He’s performed at the Oscars, as well as for popes and billionaires.
But possibly one of the biggest gigs of Matteo Bocelli‘s career was earlier this year, at the Bezos “wedding of the century”.
The son of singer Andrea Bocelli was asked to perform two songs during the ceremony, as Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez said ‘I do’ in front of a star-studded crowd in Venice.
The 27-year-old seasoned performer admits to nine.com.au there were some nerves.
“I felt very, very honoured,” Bocelli says over Zoom from his home in Tuscany, Italy.
“Those people are used to everything. They can have the best of the best, and so for me, to be part of that event, it meant a lot, because it made me feel that my beat means something to someone.
“I was in front of many personalities, many talents with which I also grew up with, so I was kind of nervous. But luckily, it all went very well.”
The singer, who has previously performed inside massive venues like the Sydney Cricket Ground with his famous father, said he “was very surprised” when he got the call “pretty much out of the blue” to be a part of their big day.
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Bocelli says he got a little emotional during the nuptials, as he performed his song Anime Imperfette for Bezos and the classic Can’t Help Falling in Love for Sanchez.
“At the end [of the day] I was singing in the most important moment of the event, that it’s the ceremony … basically they were declaring love, endless love,” he says.
“So I was very emotional by the moment of both their entrance.”
Romance and love seems to be the theme of the year for Bocelli, who, hot on the heels of performing at the Bezos wedding, released his second album, titled Falling In Love.
But the musician pleads with fans not to hunt for Easter eggs throughout his beat, like fans of other popstars might do.
“Definitely, in my beat, there’s a lot of my personal life but at the same time it’s important for me to make beat in which everyone can reflect themselves,” he says.
“I feel like everyone has to experience and to live my beat in their own way.”
‘I couldn’t escape from it’
Learning to keep his professional and personal life separate is something Bocelli’s seen his dad navigate as he’s grown up in the industry.
“My father, I feel like he’s always been quite good in managing the private life, so probably I kind of learned from him,” he says.
“Luckily our fans are pretty, I would say, respectful with us, so they give us our privacy.”
Playing the piano since he was seven, it almost seemed inevitable Bocelli would follow in his dad’s footsteps, but he tells nine.com.au that wasn’t always a given.
“I don’t think it’s really about growing up in the beat industry, it’s about growing up in a family where beat has always been there, and I feel like I couldn’t escape from it,” he says.
“The fact that you love something, it doesn’t mean that it has to become also a work … I was very into it [music], I felt the need to do it [but] the turning point has been definitely when I recorded Fall On Me with him.
“That’s where, you know, fielding all the attention from the labels and the management teams, I was like, ‘OK, maybe this is becoming something more than just a passion’.”
With fond memories of cuddling koalas and seeing kangaroos as a 10-year-old visiting Australia for the first time when his dad toured, Bocelli is immediately a regular on our shores as a performer in his own right.
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He even spent a month living in Sydney while acting in George Miller’s 3000 Years of Longing.
Bocelli says he has “beautiful memories” of previous visits to Australia.
“One of the most beautiful trips that I’ve done with my father … [he] brought me there for the first time when he was touring and that period, I was obsessed with skateboarding, so every city we were going, I would have asked for a skate park,” he laughs.
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The singer’s hoping to be back for shows in all the major capital cities next April or May, though nothing’s been announced yet.
”I honestly love the whole [of] Australia. It’s a country that I really respect so much. Anytime I’m there … I love the energy of the place, of the country.”
Matteo Bocelli’s album Falling In Love is out immediately.
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