Italian operatic pop trio Il Volo coming to Boston 9/20
Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto and Gianluca Ginoble made their debut in 2009 as individual participants on the talent show “Ti lascio una canzone” on the Italian TV channel RAI 1, where they were spotted by Michele Torpedine, the manager that launched the careers of Andrea Bocelli, Zucchero, Giorgia and Biagio Antonacci, and who decided to work for them and with them on their international artistic journey, counting on their extraordinary vocal talents both individually and as a trio: in a very short space of time, they became the first Italian artists in history to sign a contract with a major American record label, Geffen Records.
Their self-titled debut album “Il Volo” (2010) went platinum and entered the US Billboard Top Ten. The trio appeared on major European and American television shows, including The Tonight Show, American Idol, Good Morning America, the Today Show, Wetten Dass in Germany and the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor DAY Telethon, and were present alongside UNICEF at the Venice Film Festival for children in the Horn of Africa.
A million copies of their “Special Christmas Edition” (2010) album, their first international tour and the broadcast of the first of their television specials, which has been repeated over a thousand times, turned them into global icons!
Still in 2010, they were the only Italian artists invited by Quincy Jones to “We Are The World for Haiti”, together with 80 international stars including Céline Dion, Bono, Lady Gaga, Carlos Santana, Barbra Streisand, Enrique Iglesias, Usher, Natalie Cole and Will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas.
They were nominated for two Latin Grammy awards for their releases. They embarked on a memorable twelve-concert tour with Barbra Streisand in the US and Canada (2012), which preceded the duets recorded from their second album “We Are Love” (2012) with Placido Domingo and Eros Ramazzotti, while the live album “Il Volo Takes Flight” and the album “Il Volo” occupied the top and second spots in the Billboard Classical Crossover chart.
In 2013, advance tickets went on sale for their first concert at the Radio City Music Hall in New York, and they sold 1600 tickets in just 8 hours (the concert sold out within a few days). This event kicked off their tour of the US, Canada, Central and South America, with 50 sold-out concerts, confirming Il Volo as the rising stars of operatic pop. “Buon Natale – The Christmas Album” was their third studio album to be released worldwide and contains some of the best-known Christmas classics. The trio took part in the big Christmas Concert in the Upper Basilica of Assisi, broadcast by RAI 1 on 25 December after the Pope’s Holy Mass.
In 2014, they received the Latin Pop Albums Artist of the Year, Duo or Group award at the Latin Billboard Awards in Miami.
On 21 December, the three young artists had the privilege of performing in a charity concert in the Chamber of the Senate of the Republic in Palazzo Madama, broadcast live on RAI 1, after the Angelus of Pope Francis from St. Peter’s Square.
In 2015, they were the absolute stars of the music scene. Il Volo won the 2015 Sanremo Music Festival with the song “Grande Amore” and SONY published their EP “Sanremo Grande Amore” which brought together famous songs from the history of the Festival reinterpreted with a contemporary, international twist. After their triumph at Sanremo 2015, the success of Il Volo was unstoppable: the group reached #1 on iTunes with their EP, single and accompanying video (which racked up record views on the web) and went straight in at the top of the FIMI/Gfk charts ranking the bestselling albums and singles with “Sanremo Grande Amore” and “Grande Amore” respectively, the former going Double Platinum and the latter Platinum.
Il Volo represented Italy at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest and the European television audience rewarded the group, giving it the top spot in the public phone vote, also continuing to support it in the sales charts: the single “Grande Amore” and the album “Sanremo Grande Amore” actually went straight to number one on the iTunes charts of the Eurovision countries. The public’s great fondness for the group was also demonstrated by the audience figures during the trio’s performance in the final, with theirs being the most watched of the evening. The public were not the only ones enthusiastic about Il Volo. Music critics also expressed positive opinions, giving the trio the prestigious Marcel Besançon Award 2015, voted for by the international press. Around the same time, the group’s fourth studio album “L’amore si muove”, was released by SONY in 45 countries, reaching the top of the charts in just a few days and allowing Il Volo to spend a long period in the Italian and international charts with three CD/DVD releases, while sales of their book “Un’avventura straordinaria”, published by Rizzoli, continued to rise.
