around the world began immediately.
Susan: Ignazio went from your classroom to Ti Lascio una Canzone and immediately became a star. You told me after the Italian program, he just took off. You said you saw him take off! What was it like watching all of this happen before your eyes? Did it seem like it was all happening very fast?
Ermelinda: Of course having seen him “take flight” in a short time and, see him pass by the school desks, and then on a stage was for me, as for all his companions, a great emotion and a source of great pride.
Susan: Did you see a change in Ignazio during this time?
Ermelinda: Ignazio was still at school, after his first success, and with all of us, he always remained himself … with a modesty and genuineness that still distinguishes him today.
Susan: During the performances Ignazio sang with some really great singers. Massimo Ranieri, Albano, Fausto Leali to name a few. These singers were in awe of him. Do you think that Ignazio understood what was happening to him?
Ermelinda: Yes, these singers were more than in awe of what they heard, they were astonished, something that Ignazio confirmed when we asked him. And, to think that he was still a kid, and had not yet completed the development of the vocal cords.
Yes, Ignazio from the point of view of his singing ability had already understood in comparison with these famous singers that he had what it takes to become even greater.
Susan: How did your other students feel about what was going on in Ignazio’s life?
Ermelinda: His classmates were very happy and excited. Every Saturday night none of us left the house. We all waited to see Ignazio on TV … and on Monday when he returned to school, for the class, it was a riot and bursting questions, and also a source of pride to kids as they were, to have him as a companion … the little big star, their friend.
Susan: Did the other students treat him any differently when he returned to class?
Ermelinda: Pupils from other classes certainly looked at him with more interest.
Susan: You had to be very proud of Ignazio. Can you tell us how this made you feel to see your student on TV and watch him take his first step towards stardom?
Ermelinda: During his performances of Ti Lascio una Canzone, being still a kid and not going out much alone, even the people of Marsala followed him with pride. People who knew him in school as that, chubby boy, still in the grass, at that moment obviously aroused a lot of interest especially among the boys.
Susan: I would imagine there was great excitement in Marsala during Ti Lascio una Canzone. Ignazio said people started to recognize him. What did Ignazio’s performance on Ti Lascio una Canzone do for the people of Marsala? What did you notice was going on with the people of Marsala?
Ermelinda: Let’s say that the reaction of the people of Marsala began “as soon as he started” in Il Volo and reached its peak when they won the Sanremo festival.
The Two Tenors
Then
Now
Susan: Did you every stop to think about how this all happened? How did a young man from a very simple family suddenly become a superstar?
Ermelinda: It often occurred to me that what was happening to Ignazio was a fairy tale … of those things that you think can only happen in fairy tales. He is a boy with a great talent hitherto unknown, from a very modest family but very united and with healthy values, he was able to tread the scenes of half the world … from his cottage in the countryside to a duet with Barbra Streisand and much more that we know.
The way in which all this happened is told by the facts that there was a first revelation of his talent and Ti Lasco una Canzone, as we know, could remain there as it happens to many without getting anything else; then as he also said he had the luck of an intuition of the director who suggested to the managers Michele Torpedine and Tony Renis to form the trio.
Susan: We are in a pandemic now and while the music world is trying to restart, Ignazio, at age 25 and already a superstar, has made his debut as a music producer. He has his own production company, Floki! Ignazio said, “Production has always been my dream. It started with an idea to give a chance to those who deserve a break.” I know Ignazio has helped many young aspiring artists get a start. How do you see Ignazio in his role as a producer?
Ermelinda: Yes, Ignazio at 25 is already a star, aware that he too has skipped the stages of adolescence a bit, a period in which there are more joys than duties, but he has always said that all this deprivation has always been filled with his love for music and today he also finds himself working as a producer. From what I know about him, in my opinion this new path was born above all from his constant desire to want to help others.
Susan: How did you feel when Il Volo won Sanremo?
Ermelinda: When Il Volo won in Sanremo, that evening, in addition to the great emotion, I retraced the periods of when Ignazio was still young, always talking with humility about his first successes and I also thought that from the beginning I told myself that he was a phenomenon, so seeing him on that stage, the most important in Italy, was for me just as it was for all Marsala people.
Susan: When Ignazio returned to Marsala after winning Sanremo, the whole city came out to greet him. Can you tell us about that?
Ermelinda: When he returned to Marsala after Sanremo, the Municipality organized a ceremony in his honor to award him the title of “Ambassador of Marsala in the World,” which took place first in the hall of the city council whose images were projected simultaneously on a large screen on the square where we were thousands of people. I remember that his speech was directed to all those talented guys who deserve to be helped to be able to take off and that he with some of them was trying to do it. Afterwards he took to the square and I tell you what everyone did with warmth and recognition emanated from that square: I sang “Grande Amore” with everyone in the square … a unique emotion.
Susan: Finally, what would you like to add about Ignazio that we haven’t already covered?
Ermelinda: I think I have said everything about him of what I know and what I have had the opportunity to perceive. When I talk about Ignazio, with others, I always say that he is very humble, modest and always very affectionate with the people who meet him. I still say: “Ignazio, is a beautiful soul.”
Mr. Personality
Ermelinda I want to thank you on behalf of all the fans for sharing your great memories of Ignazio and I would like to invite you to come back with anything that tells us more about your experiences with our beloved Ignazio!
After this interview I had two additional teachers contact me to say Ignazio was their student! I felt this interview said it all and showed us The Real Ignazio!
One final note, you may have noticed that Ermelinda and I have the same last name. Ermelinda lives in Marsala and I live in New York. About a month before the interview I got a message from Ermelinda asking me about my roots because she and I have the same last name. I told her my grandfather was from Calabria but, I recently got an update on my DNA and found out I have roots in Marsala. Ermelinda wrote back and said we must be related because we are the only De Bartoli’s in Marsala. This is something I plan to investigate more. I would be very happy if this lovely lady and I were related. Who knows, Il Volo may have helped me find some long, lost, relatives. Thank you, guys!
Ermelinda De Bartoli and Susan De Bartoli
Il Volo Takes Flight 2011 Full Concert
Join me next week as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and open the door to a new adventure!
If you would like to share a story with me, please email susan.flightcrew@yahoo.com
To read more Il Volo stories visit us at www.ilvoloflightcrw.com
Last year I wrote a story about everything that happened after the guys won Ti Lascio Una Canzone. One of the things I loved about the story was a wonderful video I found that showed the guys coming together musically! Usually, I end each story with an amazing video, I will do that in this story, but this week I need to start with a wonderful video of our three teenagers when they started on the road to success and proved they were The Epitome of Success.
Now tell me these are not the three most amazing young men, the three most talented young men, some of the most handsome teenagers and now very handsome young men, you have ever met!
Over the last few weeks, we heard about how they got to Ti Lascio Una Canzone and then we started to see them branch out in America.
So now we leave behind the individual stories of the guys, and we begin to see the guys together and we listen to their conversations. It’s so exciting to watch them grow and mature!
