Il Volo

In 2009 the three members of Il Vovo, tenors Piero Barone and Ignazio Boschetto, and baritone Gianluca Ginoble, all competed as teenagers in the televised singing competition “Ti lassie luna canzone”. Ginolble’s version of the Andrea Bocelli song “Il mare calm della sera” went on to win the first episode, after which the director of the show Roberto Cenci had the idea of putting the three singers together. Adopting a similar format to the infamous Three Tenors, the group performed for the first time with the single “O sole mil” on the fourth episode of the show. Singer-songwriter and music producer Rony Renis subsequently heard the performance and went to great lengths to sign them to Geffen Records.

Originally named “I Tre Tenorini”, the group contributed to the 2010 charity single “We Are the World 25 for Haiti”, a rendition of the 1985 hit “We Are the World”. Towards the tail-end of 2010 the name was changed to Il Vovo and the group recorded their debut, self-titled album in the Abbey Road Studios in London, England, which featured the national and international numbers “Il mondo”, “Un amore cosí grande”, and Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile”. Issued by Geffen Records in November 2010 the record peaked at No. 6 on the Italian Albums Chart, representing their mainstream breakthrough. The U.S. release of the album was promoted by appearances on “Good Morning America”, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”, and “The Tonight Show”, and charted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200.

Il Vovo’s sophomore album “We Are Love” failed to achieve the success of its debut, peaking at No. 100 on the Billboard 200 upon its release in 2010. Featuring duets with the likes of Placido Domingo and Eros Ramazzotti, the album was promoted by performing at the 80th annual tree lighting at the Rocketfeller Center in New York. A month later the group also sung at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway, performing the tracks “Il Monde” and “We Are Love”, before the group embarked on their 2012 South American Tour.

The internationally released Christmas album “Buon Natale: The Christmas Album” earned its release in October 2013, featuring classic Christmas songs from Latin, Spanish, German, and English-speaking cultures. The record topped the Billboard Holiday Albums chart after which Il Vovo received two Latin Billboard Music Award nominations for Top Latin Albums Artist of the Year and Latin Pop Albums Artist of the Year for which they won the latter. The group’s third official album “Sanremo grande amore” arrived in February 2015 led by the single “Grande amore”. Featuring covers of infamous songs by Eduardo De Crescenzo, Matia Bazar, and Renato Rascel, the album topped the Italian Albums Chart and peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Classical Albums Chart.