Few artists command excitement and anticipation with a new project or concert date on the scale of renowned Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. The vocal sensation recently completed his largest tour yet, a 21-city trek following the 2020 release of his 17th studio album, Believe, and has now returned to the U.S. for his annual In Concert For Valentine’s tour. His Las Vegas show on Feb. 18 at MGM Grand Garden Arena will be a special endeavor—his son Matteo, a burgeoning recording artist himself, joins Bocelli onstage. But as you’re about to find out, Las Vegas is always a special outing for this treasured performer.
You must be excited to return to Las Vegas once again. What was it like for you to be away from the stage for such a long time?
It is truly a great joy. During the forced hiatus caused by the pandemic, I very much missed the direct and intense relationship I was able to establish regularly with a live audience. I missed the physicality of live performances, whose power can never be replaced by a computer screen. I lost count of how many concerts I held throughout the years in your city, a place where I perceive powerful empathy. Las Vegas is a city I got to know and appreciate, a place of entertainment, of light-heartedness, but also of great solidarity. A land that is extremely fascinating for its modernity and, conversely, for its surrounding, even proudly wild, natural environment. I always have Las Vegas concerts at heart, because it’s a place where I have many friends and where the audience’s affection gives me enormous energy every time.
You released Believe in November 2020. How meaningful is it to be able to properly tour behind this material and perform these songs live in front of your fans?
During the first lockdown, I felt the impulse to realize a project dedicated to the driving force of the spirit, offering my contribution to what I believe is an ever-compelling need, that is, the need to find one’s own inner dimension. The album expresses a heterogeneous journey, alternating the work of great classic composers with popular romance and actual songs. I wanted to include in Believe a few unedited pieces of important composers such as Giacomo Puccini and Ennio Morricone, and others not strictly religious but full of religiosity, such as “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” These are songs that I love deeply, and that I am excited to be able to perform live.
The album contains themes of faith and hope, obviously helpful and potentially healing for people to connect to right now. Do you feel a responsibility as an artist to uplift people with your music?
It’s essential to me, as an artist and as a man of faith, to share the power of the message of a project that hinges on three concepts—faith, hope, and charity—the fundaments of Christian action. I see Believe as an incentive to find new optimism, to change our approach toward life, putting in play the values that I personally find in the gospel.
Your son and tourmate Matteo just released his new single, “Close.” What does it feel like to listen to him perform?
Before being an artist, I am a father. In my attempt to make the most objective assessment possible, I honestly believe that his new song is truly powerful, and that Matteo has found his way and his own style. I am extremely happy about that. When we are then able to have our commitments coincide and share the same stage, it’s always a great joy, great excitement for me. I never pressured my son into this profession. I can, in fact, say that I did the direct opposite: I warned him about a world whose pitfalls I know all too well. He was stubborn, and I believe that time proved him right, because these first steps in the industry have already shed light on his potential and, I believe, talent.
MGM Grand, 8 p.m. Feb. 18, starting at $83 plus tax and fees. axs.com
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