In their many interviews, they talked about their lives in the beginning of their career, and we begin to see how they interact with one another to form a powerful team. From a very young age they were very intelligent, and they were always courteous. They always had the right answer at the right time! This is a big achievement for such young boys who were thrown together into an adult’s world without any way of knowing what to expect. This says a lot about their integrity.
The video below is truly the beginning of Il Volo. I’m sure you have all seen this video a hundred times before but what I love about this video is what Tony Renis, Humberto Gatica, Ron Fair, and Michele Torpedine have to say about the guys. These four men, who are the crème de la crème in their industry, explain who these three teenagers are in a most amazing way! Michele sums it all up by saying, “They are just in a different dimension!” I certainly couldn’t have said it better. Can you imagine saying such things about any other teenagers? No, because there has never been a group of teenagers or adults who could compare with these three. Never! They are a once in a lifetime event. La Forza del Destino!
Let’s talk about destiny for a moment! For me, I see the day they sang together for the first time as the day their destiny was sealed. 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 would 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. Their voices were a perfect fit for one another! What are the chances this would happen?
So how is this possible? No doubt it was God’s plan! But how do you explain it! For me, there is only one way to explain it! So, bear with me and I will tell you a little tale about how I think these three amazing boys came to be!
Before the Lord sent these three amazing boys 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 one by one he sent them a son. Not just any son! A special son! One that God would choose from His Choir of Angels!
First there was Gaetano and Elenora Barone. The Lord called in his Choir of Angels and chose a Spinto Tenor to send to this couple because he wanted a strong voice to share with the world! When their boy arrived, the Barones thought, what should we name him. They decided he was solid like a rock, so they called him Piero which means rock!
The Lord waited and watched and liked what he saw and decided it was time to send another amazing boy to earth. He sent this son to Vito and Caterina Boschetto. Not just any son. No, the Lord thought about it and said what this world needs is a Lyrical Tenor. Not just any lyrical tenor, no, one that could sing from the lowest to the highest note on the scale and bring High C to another level. When he arrived the Boschettos noticed that he was a spitfire, so they named him Ignazio which means “fiery.”
The Lord waited and saw this was good then he thought, what we need to round this out is a Baritone! So, he went back to His Choir of Angels and found a Baritone who he knew would capture the world with his amazing voice. He sent him to Elenora and Ercole Ginoble who the Lord felt needed some light in their life. Gianluca is a combination of two names, Gian and Luca. Luca means light and the two names together mean A Gift of God born under the sunrise. Well, I think we can all agree that Gianluca is a ray of sunlight!
The Lord completed His task and rested because He had achieved His goal of sending three phenomenal boys to earth and He knew the world would be in total awe of these three boys. Without a doubt, they have spread their joy around the world!
What was the goal of the Lord? He wanted three voices that alone were phenomenal and together were 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!
Maybe my story is a little silly, but the results are not! The Lord in fact sent three phenomenal singers to earth for our listening pleasure and what pleasure they give us!
I talked about their individual 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. If their coming together isn’t destiny, I don’t know what is!
After Ti Lascio Una Canzone, as we begin to listen to their interviews and read through their stories, we can see how the boys begin to bond with one another. We all have our good days and our bad days but, at the end of the day they have what’s most important, “each other.”
What we see in their story is how they begin to achieve success in American. From their first performance on TV on American Idol, they took America by storm. Every TV Show wanted them as guests. After the show they hit the top 10 on the “Billboard” charts.
Success doesn’t come easy in America. Why were they successful? Certainly, those voices helped but there was more.
One of the things I noticed from the beginning was they had confidence because they all enjoyed what they were doing. But the flip side was there was a certain lack of confidence because of their young age. It was the things they had in common that made them special! They all had phenomenal voices, all three were fighters, and from when they were on Ti Lascio Una Canzone, they all were out there to win. And winners they were.
Piero was always confident. When he got on stage, he was going to do what he did right along in his competitions. His idea was, I got this, I’m going out there and I’m going to do what I know works! It didn’t matter that he was in the real world now. No, the stage was still the stage no matter who is in front of you.
Ignazio was always the big draw card because he had that stage presence, and of the three he was never afraid to take chances; well maybe with Sanremo he hesitated a little! On the rare occasions that you see him quiet, there’s no need to worry, it just means he’s thinking. His mind is always working! He’s always preparing! Even at 14 when he was competing, he had it all together. Maybe he wasn’t as polished as he is today, but he certainly had it all together. He’s very personable and that has always been his key.
In the beginning, Gianluca was a little laid-back. He was a little less confident than the others. The fact that he had never competed before added to this lack of confidence. I will say he was sassy in the beginning but that changed as he gained confidence and began to feel a part of the three. He was too young to even understand all that was going on when he competed in Ti Lascio Una Canzone. As the three began to sing together Gianluca’s sassiness began to go away and he started to appreciate the value of being one of three. This gave him the confidence he needed.
They were very different from one another! But who they were and what they were, got them to where they are and so that’s where the story begins.
Each boy had a dream and that dream got him to the stage he needed to be on to show the world who he was and what he was about!
In the beginning it was a little rough. For Ignazio and Piero, a quick friendship developed and since both had stage experience it was a little easier for them to acclimate. Not so much for Gianluca.
Gianluca was too young and didn’t have the stage presence the other two had. This created a problem because he needed to find his stage presence. He always imagined that the stage was his alone. This was not a bad thing, even though it did cause problems, but going forward it needed to be resolved before their future could be sealed. As with all teenage boys they had their arguments, their disagreements, but when reality hit, Gianluca understood, he wasn’t the ONE they were the THREE ~ Il Volo.
But before they became one, they needed to do something that teenage boys don’t have to do. They had to grow up overnight and take on the role of adults when they were only 15 and 16 years old.
You can’t even get your 15-year-old to clean his room. Imagine telling him it’s time to say goodbye to your teenage years and start working. How could they even understand what this was all about. The fact is they really didn’t understand. Let’s listen to what the guys had to say about their beginnings….
Piero said….
In short, a little impression, however, we had when we started to hear about America. And who knew us, there? Nobody. So, what happened? We discover what it means to have a manager.
Thanks to an American lawyer, Peter Lopez, a contact from Tony Renis, one of our auditions arrives at Interscope Records in the United States. It is a label of music production that is part of the Universal Music Group America, the largest record company in the States.
Imagine the desk of Jimmy Iovine, the president of Interscope, a large desk in a large American office. They take a laptop, put it in front of it, start ‘O Sole Mio’ recorded by TI LASCIO UNA CANZONE. When it arrives at the “Ma n’aaaatu sole!”, Iovine closes the computer and exclaims: ‘We got it!.’ All right, we do it. And we signed a millionaire contract.
At the beginning it was really a dream, even if I do not like repeating it, because you find yourself traveling the world and doing it, from one day to the next. However, I repeat, always without realizing the importance of the thing, without fully understanding what was happening.
Ignazio responds to Piero….
A dream that Piero, in the clouds, has forgotten to say the most important thing: that it was the first time that Italian singers signed a contract directly with an American record company.
