Born on September 22nd, 1958 in Lajatico, Italy, Andrea was brought up on his small family vineyard in a farming community in rural Tuscany. From the time Andrea was born he had trouble with his sight and was later diagnosed with Glaucoma. In 1972, at age 12, he had an accident while playing soccer and lost his sight completely.
Andrea showed musical promise at an early age, starting piano at age 6 and taking up flute and saxaphone soon after. It was singing though that was Andrea’s biggest musical talent and passion. When he was 12 he won a musical competition for his singing. He made his way through law school at the University of Pisa by performing in piano bars. After that he worked as an attorney for a year before quitting and pursuing a career in music.
His stardom began when an Italian rock star named Zucchero was auditioning tenors for a duet called Miserere that he wrote with Bono. Zucchero was looking to convince Luciano
Pavorotti to sing the final version of the song. Andrea won the job of making the demo, but when Pavarotti heard Andrea sing, he insisted Andrea’s voice was so good that Zucchero should just use Bocelli instead. Ultimately Pavarotti agreed to do the duet but when Zucchero went on tour he chose Andrea to go along with him to sing the part in place of Pavarotti. Eventually Andrea received a solo part and soon after that, in 1993, Andrea had his own recording deal with Inseieme/Sugar Records.
After winning two singing competitions in 1993 and 1994 with record high scores, Andrea’s first album Il Mare Calmo Della Sera was released and went platinum in Italy. His second album Bocelli faired even better, reaching double platinum in Italy, sextuple platinum in Belgium, and quadruple platinum in Germany and Holland. From Bocelli came the single Con Te Partiro which was a huge hit earning triple gold in France, and was the biggest hit ever in Belgium (12 weeks at no. 1). In 1997, he released an album internationally for the first time. Romanza which went multi-platinum in almost all countries that it was released.
Outside of making successful albums Andrea performs on stage and on screen. He has been in operas such as La Boheme, Macbeth, and Tosca. He also sang a song for the soundtrack of Quest for Camelot and made the videos A Night in Tuscany and Sacred Arias. With his most recent albums Sogno and Sentimiento in 1999 and 2002 Andrea showed that his successes are growing and will continue to grow.
