Andrea Bocelli seemed cursed from his birth on September 22, 1958 in Lajatico, Tuscany, Italy. The doctors diagnosed him with glaucoma, the catch-all visual disorder that could result in the loss of sight. Bocelli did not spend the next few years preparing to be blind though, instead he found a profound love of music. First he learned the piano; then instruments like the flute, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, harp, guitar, and drums; and finally he was blessed with a voice that would one day lead to Andrea Bocelli tickets being sold world wide.
He began performing before crowds of relatives and close family friends at little parties around town. All the while he was singing, his sight began to falter. By the age of 12, glaucoma had robbed him of his ability to see. Bocelli continued his schooling, graduating secondary school in 1980 and going on to earn a law degree from the University of Pisa.
After earning his law degree Andrea Bocelli spent a year as a court-appointed attorney. The pay was difficult to live on though, so he began performing at piano bars to support himself. In 1987, while performing at one of these gigs he met his wife Enrica. He also began to collect a group of friends that whole-heartedly believed in his talent.
One of these friends, Caterina Caselli convinced Andrea Bocelli to record a part on a demo. The demo was for Italian rock star Zucchero. Zucchero was trying to recruit noted Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti to perform on the official release of the song Miserere. Pavarotti heard the demo and liked the song but insisted that Zucchero keep Andrea Bocelli on the official recording. Zucchero would not be dissuaded and eventually convinced Pavarotti to perform the recorded duet.
The demo and specifically Andrea Bocelli's performance on the demo would not be lost on Zucchero. During Zucchero's 1993 European tour it was Andrea Bocelli not Pavarotti that would appear on stage for the duets. Eventually the association with Zucchero would pay big dividends. After singing the hit song and Nessun Dorma at the rock star's birthday Andrea Bocelli was signed to the Sugar Music record label in Milan.
Bocceli eventually chose to go the more traditional path of a tenor. In 1994 he competed in the Sanremo Festival and won the newcomers section with his rendition of Il Mare Calmo Della Sera. Andrea followed the award by recording his debut album. The album, named after the song, went platinum in Italy after just a few weeks on the shelves.
The success continued for the Italian tenor as he joined fellow country man and pop singer Gerardina Trovato on tour. After selling tickets for concerts, Bocceli used his new found fame to star in the operatic version of Macbeth at Teatro Verdi in Pisa.
Everything was going extremely well for the blind tenor. In 1995 he returned to the festival that helped launch his career, this time placing fourth with the song Con te partiro. The next album to be released was the self-titled Bocelli. The album went double platinum in Italy and charted well around Europe.
Andrea Bocceli had become a phenomenon in Italy and few other European countries, but had yet to break into the coveted English speaking market. That next step came in 1996 when he and English soprano Sarah Brightman performed a duet before the final fight for German IBF World Light-Heavyweight Henry Maske. The duet was re-recorded in English under the name Time to Say Goodbye. The London Symphany Orchestra backed the duet and the album dominated the German charts.