For us today there are seven takes to sing, back then there were thirty or forty…. So, a take is the recording of the single phrases that each of us sing when we record a song. We continue to redo until we get to the best version. In 2009, on our first recording, it took almost two days to record a song, until it was good. I remember that I made the absolute record of takes in “Smile”: I repeated my part fifty-seven times.
We were small and inexperienced, the English language did not help, Tony Renis and Humberto Gatica – one of the best-known producers and sound technicians in the world, who worked with Andrea Bocelli, Eros Ramazzotti, Pino Daniele, Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion – if they were not satisfied, they would tell it to us clearly.
Gianluca interrupts….
Piero forgot to mention that ours was the first contract signed directly by Italian singers with an American label, but Ignazio forgot to mention that the first recording studio in which we entered all three together for our great adventure it was called Forum and it was in Rome.
I remember, and it is one of the few things that I have very clear in mind of that period, that we have compiled the lineup of the tracks with Tony Renis, and most were the ones we had sung at Ti Lascio Una Canzone, plus five other American songs.
But the first time in front of the microphone was still in Rome in the studio where we had done the auditions before the program began. Roberto Cenci had assigned the songs to all the children, he had arranged the arrangements, and we had recorded the compilation that came out in May after the end of the program and immediately entered in the rankings.
But that was the first time alone in front of a microphone, and it was (Gianluca addresses Piero) … What are you looking at? Do you want to say it?
Piero interrupts….
… it was nice because it was the first experience.
We did not sing well because we had no technique, so it was as Ignazio said: we took a take in sixty, seventy times.
At that time, when we arrived in the studio, we found everything ready: the songs to sing, the subdivisions, the arrangement, this and the other. Now, instead, after the third album, we do everything together, we create everything with Celso Valli, our producer.
Those first times we did not have this freedom to do it, everything was imposed because we did not yet have the skills to do it.
Now we have them, and we share the parts, we know each other better and, in the studio, we help each other. It is also nice to see that each of us now has his way to enter the recording room. Gianluca and I sing with the light on in the recording room. Ignazio, on the other hand, enters and the first thing he does is turn off the light. They are small details, but they mean that we have grown, and we have our own way of working.
Between the three of us, we have split up the roles. Ignazio if there is a problem with the mixer, consults the producer to fix things. Gianluca is the one who listens to the songs from morning to night and offers: ‘Guys, I discovered this songwriter.’ ‘Guys, I discovered this artist, what do you think?’ I like the managerial part, I like managing, I like to contact people, I like to propose new things to Michele, ‘Why do we not do that?’ ‘Why do we not try to do that?’ ‘How can we get to this person?’ I like this: we put our heads together and think how we can improve it.
There is a complete professional balance: we have grown physically, but also professionally. So even if we get a producer we do not know, we do not have any problems, we know how to talk to him and tell him what we want. This is the most important aspect: being at the same level. Which is the reason why for some months now I have this big black leather folder, that I always carry with me. If I have to tell the truth, Torpedine lent it to me and, as it brought good luck, I stole it from him and, as I told you, I always carry it with me, with the pieces we have to do, the notes, the notes of what is lacking to be fixed, what is not lacking, the notes to do: everything is much more professional.
Now we are working with Celso, one of the most important record producers we have in Italy.
We have had great luck: we can afford to deal with the older ones, it is not easy. It’s something that put Torpedine in my mind: you must always invest for your future. Celso has agreed to bet with us on our future and we worked together on the last album, Love Moves (L’amore si Muove) which came out in September. It is a pleasure working with him because he lets you talk, lets you express your ideas, lets you try, and this is a fundamental thing, the most important thing when you want to improve, to grow.
Talking about “L’amore si Muove,” let’s take a moment to talk about this wonderful album….
“Musica” is the album that proved that great can get greater. This album is representative of where these young men were in 2018, nine years after they got together. The album is beautiful, it’s sensitive, it’s romantic. It’s about love. It’s about them being ready for love. It comes from deep within them. All the sweetness and humility of these guys is in this album. It moves your senses. What I am saying is they have evolved, and their voices have evolved. They’ve grown into their voices. Their voices are mature and have expanded in such an amazing way. There’s an intriguing balance in their voices. To experience this amazing evolution in voice and song you need go no further than “Be My Love.”
Gianluca’s voice vibrates and expands to realms I’ve never heard before.
Ignazio makes your heart stop as you journey along his notes which lead to absolute ecstasy. Where do those notes come from?
Piero fills all your senses and brings you to such heights he takes your breath away!
Just spectacular! Phenomenal voices!!!
Yes they really made some major moves over those first nine years. Most singers start out slowly and gradually get it together. Not our guys! They put everything on the table from day one and ran with it. You might say they took a chance but there was never a doubt, at least not in my mind, that they would succeed. They always were and always will be phenomenal!
We will leave the guys realizing for them success never stops! Every song, every concert, is a new adventure. The path always was and always will be open for them because they are The Epitome of Success!
I think I promised you a spectacular ending. Let’s stay in 2018 and see if this works….
Rehearsal
I think the guys had a great time Dancing with the Stars ~ Italian Style! They all danced well but who do you think danced the best?
And a special concert for your listening pleasure Il Volo Un’avventura Straordinaria.
Join me next week as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and open the door to a new adventure!
If you would like to share a story with me, please email: susan.flightcrew@yahoo.com
Two years ago, I was in discussion with Flight Crew about the column I was writing. I was at a point where I felt there was only so much I could write about. I had already gone through the book two times, and I needed to rethink what I was writing about! The decision was made that there was no choice, my information was limited and so I needed to write a column that would present old stories in a new way. That’s when the idea of Through the Fields of My Mind came into play. It was an opportunity to rewrite the stories in a different way always respecting the guy’s words but looking at it in different ways. So, it came into being that the stories would be their stories as seen through my eyes.
So, here we are two years later and I’m still writing and rewriting the stories. As frustrating as it is for me at times because there is only so much I can say, I have to admit, with every column there is a new interest. The guys have many new fans, and they love being filled in on what went on before they became fans. And then there are the old fans who just love reading about the boys. I usually get comments like, “I could read the stories about our wonderful boys over and over again and each time I find something new in the story.” Or, “where did you find that video, I never saw it before.” The bottom line is when you’re a fan you’re a fan and it doesn’t matter how many times you read the story, it’s always interesting to you!
Yes there is a new book out there and maybe a year from now I will write about it but for now I have to stick with the first book.
So, here we are two years later, three years since I started writing for Flight Crew and I still enjoy writing the column every week. I love reliving their dream!
Before I move on I would like to thank the guys for giving me a free hand in their story.
So. let’s go back to where we were and tie up the stories of the last few weeks.
Two years ago, I asked the question, “How do you begin to tell a story, more like a fairy tale, about three teenage boys who conquered the music industry?”
Let’s start there….
They came from Italy from very different regions, very different families, very different backgrounds but, they had one thing in common, the ability to capture audiences with their amazingly, beautiful, voices.
