Andrea Bocelli opens up on Music For Hope lockdown performance – ‘Moment of great emotion’

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Andrea Bocelli stunned the world on Easter Sunday when he gave an incredible live-streamed performance. The solo concert took place from an empty Duomo di Milano (Milan’s cathedral), before he concluded his five-song set outside on the 14th century building’s steps. Music For Hope has been watched over 41 million times on YouTube to date and now the Italian tenor has opened up on what was one of the most iconic performances of his career.

Speaking exclusively with Express.co.uk, Bocelli said: “It was a moment of great emotion and regeneration.

“Music is an expression of the sacred, a readily available bridge across which faith can be revealed to us beyond the veil of our noisy, everyday lives.”

The 62-year-old said that while the Duomo di Milano was empty, the loneliness was a sort of mirage.”

He said: “There were really millions of us there, interconnected through music, and I gave my voice to both their prayer and my own.”

Bocelli added: “Our Christian Easter, with its message of love and redemption, seemed to me like the perfect time to take a moment to stop and reflect upon things, as well as offering a moment of hope.”

The singer was invited by the City of Milan and the cathedral to give “an uplifting message of love, healing and hope through music.”

His solo performance saw him sing Panis Angelico’s, Ave Maria, Sancta Maria and Domine Deus before ending with Amazing Grace on the steps of the cathedral.

Inside the Duomo, Bocelli was accompanied by cathedral organist Emanuele Vianelli.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/huTUOek4LgU

While his final song, Amazing Grace, was sung completely unaccompanied on the steps of the cathedral.

Now Bocelli is releasing his latest album in Believe, which features new duets and a previously unreleased Ennio Morricone track, composed before the 91-year-old died this summer.

Asked how its inclusion came about on the record, Bocelli said: “It’s a little musical gem within the new album.

“I’ve had the privilege of meeting Maestro Morricone several times, singing for him and being able to express all my admiration in person.”

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Bocelli added: “The song was composed a few weeks before he passed away, after a long life that has given us those immortal melodies.

“The musical sketches left by the Maestro included a solo line and a verse.

“Subsequently, an arrangement was prepared that restores a hymn that starts with a whisper and grows to become the voice – and prayer – of the whole world.”

While the tenor’s new duets on his Believe album were recorded remotely with Alison Krauss and Cecilia Bartoli.

Bocelli said of the record: “This is an album I hold very dear to my heart; the fruit of a long internal journey even more so than an external, artistic one.

“It’s a project with a purpose to put into words the musical dimension of spirituality by offering music that – at least for our intentions – can bring peace and harmony to those who listen to it.”

Andrea Bocelli’s Believe is released on Sugar/Decca Records on November 13, 2020.

The single You’ll Never Walk Alone is out now and fans can pre-order the brand new album here.

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