The great Opera and Classical singer Andrea Bocelli performed at the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, CA for two sold out nights (September 15 and 16). These would be Bocelli’s first headline Hollywood Bowl shows since 2023, as he performed as a guest at David Foster’s 75th Birthday celebration there in 2024 and last year performed at the KIA Forum on his Holiday tour.
Joining Bocelli throughout the show was Aida Garifullina, Edward Parks, Rusanda Panfili, Pia Toscano, Francesco Costa, Angelica Gismondo, Brittany O’Connor, and very special guests David Foster, Diane Warren, and Jennifer Hudson.
This was a show of Bocelli’s incredible music, legendary opera compositions, and covers. In the entire 20th and 21st century, few singers have been globally known like Bocelli. Bocelli, now 68, still has a perfect voice. In 2024 Bocelli celebrated his 30 years in music with an all star celebration including Ed Sheeran, David Foster, Christian Nodal, Brian May, Lang Lang, Jon Batiste, and many more. Bocelli is known as one of the greatest singers globally of any genre, however he’s quite a comedian as well, always making the audience laugh.
Bocelli has been awarded a Guinness World Record for his album Sacred Arias for simultaneously holding the top three spots on the U.S. Classical Albums chart, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and is a seven time World Music Award winner. Outside of music Bocelli has earned a law degree. Bocelli can sing in English, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin. Bocelli also had the best selling classical album by a solo artist of all time with Sacred Arias. In 2024 Bocelli released his latest album Duets, which is a compilation album celebrating his 30 year career, and four years before that he released Believe which includes covers of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” and “Amazing Grace,” with Alison Krauss.
This 2+ hour show featured Bocelli with a full orchestra and choir. The show began with Giuseppe Verdi’s "Di quella pira" and “La donna e mobile” a song everyone knows and was famously performed by Luciano Pavarotti in the 1987 film adaption of Rigoletto. There was also an instrumental Westside Story medley consisting of “ I Feel Pretty,” “Maria,’ “Tonight,” and “America.” This was followed by “Romanza,” which Bocelli performed on piano.
If there was one song that left the audience in tears it was the incredible “Time To Say Goodbye (Con Te Partiro).” This was the second to last song and Bocelli’s most famous one. This was followed by none other than the grand finale which was “Nessun Dorna” from Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot which has been covered by a variety of artists like Jeff Beck, Chris Botti, Jennifer Hudson and is part of Billy Joel’s shows before “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.”
For his foundation, Bocelli wore a one a kind Laker’s varsity jacket at the end of the show which was auctioned off online with a selling price of $250,000.
If there is any artist to see today that’ll blow anyone away, it’s Andrea Bocelli. The show left the crowd in awe, and stunned.