Thinking back over the years, I realize they have put so much energy into such a short period of time. It’s been 14 years of a lifetime but, in reality, they did it in five years! How is it possible that these three men could do, in such a short period of time, what most men cannot do in a lifetime? The Secret Is In The Voices!
Going back to the beginning, I remember what 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.
Let’s take a look at our guys when they stepped on the stage together for the first time….
We begin by seeing how all those years of studying and sacrifices, for Piero and Ignazio paid off. We know Gianluca never had even one singing lesson. This was the night three boys set out to win a competition, but the results were so much more than the win!
When they came together as contestants on Ti Lasacio una Canzone, they never dreamt that they would walk off the stage as stars! Individually, they sang with some very famous Italian singers, Al Bano, Massimo Ranieri, Fausto Leali, Adamo, Piero Mazzoccheti and, they were singing their songs and these men were in absolute awe of these teenagers.
From the first note that came out of their mouths, everyone recognized how unique their voices were. Roberto Cenci the artistic director and director of Ti Lascio una Canzone recognized the importance of these three voices. He recognized that the voices were different but alike in their uniqueness. Cenci understood if you put the voices together, they will blend beautifully and, they will be very appealing. How right he was! An experiment that turned into stardom.
With ‘O Sole Mio’ in hand, the boys set out for night four of Ti Lascio una Canzone.
It’s April 25th, 2009, and these three teenage boys who only met a short time before are getting ready to turn their world upside down.
The first time these three boys sang together everyone was amazed. Who wasn’t amazed, Roberto Cenci! He knew exactly what he was doing. He realized by putting these three voices together he would create an amazing sound! How right he was!
Let’s listen to Piero who will tells us how the guys first sang together….
I remember Roberto Cenci calling us all three to the center of the stage during the rehearsals.
‘Piero, Gianluca and Ignazio, come here.’
They start ‘O Sole Mio’ and we sing as we had divided the parts. Gianluca begins with the first verse and then it’s my turn, I attack with ‘Ma n’ato sole,’ (but another sun). This ‘Ma n’naaaato’ with the note kept so long and vibrated, as we still sing it today, was born in that first test because I learned, ‘O Sole Mio,’ by listening to the Three Tenors, that is Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Josè Carreras. And Pavarotti made those three words of refrain with a very, fast, but difficult beat. I did not have that technique, so I did it slowly. Then I asked: ‘Roberto, sorry, can I do it my way the ‘ma n’ato sole?’ He answers ‘Yes.’ And I say, ‘Unplug the orchestra when it’s time and come behind me.’
Ignazio tells us about the reaction to their singing O Sole Mio….
That Saturday night there was a great standing ovation for us, with ‘O Sole Mio.’ I think that that performance marked the real starting point of our career.
When I had agreed to do the auditions, I was aware that it would be a great experience and would last only two months. But I never expected that we could get all this great success.
Gianluca puts the event in the history books…
The theater came down.
Piero on my left, me in the middle, Ignazio on my right. In the history of music no one had ever seen three children of thirteen or fourteen sing these kinds of songs. So, we must also thank Roberto Cenci because, if it wasn’t for him maybe today, we would not be here. It was nice, it was something…. How can I tell you? It was natural. I immediately enjoyed singing together, there was no problem.
But it was also all unexpected.
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.
Piero looks back over the events since that night….
But can you think about how far we’ve come? We did not even know each other and now we have been working together for six years, we toast together, we cry together.
By now Gianluca and Ignazio, but let’s not let them know, they are a part of me, I do not know how I could do without them.
I’ll make you understand one thing: when I’m on stage singing my solo, as soon as I finish, I cannot wait for the other two to come because I feel their moral, psychological and even physical support. If I feel bad, I know that there are two of them that can help me, we can help each other, and this is fundamental for me, to feel that we support each other, that we are always together.
And if I think of how far we have come from Ti Lascio una Canzone, I am reminded of Antonella Clerici. Antonella was the one who, even after the program, has always supported our project. Every time someone spoke badly about us, she was ready to defend us, she never changed, she never, never, demanded a thank you and I must tell you that we still speak to each other every time there is something new. She’s just like you see her on TV: sincere.
So, let’s step away from the stage a moment and talk about what was going on behind the scenes. Well, we certainly know that the idea to put the three together was the genius of Roberto Cenci the artistic director and director of the program. But there was so much more happening!
In his book Ricomincio Dai Tre (I Start Again from Three) Michele Torpedine, their manager tells us what happened that night….
The three casually put together to sing a song of the program possess an incredible vocality for their age.
Watching them on TV Michele is thinking these guys are good and again repeats it to himself, they’re good! He thinks.…
What if I try to put them together seriously?
Michele and everyone else felt they were incredible!
But it needed much more than just a feeling and it went beyond incredible. It needed something to come to life. It needed a new idea. It needed to be different because they were different. So how do you make it different? Bel Canto!
Bel canto is Italian for “beautiful singing.” From the mid-18th century through the early 19th century, Italian opera developed what is now known as a bel canto style. Composers began to write long, sustained vocal lines intended to show off the beauty of the voice.
Well, that works! They certainly have beautiful voices!
If you start with the premise that bel canto can make the difference, then you need to find the best way to present it! First, have them sing all the Italian classics. If you look at the music industry at the time you have to say “it won’t work” but, it did. Why? It worked because their voices were unique, the presenters were teenagers, and the world was waiting for something different. The difference was they needed to go back to what was and present it in a different light. A unique idea. A little risky for sure but, a lot of very talented people in the industry felt it could work. And it did!
Bel canto for sure! But those voices that embody bel canto needed to go beyond and so where do you go? In their concerts they sing beautiful arias because they have beautiful operatic voices but, they will tell you, they do not sing opera. So, they reinvented the idea of opera. Just as bel canto reinvented opera, so did they reinvent it with their Operatic Pop. Always light, free flowing, ethereal! They took away the rigidness and left the beauty of the words which they present in their special ways with their special voices!
During an appearance on the Marzia Roncacci show Michele Torpedine was surprised with an appearance by Piero. She asked one very important question, that is the question I just presented. So, I would like you to hear it in Piero’s own words.
Marzia: Listen, Piero, and also Michele, how do you explain this great success of yours, of three young people, because you are now very well established, even abroad, it is not so easy, there are only a few who are known and, they can be counted on your fingertips.
Piero: Our success is the echo! It is the resonance of the music we sing. As Pavarotti did in the past, bel canto is the winning weapon. Bel canto is the most popular Italian music in the world, and it is nice to hear in any theater or arena in the world, even in Japan, when the public hear these melodies, written right here in Italy, they go into ecstasy. Our voices also contribute, it is clear, and to hear young people with these voices …. but it is clear that if we didn’t sing this kind of music, it would be much more difficult.
Piero is very modest! Their voices are very important. They brought bel canto back to life in a unique way! Bravo!
So, where do you begin? How do you present these amazing singers? Simple! You go to America!