The 2015 Italian tour took the trio’s concerts to the most prestigious venues, including Pompeii, where the extraordinary event was recorded by the US national television network PBS and broadcast in all states. The tour ended on 21 September at the Arena di Verona and was broadcast live on RAI 1. It marked the start of an extremely long tour in the US and South America and a European tour that sold out in the major capitals.
2016 and 2017 were years dedicated to the “Notte magica” project, a tribute to the 1990 event with the THREE TENORS, José Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti.
Piazza Santa Croce in Florence was the extraordinary setting for the “Notte Magica – A Tribute to the Three Tenors” concert, broadcast on Italian television on Canale 5, with the extraordinary participation of Placido Domingo, who has always been a true admirer of the group, taking part as a conductor. This concert marked the beginning of a triumphant world tour which in 2017, after 15 sold-out dates in the US, saw the group perform approximately 25 dates in Italy with equally successful sales, then continuing with a tour in Latin America and around the world. As well as being shown on primetime television on Canale 5, “Notte magica” was also filmed and broadcast in the US by the national PBS television network, as well as in over 500 cinemas in Italy and around the world. The worldwide publication of the CD and DVD containing the live recording of the concert went four times platinum in Italy. The numbers speak for themselves: few if any Italian artists have achieved the scale of global success reached by Il Volo.
In 2018, the group embarked on an international tour in Japan and Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia). They met with peacekeeping forces in Lebanon at UNIFIL bases and dedicated their Christmas concert to them at the Shama base and at the Tyre Theatre, broadcast by RAI 1 on 25 December with very high audience figures. Their end-of-year tribute in the programme “L’anno che verrà”, broadcast by RAI 1 on 31 December, met with similar public appreciation.
On Saturday 26 January 2019, the Italian trio performed in Panama on the occasion of the XXXIV World Youth Day, in front of Pope Francis and over a million people, during the Vigil ceremony, in Campo San Juan Pablo II. The event was broadcast worldwide. An appointment that came after another great artistic and compassionate adventure: in December 2018, Il Volo spent a few days at the UNIFIL base in Tyre, Lebanon, supporting Italian troops on a peace mission.
Il Volo received the Golden Creator Award, which YouTube gives to channels with more than 1 million subscribers.
2019 marked ten years in the business for Il Volo. The celebrations began with the 69th Sanremo Music Festival, where the trio reached the podium with “Musica che resta” (written by Gianna Nannini, among others). Subsequently 22 February saw the release of their album “Musica” (Sony Music), produced by Canova, and the start of their tour through Europe, Japan and America. 8 November 2019 saw the worldwide release of “10 Years” (Sony Music), the “Best of” Il Volo album including the DVD Live in Matera. The world tour that was due to follow the album was halted after a few months due to the health emergency that forced Il Volo to return early from the USA in March 2020.
During the health emergency, Il Volo accompanied fans around the world with their music, taking part in the most important worldwide streaming events, keeping an important sense of community alive and reminding people of the need to respect the rules of the health emergency in each country.
The Italian and worldwide tour was postponed until 2022.
The break in live performances enabled Il Volo to concentrate intensively on their new project, working on the repertoire of Ennio Morricone.
On 1 November 2020, the trio opened the “Formula 1 Emirates Emilia Romagna Grand Prix”, singing the Italian national anthem.
2021 began with Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto and Gianluca Ginoble appearing as guests at the Sanremo Music Festival with an emotional performance in honour of Ennio Morricone.
On 5 June, they performed for the first time live on RAI 1 in prime time from the Arena di Verona with the great event “IL VOLO – Tribute to ENNIO MORRICONE” recording a record audience of 4,702,000 viewers, equal to a 25.8% share. This is Il Volo’s only concert in Italy in 2021.
Il Volo are currently finalising their next recording project, dedicated to Morricone, which will be released by Sony Music worldwide by the end of 2021.
Don’t miss Italian operatic pop trio Il Volo coming to Boston 9/20 at Boch Center Wang Theatre! You can enter to win a pair of tickets below!