Bocelli, Andrea  ( born Sept. September 22, 1958 , Lajatico, near Pisa, ItalyItalian opera tenor noted for his unique blend of opera and pop music.


Bocelli’s breakthrough came in 1992, when he was asked by Italian pop star Zucchero Fornaciari to record a demo of Miserere, a song intended for renowned vocalist Luciano Pavarotti. Pavarotti was highly impressed with Bocelli’s voice, and the two became friends. The next year Bocelli signed a recording contract; , and his debut album went platinum , Il mare calmo della sera (1994), brought him further attention in Europe. In 1995 he released Bocelli, which featured the single Con te partirò was released. It later became He later recorded the song as a duet in English (Time to Say Goodbye) with Sarah Brightman, and both versions became hits. Bocelli’s popularity continued to grow in 1997 with in the United States grew in 1997 with the release of Romanza—which collected songs from his previous albums and eventually sold more than 15 million copies worldwide—and with repeated PBS airings of his live show Romanza in Concert: A Night in Tuscany and the release of Romanza, which sold more than 15 million copies.

Though he claimed opera as his first love, Bocelli mixed arias with popular music on his recordings (a genre referred to by the press as “popera”) in an effort to expand his audience base. Criticized by some reviewers as being too lightweight to be taken seriously by the opera world, Bocelli nevertheless performed in The Merry Widow in 1999, singing three arias, and made his U.S. American operatic debut later that year in the title role of Jules Massenet’s Werther at the Michigan Opera Theatre. Also in 1999, Bocelli released Sogno, which, after selling some three million copies in less than two months, made Bocelli the first classical artist to have an album top the pop charts. Among the album’s highlights were The Prayer, a duet with Céline Dion. His later works include Still, while his Sacred Arias (1999) sold remarkably well for a strictly classical recording, he found greater commercial success with Sogno (1999), which featured a duet with pop star Céline Dion (The Prayer).

Among Bocelli’s 21st-century releases are Cieli di Toscana (2001; “Skies of Tuscany”); the pop album -focused Amore (2006), which featured included guest appearances by Christina Aguilera and Stevie Wonder; and Incanto (2008the holiday collection My Christmas (2009); and the live album Concerto: One Night in Central Park (2011). In addition to recording, he toured extensively and in 2006 made his , making his debut at the New York Philharmonic debutin 2006 and at the Metropolitan Opera in 2011. The memoir Musica del silenzio (The Music of Silence) was released published in 2001.