Their first stop was Miami. It was like stepping into a dream for them. Everything in America was different from Italy. The streets, the houses, the cars, everything was different. But above all, they really could not comprehend all that was happening to them. After Miami they went to Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles, they were invited to participant in the charity event “We Are the World 25 for Haiti”.
Three beautiful angels who took Los Angeles by storm. This is truly the beginning of IL VOLO!
By now, they were in a whirlwind!
Piero recalls….
We were fifteen and sixteen when we found ourselves in this American dream. We had signed a contract with a record company that includes famous artists like Beyonce and many others. We were invited by the record company to a party. We turned and saw, Quincy Jones; we turn around and we saw Rihanna; we turned and shook hands with Lady Gaga. We talked with them, some singers who were idols for us and for our peers.
In fact, the guys only began to understand that something was changing when their first record came out. The boys had met all the big names and performed with them in We Are the World, but reality had not yet set in. Let’s hear what Ignazio had to say about this….
It was already in May 2010 and the Il Volo album was about to come out all over the world. Maybe I was too small and naive, but I did not feel the anxiety of the job like today. The first major television show we appeared in, in America, was American Idol, the world’s most famous music talent show.
And what a performance that was. They sang ‘O Sole Mio” and in that moment, they captured the hearts of thirty million people. Not to mention Ignazio giving five to Steven Tyler. But that’s another story!
During the last three episodes of American Idol’s tenth season, they performed and promoted their first album, Il Volo. The international edition of the album was released on April 12, 2011.
In its first week, the album reached the tenth spot of Billboard 200 and topped the Classical Albums chart. The album also entered the top ten in other countries, including Belgium, France, Germany, New Zealand and the Netherlands, and it peaked at number one on the Austria Albums Chart. It would later be certified platinum by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry.
Back in Italy, in their hometowns, the people were ecstatic. These three teenagers had achieved what only a few Italian artists had achieved, success in America!
By now, every program in America wanted them. The phone was ringing off the hook! They appeared on The Tonight Show, Good Morning America, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Early Show. There was no stopping them. The people of America had spoken and what they were calling for was, Il Volo. And slowly, the rest of the world also recognized their achievements.
The chatter began about these three teenagers with voices like “angels!” But what’s most important is what happened to the boys! These boys who came to America thinking, “who will know us there,” were now becoming a household name. And how did that happen, a little thing called PBS…
Next week I follow the guys to Detroit where they stepped on the stage at the Detroit Opera House and sealed their fate and we found out The Secret Is In The Voices but it was a secret no more!
Join me next week as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and open the door to a new adventure!
If you would like to share a story with me, please email: susan.flightcrew@yahoo.com
What I have written here are excerpts from the book the guys wrote about their lives. “Il Volo, Un’avventura Straordinario, La Nostra Storia.” (An Extraordinary Adventure, Our Story) This is just a small piece of each mans’ story. The book is written in Italian. If you can read Italian, I would highly recommend that you read it. It’s wonderful! If not, I can only hope that someday it will be translated into English. Or you can use Google Translate to translate it.
I also recommend you read their second book “IL Volo: Quello Che Porto Nel Cuore” (What I Carry in My Heart).
And let’s not forget the new album. Available on Spotify, Amazon, and other music media!
In the last few weeks, we talked about the early years. Where the guys grew up, their school and musical education and now we’re at the part of the story that you all know so well. But I want to look at it in a different way this time. After writing about the guys for three years, I pretty much know who they are, where they came from, where they went to and where they’re going to. But to truly understand these men, we have to look at who they were when they stepped on the stage of Ti Lascio Una Canzone.
No, I’m not a mind reader but if you write about a person for such a long period of time, you have to get into their minds, you have to see things that other people don’t see reading the story, as opposed to writing the story. This is what I observed over the last three years. This is how I bring it all together.
Ti Lascio Una Canzone April 2009
We know that from day one, the golden boy was Gianluca. When he auditioned, they had never heard a voice like his before and everyone was in total awe of him. So, from the very beginning Gianluca was sassy and he brought that sassiness with him to the stage: that attitude that I’m here, this is where they want me, this is what they get. And he wasn’t wrong it was what they wanted.
Ignazio, on the evening of the first show is suddenly quiet, he is pondering what’s going to be and how am I going to do this. At such a young age his mind is already looking at how things should work and what was needed to prepare for the performance. He understands, even at such a young age that it’s more than just the song. You need to be a presence! And he certainly is a presence.
Piero was going to do what he did right along with the competitions. His idea was, I got it, I’m going out there and I’m going to beat them all because that’s what he always did in competition so to him this competition was no different than the others.
There was a certain confidence among them because they all enjoyed what they were doing but there was also a certain lack of confidence because of their young age. It was the things they had in common that made them special! They all had phenomenal voices, all three were fighters, and they all went out there to win.
The big draw card was Ignazio because he had that stage presence, and of the three he wasn’t afraid to take chances. But what was this sudden quietness? This is something that Ignazio does when he’s thinking. His mind is always working! He’s always preparing! Even at 14 he had it all together. Maybe he wasn’t as polished as he is today, but he certainly had it all together. He’s very personable and that has always been his key
Gianluca was a little laid-back a little less confident in that sense. Gianluca was too young to even to know what it was all about.
They were very different from one another! Yes, they were Three Very Different Boys, but who they were and what they were, got them to where they are and so that’s where the story begins.
We begin with three boys who had a dream and got to the stage to show what they were about, and this is how it all came together.
For Ignazio it’s always been ~ it doesn’t matter whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game. For sure, Piero and Ignazio both understand how to play the game. Piero didn’t have Ignazio’s attitude about competition, but he understood and what he presented in his competition proved it. Gianluca never understood about competition, at least not in music, soccer yes, but not music!
Gianluca was too young and inexperienced in the game of competition, and even though he won, he didn’t know how to play the game, and this created a problem going forward not a big problem but one that would have to be resolved before the future could be sealed. As with all teenage boys they had their arguments, their disagreements, but when reality hit, Gianluca understood, he wasn’t the ONE they were the THREE ~ Il Volo.
Let’s think a moment about Gianluca being sassy. Who could blame him! Here you are 13 years old, and you get the opportunity of a lifetime. You go into a studio to audition with no expectations. Nothing “just for the fun of it” as your father said, and you have some of the biggest producers fainting over you. Going out of their way trying to figure out how they can best produce you. They feel you are the one. To them you are the winner even before the performance begins.
When Gianluca finally stepped on the stage at Ti Lascio Una Canzone, he did have the edge. Not because of what he expected but because of what was anticipated by the producers. Of course, the producers would have a reality check before the competition was over. People anticipated so much more for Gianluca than he anticipated for himself! The good thing was that this gave Gianluca a lot of confidence!
The producers were behind him 100% but they weren’t making the final decision the people were.
Everyone was enthralled by Gianlucas voice. They even went so far as to bring Bocelli on the show to compliment him! That was because Gianluca tried so hard to be like Bocelli. He had his style; his music and he was studying him for a long time and at times he certainly sounded like him. Yes, Gianluca, you were a little boy, but you were sassy, and you had every right to be. But you also were really shy!
