Andrea Bocelli (born September 22, 1958 in Lajatico , Tuscany, Italy) is a singer, writer and music producer.

An operatic tenor, he has released three complete operas (La Boheme, Il travatore, and Tosca) and over eight other albulms, both classical and popular in style. He has two sons Amos (b. 1995) and Matteo (b. 1997). He was married but has since separated from his only wife, Enrica.

As a child Andrea was already playing the church organ and at the age of 12 won the Margherita d'Oro in Viareggio with O sole mio, his first competition win. After working for a year as a lawyer (he graduated as a Doctor of Law from the University of Pisa) he undertook singing lessons from Maestro Luciano Bettarini, taking up music full time.

National recognition

The Italian rock star Zucchero Fornaciari first auditioned Andrea while scouting for tenors in 1992; upon hearing the tape Pavarotti urged Zucchero to use Andrea instead of himself. In 1994 Andrea performed the winning entry Il mare calmo della sera in the San Remo Festival, which lead to his first Golden Disc. That year he debuted as Macduff in Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth, sang at Pavarotti's benefit concert at Modena, and before the Pope at Christmas.

In the 1995 San Remo festival Andrea won fourth place singing Con Te Partirò .

International recognition

In 1996 in Germany with soprano Sarah Brightman he sang an English version of Con Te Partiro, entitled Time to Say Goodbye, which broke sales records and stayed in the German top ten for nearly six months. In subsequent years Andrea performed at Paris, Bologna, Torre del Lago and the Vatican, and released further albums, until entering the American market in 1998 with a concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington and a White House reception. Both that year and in 1999 Andrea embarked on tours to North and South America and duets with Céline Dion. Andrea's albums top the US classical album charts. In 2002 Andrea repeated his America tour, winning two World Music Awards.