Let’s listen to two of Gianlucas videos from the show….
Ignazio, we know you weren’t shy. You had a great presence on that stage, but in the sweetest possible way. You worked very hard, and you brought to that stage your beautiful personality.
I looked at the videos of some of the singers Ignazio was duetting with. He was singing their songs and they were in total awe of him! They were looking at him in total amazement! He wasn’t trying to be like them, he was presenting their songs in a very new and different way, and they loved it! I think in the category of duets, Ignazio, you have to be the winner! I watched singers like Al Bano, Massimo Ranieri and Fausto Leali just stare at Ignazio in total amazement because they couldn’t believe that such a magnificent voice was coming out of the mouth of such a young boy! His presentation was phenomenal. I always call Ignazio Mr. Personality but even back then, he understood that his presence on stage was as important as his voice! And everyone he sang with saw the ease in which he presented their songs. Ignazio, you truly understood that in order to prove yourself as the best, you had to bring more than your voice and you did! True professionalism at a very young age! That’s something that is still with you today! Your personality, your whole production, your amazing voice is what makes you a very special part of Il Volo.
It’s amazing Ignazio that you had all that and you were only 14 years old!
Let’s stop a minute and listen to some of Ignazio’s duets! Let’s start Ignazio singing with Fausto Leali to one of my favorite songs “A Chi”.…
Piero you brought your classical education with you and it’s evident from the minute you opened your mouth. There’s so much strength in your voice. You were very different from Ignazio or Gianluca. The strength in your voice amazed the people around you and your knowledge of music of how your voice worked made you stand out because of the musical education you had, which was your base and that’s what made you different from the other two.
The advantage Piero had was he always wanted to be a singer. Piero was the one whose heart was always with the song and because of this he was very serious about his music. This seriousness made the difference. The potential for Piero to be an opera singer was already there. Piero had everything he needed to someday be an opera star. His musical education was the best of the three and so the judges were looking at a teenager who had the opera voice of a 30-year-old and was well on his way in his professional career. Most opera singers aren’t ready for the stage until around 30 years old and that’s when they establish themselves. But here is Piero at 16 years old already presenting that voice. Totally amazing!
This is what the judges were working with. Three totally phenomenal voices. The others in the competition took a back seat to these three amazing boys!
When the producers had all three on stage, they began to see how the voices complemented one another and that’s when the wheels started turning!
They all performed exceptionally well right up to the end. When they won first, second and third, Piero and Ignazio showed great respect for Gianluca who won first prize. They may have been disappointed, but you would never know it to look at their faces. Their reaction to Gianluca winning was beautiful! Look at the video….
These were the Three Very Different Boys who stepped on the stage at Ti Lascio Una Canzone, gave it their all and walked off super stars.
On 9 June 2009, nine days after the end of Ti Lascio Una Canzone, all the parents left for Rome. They all met with Michele Torpedine at Bibi Ballandi’s office to decide the future of the three boys. After several meetings, they all agreed, and they signed the first managerial contract for the boys. And all the rest is history!
Join me next week as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and open the door to a new adventure!
If you would like to share a story with me, please email: susan.flightcrew@yahoo.com
To read more Il Volo stories visit us at www.ilvoloflightcrw.com
When the guys set out for the Auditions at Via dei Gracchi there was no way they could have known that they were on a Road Trip to Stardom.
Along the way, the guys had to be thinking about how this will all play out. I think they were thinking, “How do I present myself?” I’m sure they already had their music prepared but, they must have been thinking, “Is this the right song? Does this song really show them who I am….and what my voice is about?” They have to be wondering what will take place. “Do I just go into a studio and sing and…. will they ask me to sing other songs too?” Great pressure for such young boys. But they did have many things in their favor. For one their voices. It was certain that beyond the three there would be no voices to compare to theirs. As to Gianluca, he sang with the choir and so this would be his first experience in a competition. As to Piero and Ignazio, they were used to competitions so for them it was just another competition, or was it? I think if anything, Piero and Ignazio had a better feel for what they were up against. It was more realistic because they knew the ups and downs and all the drawbacks.
When they arrive for the audition at Via dei Gracchi in Rome their story and the Audition begins. Let’s listen to what Gianluca had to say about his experience….
I’m sorry for Piero and Ignazio, but I did not have to wait for a phone call to know the result of the audition for Ti Lascio Una Canzone. Via dei Gracchi in Rome, I remember very well. It is in a fairly central area, in the Prati district and not far from the Vatican, a very long street full of very beautiful buildings. From Montepagano to Rome, the distance is not much, just over an hour. We got in the car in the afternoon, calmly. There was the complete family: dad at the wheel, mom sitting next to him, I in the back seat with the two Ernesto of the house, my grandfather, who was proud and satisfied with that trip even if we did not know yet how it would end, and my brother, who at the time was only seven years old.
“How much is missing? (Are we there yet?)” I asked my dad. And after five minutes: “And now how much is missing?”. And after another five minutes: “And now how much is missing?” Fortunately, the road was short, or I would have made him mad. I was very anxious I had never done anything so important. Already for me to go to RAI, in short, it is not something that I can explain in words.
When we entered, I realized that I would not be alone to support that audition. There were many other guys, all with their parents, a long line of people, but I was not worried because I was there just for fun, it was already an adventure.
When they called my name, I entered the registration room. Roberto Cenci was there. It was the first time I saw him. The impact was a bit ‘so, because he has a very tough character, does not convey much sympathy at the first meeting. But the essential thing is that I start to sing: “I wanted to be a little alone to think, you know ….” I had chosen The Voice of Silence. I remember it perfectly. I was thirteen – the first audition was in November 2008 – and I already had this deep, baritone voice.
I sang in the recording room and saw the others on the other side of the glass. There was Roberto Cenci, my grandfather was there with my mother, my brother, and my father, all in the other room. So, I sing and at one point, Roberto stops the music and says: “Stop all”. “What happens?” I thought. From where I was, I did not understand anything, I saw only the faces.
“This boy” continues Roberto, addressing my family, “he was kissed by the Lord”. All I could see were only the faces of my parents and in my head, I kept asking “What’s up?”, And at a certain point I did not make it anymore and I opened the door, I went to Roberto and in the meantime, I repeated: “What’s going on?” I was small, I could not realize. My father, made a face, I do not forget, he looks at me and says: “Nothing, good!”
“Congratulations” Roberto tells me, hugs me, makes me sing another song, calls all the others on the staff. “Feel this baby, you feel like singing.” I remember these scenes very well. I see it again. And I was very excited, I was very happy, I could not even sing, at one point I even stuck. Because I did not expect such a positive reaction from Roberto Cenci and all the others, producers, technicians and I do not know who else there was, that day, because Roberto had called everyone.
My mother and father never stopped smiling. My grandfather was very happy, if possible, more than when we left. My brother was small, but it was clear to him that it was a party. In the end, do you know until how late we stayed in that hall? Until nine in the evening, because Roberto Cenci called me back even after the audition to make me sing some more songs, to start making me try some duet. In short, when we said goodbye, I was exhausted, but I was bursting with joy.
From that day in Rome, I remember very well Ignazio’s mother. I do not remember seeing either Piero or Ignazio, but Caterina yes. During the audition they made us sing in a recording room, outside in the queue was Ignazio’s mother. Caterina heard the voice of someone singing, and she had listened to me. When I came out, she looked at me and said: ‘Congratulations! Bravo, very good!’ She heard me sing and she thought Andrea Bocelli was in the recording room.
Bravo for Gianluca. Let’s see what Ignazio has to say about it….
But I did not really believe it. I remained as usual with my feet firmly planted on the ground. I must admit it: at first it was a bit perplexed at the idea of going to audition because it is so, I am always the pessimist, but then, we talked about it in the family, as we have always been used to doing, and we said to ourselves: “Why not?” So, in the end I went to do the auditions in Rome, funded by mom and dad, who in the meantime were continuing to make great sacrifices for me.
I arrived in Via dei Gracchi, where the auditions were held, with mum Caterina and dad Vito. There were many guys like me who were hoping for something positive without expecting anything, trying not to have too many illusions.
At the beginning I was also quite calm, it could not be much different from singing on stage. Anxiety began to rise as my turn approached. And here they call my name: “Boschetto?”.
I get up and go into the studio where the boys were singing. There he was waiting for me, Roberto Cenci, who looked at me and asked me: “Dear Boschetto, what are you letting us hear today?”: I had chosen ‘Ti Cerchero’ ‘by Gigi Finizio and Melodrama by Andrea Bocelli.
‘Thank you very much’ was the only thing Roberto Cenci told me when I finished singing. All there? But how had I done? Was I okay? I had no idea but, climbing the stairs, Pannocchia, who was the manager who accompanied us, tells me that I have to study a song within thirty minutes. What song? ‘The Winner Takes It All’ of ABBA. To help me there was Luca Pitteri, a vocal coach who collaborated with AMICI and who at that time worked for Ti Lascio Una Canzone.
They gave me a CD player and I started to listen and study the song, and after exactly thirty minutes they called me back, we went down again in the studio and Roberto Cenci was still waiting for me. ‘Please, start’ he said, and the base started. I cannot say if I sang well, I do not remember anything other than the fact that somehow, they let me guess that I was inside the program, I had succeeded, but I tried not to build too many castles in the air as we returned home. What I did not know was that while I was inside singing the Winner Takes It All, outside my mother Caterina and Pannocchia spoke and he said: ‘Ignazio is in the program, madam!’ But they did not even tell me. Of course, I had a positive feeling, but how positive is the presentiment of one who is pessimistic. After a few days they called me back telling me that I had to go back to Rome. I did not know why, but already only the phone call, it filled me with joy. Maybe I had to take another test? I know it may sound strange, but I really did not know what to expect. Then in reality the reason for the summons to Rome was to tell me that I had been taken, I was in the cast of Ti Lascio Una Canzone.
Bravo, Ignazio, you’re in! What does Piero remember about the Audition….
What do I remember from the audition?
I remember that it was in Via dei Gracchi in Rome, that I arrived there with La Voce Del Silenzio and the unfailing Un Amore Così Grande and that with the suits that my father bought me, I felt like a king.
‘Mr. Barone, we’ll let you know’ they told Dad when I finished singing. After five days, the longest of my life, they call and say: ‘Prepare these five pieces for the next audition.’ Those five tracks were:
Sei Nell’Anima of Gianna Nannini,
La Voce Del Silenzio,
Un Amore Così Grande
Voglio Vivere Così
Domenica E’ Sempre Domenica
The aim was to test myself on different genres, of course, to understand which one was the most suitable for me. So, I get to the recording studio in Rome and start singing. Only shortly thereafter, they stop the music. The first so, the second so and I was already demoralized: if a test does not make you even to the refrain is not a good sign. The first thing I thought was that I did not go well. At the third track I attack the refrain, ‘Un Amore Così …….” and they stop the musical base. When I left the recording room and arrived in the mixer room, I found dad with my brother and a friend who had come to Cosenza with us at the Tour Music Fest, all three beautiful smiling, quiet. I died and they are happy. There is something wrong. Roberto Cenci looks at me and tells me: “Bravo, Piero: you are inside the program.” But I really believed it only when they brought me to the seamstress.
Bravo Piero you’re in too. Actually, thinking back, did anyone ever doubt they would get in with those three amazing voices.
So what happens next is like watching a train go by. Everything is moving fast and coming into place. The competition has begun, and people are starting to understand who these three boys are. Not just some kid who came to a competition with hopes, no they were three kids with voices that could knock you out. The producers, directors everyone around them is feeling something special. The next thought is what do we do with amazing voices like theirs?
To see where this is all going, let’s return to Piero who will begin by telling us what happened with the Rehearsals….
Ti Lascio Una Canzone was aired in the Ariston Theater in Sanremo, but the first rehearsals for the transmission we made in Rome starting in March.
Upon landing at Fiumicino, there was a coach from the editorial staff waiting for us. We were still just a group of kids who did not know each other, we came from different parts of Italy, and we were different ages. I did not know what to expect.
I get on this bus and the first person I immediately notice is a nuisance who sang (sang from morning to night, in continuation), who screamed, screamed, was never silent, never stopped. It went on all the way, I cannot forget it, especially because from Fiumicino to Rome center there is about an hour’s drive. All that time talking, screaming and singing, damn him.
Arrival at the hotel it was not difficult to start meeting other guys. But do you know how certain things go? It was easy for people in the same room to communicate with each other. But I wanted to get to know the others, so alone, I went down in the hall, and I found Luigi Fronte, who was a little one for me because I was fifteen, Micaela Foti and the guy who was singing on the bus.
‘Hi, pleasure, I’m Piero’, I introduce myself.
‘Hi, I’m Manuela.’
And this other one? ‘I am Ignazio, presents himself.’
With Ignazio from the first moment, a strong relationship has been established. What do you mean? We were looking for each other. We were always together: I, him and Luigi. Luigi was the mascot, the little one who was with us. We rehearsed with Ignazio, we talked, we joked. Maybe because he was Sicilian like me. Gianluca, I did not know him right away, there was not a great bond from the beginning, he built himself with time.
From that very first Wednesday of trials, I remember perfectly because I seemed to see the same images of the choir: I and Ignazio sitting on the left and around a lot of females. I sang, ‘Non Ti Scordar Di Me,’ at the first episode and ‘Mamma’ at the second, ‘Granada’ at the third.
We sang on Saturday night on Sunday I had the flight back to Sicily. Monday, Denise was preparing all the things to learn, she told me the pages to study, ‘Of history, do this.’ ‘I have stressed the words to remember.’ I arrived at school on Tuesday morning, I did all the interrogations and left the following day.
When I got to the rehearsals, we had to have already prepared the pieces that had been assigned to us. The editorial staff sent us all Monday and we had to study them at home for the next installment.
On Monday, between the end of the third episode and the beginning of the fourth, I get the text of ‘Un Amore Così Grande’ to sing alone – so far, all normal – and of ‘’O Sole Mio’ divided into three parts. What will this thing be?
In which it is said that alone you can go far, but in company even more. And it’s even more fun.
Piero, I think you boggle Ignazio’s mind. Slow down for a minute and let the others tell what happened to them. Ignazio seems to have some other concerns….
How much do you run Piero!
He is already on the fourth installment and I’m still here thinking about how nervous I was that night. It was April 4, 2009, the evening of the start of the program. Who had ever faced a television experience? It is also true that this agitation of television I only had it at the beginning. Yes, we were all aware that this was television, but for the ingenuity we had at that age, for us it was like singing in the home theater. And then, I had already seen theaters and stages. The thing that made me understand that there was something different was to see all the famous guests. But for the rest, we realized little of the difference.
Even stranger was that until then I had arrived as quiet as usual. Perhaps also because in the previous week I had the opportunity to meet my fellow adventurers, and I had immediately linked with Veronica Liberati, Sonia Mosca and Piero Barone, a Sicilian boy like me who did a little the kind that belonged to me. I had also known Gianluca Ginoble but I attended him less because he was part of the group of ‘jocks’ (even today we take it around because some remained so!)
‘La Nostra Favola’ was my debut song on the first episode, I even got the words wrong, but it went very well. On returning to Marsala, I clearly felt that things were changing, people recognized me, but I tried to take everything with great humility. The first rule for me has always been to keep my feet on the ground. The more weeks passed, the more people recognized me, but I tried to remain the same as always.
To get ready for rehearsals, the week before the episode, they gave us the songs to study for the evening. And at the third night I get the songs that I would have to sing the following Saturday, at the fourth episode. There was something strange. There were songs that I would have done alone, but also ‘’O Sole Mio that’ I would have to sing with two other guys.
What news was that?
Okay, so it seems Ignazio has it together. He understands the situation and what is expected of him. Actually, not very different from what he was used to in competition except for the special guests and this strange trio thing. And what did Gianluca think about the rehearsals….
Ignazio, I do not believe you were amazed by that news! In my opinion, the earthquake-Ignazio was not astonished, but he surprised others. At the audition, I told you, I have no memory of having seen neither he nor Piero. But once the selections were over, we were all put together in Rome, I do not remember in which hotel, from where we started by coach to go to rehearsals with the RAI orchestra.
Here, from there it was impossible not to notice Ignatius. We were a total of about thirty kids with their parents, and he was screaming, singing, making a mess, he alone seemed to be the choirs of the southern corner of Rome (football team) all together. Ignazio has always been like that, even today he is, he will never lose this way even at the age of fifty, and that’s what makes him special.
And Piero? Of him, I’m sorry to admit it, I have no particular memories of that period. We were all in the same hotel, but we were many and I tied up with other guys first. But there was a nice climate, we all have a lot of fun together.
Of the Ti Lascio Una Canzone period, I also remember another emotion, that of the long journey I did every week by car from Roseto to Sanremo.
My week was organized like this: on Monday and Tuesday I went to school, I was doing the eighth grade, and on Wednesday morning between six and seven we went to Sanremo with my father. The time to arrive and the tests were announced for three days, until Friday. On Saturday there was the transmission and on Sunday morning we left for Roseto. It was a long journey, a bit for the many hours in the car and the miles we did every week, a bit because I was away from home, in the hotel, away from the rest of my family and all my friends. But I’ve never been sad, I never complained, because I was so happy to sing.
On the first trip to Sanremo I remember the arrival. What do I mean? The first episode of the broadcast would have aired on Saturday 4 April. I arrived at the hotel on Monday, March 30th, while everyone else arrived on Thursday. There was nobody, the desert. Of the other trips I remember Andre Bocelli. When in March we started the rehearsals in Rome, I spent Tuesday afternoons, strictly only after the homework, to listen to his CDs, and I continued to do it also in the car to Sanremo. That’s how I learned all his repertoire. ‘Do you know this?’ they asked me to see how far I could know his songs. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I know all of them by heart:’
Among other things, from mid-January to mid-March of that year, ‘TV Sorrisi e Canzoni’ had published every week a disc of the discography of Bocelli, consisting of ten CDs. Every Monday I went to the newsagent and bought the newspaper with the attachment. Imagine a child of thirteen who goes to the newsstand, punctual and excited because I was very happy, to buy a CD of a musical genre that his peers do not even know exists. But I was like that, I was really in love with that music. At that time, we say that it was as if each of us three had a role in transmission.
Piero was the Claudio Villa of the situation, Ignazio was Massimo Ranieri and Albano, and I was Bocelli. It was like having entered a little in one part and I became even more passionate about Bocelli’s music, which had become for me an idol and an inspiration.
My idol, however, was absolutely forbidden on school days, Monday and Tuesday, the only two who were free from the commitments of the TV. Ti Lascio Una Canzone started on 4 April 2009 and ended on 30 May, a period that coincided with the school months in which I had to prepare for the eighth-grade exam. Before that, there had been rehearsals in Rome throughout the month of March.
From March to the end of May, it was impossible to study on the days dedicated to rehearsals. I did homework and school questions on Monday and Tuesday, before returning to Sanremo. I told you, at school I have always been a lazy man, but despite all that year I managed to keep my average, in some matters I had the capacity six and some other seven. At the school interviews with the parents before the exams, my father heard the same thing from all the teachers: ‘All right, he kept the average.’ They were not telling me that I was a genius, I never was, but I managed to do well despite my commitments. So, my dad was satisfied.
From May 30th, when the broadcast ended, I had time to prepare for the eighth-grade exam, which went well.
If I really have to tell it all, what hurt me at the time were the comments of some of my peers in the country, who said that I was promoted only because I went on television. Imagine: I was thirteen, I had lived a dream, I had committed myself to be able to meet all the deadlines at school and then those comments come. Fortunately, that summer took another turn.
It started taking it on Monday before the episode of April 25, 2009, when I got the songs that I had to prepare and I saw that there was one, ‘’O Sole Mio,’ divided into three parts. Of course, a little strange it seemed to me. Almost all of us had made duets in transmission, but no trio had been composed until that moment.
I had no idea what to expect. Maybe I did not even ask. The important thing, I told you, was to sing and have fun.
So, The Audition is over, but the Rehearsals go on. Soon everything will change. No one could even imagine what would happen next.
That was quite a journey from home to Via dei Gracchi and on to Sanremo. The thoughts of how it would be are now in the past. Now it’s time to concentrate on what will happen next. The guys are in place to meet their destiny but are they prepared for what lies ahead. And are their families ready for what will happen in their lives and the lives of all their family members. It’s all moving to fast now. The train has left the station and it is now in high speed. Next stop Stardom. 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!
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*Excerpts from Il Volo, Un’avventura straordinaria, La nostra storia.
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