Il Volo
Il Volo (pronounced [il ˈvoːlo]; transl. 'the flight') is an Italian operatic pop trio, consisting of Gianluca Ginoble, Piero Barone, and Ignazio Boschetto. They describe their music as "popera".[1] Having won the Sanremo Music Festival 2015, they represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Grande amore", finishing first in the televote and third overall.[2]
History[edit]
Beginning (Ti lascio una canzone) (2009–2010)[edit]
In 2009, Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto and Gianluca Ginoble were among the teens competing in the Italian televised singing competition Ti lascio una canzone, held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo and broadcast by Rai 1.[3] During the first episodes, they performed several songs as solo artists. Among the others, Gianluca Ginoble's rendition of "Il mare calmo della sera", originally by Andrea Bocelli, won the first episode of the show, and later came in first place during the final held on 2 May 2009.[4]
Director and creator of the show, Roberto Cenci, had the idea to put them together, with the purpose to create a trio similar to The Three Tenors (Plácido Domingo, José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti).[5] During the fourth episode of the show, they performed together for the first time, singing Neapolitan classic song "'O sole mio".[6][7]
While in Los Angeles, Italian singer-songwriter and music producer Tony Renis casually discovered their performance through Rai International.
Impressed by the trio, he decided to call Cenci to arrange a meeting with them. Since they were under the age of 18, Cenci talked with the singers' families, and they decided to trust Renis' proposal to work with him.[5]
Thanks to lawyer Peter Lopez, Renis met with Geffen Records' Jimmy Iovine and Ron Fair and they offered a recording deal to the group, which allowed them to become the first Italian artists to directly sign with an American recording label.[5][8] Producer Michele Torpedine started to work with them as a manager.[7][9]
The group was initially named "I Tre Tenorini", but their name was later changed to "The Tryo".[10] With this name, in 2010 the group participated in the charity single "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", a remake of the 1985 hit song "We Are the World".[11]
In February of the same year, they also performed the songs "Granada" and "Un amore così grande" for Queen Rania of Jordan during the 60th Sanremo Music Festival.[12] In late 2010, their name was finally changed into "Il Volo" (English: the flight)
Controversy[edit]
Hotel Garni du Lac incident[edit]
On 29 September 2015, Italian media reported that Il Volo had trashed a room of the Hotel Garni du Lac, in Locarno, where they were staying. Apparently, the managers of the hotel had released some interviews to the German broadcast ZDF and later to the Italian media La Regione and Liberatv, complaining about the acts of vandalism the trio had put into place before leaving the premises. Allegedly, they stated that "objects, mattresses and laundry had been haphazardly thrown everywhere", and that "there was urine out of the toilet in the bathroom and the room walls had been smeared with fecal matter". Seemingly, the behaviour was to be explained with a sort of revenge for the room carpeting, to which the trio was allergic. Il Volo's press manager Danilo Ciotti commented the news immediately after stating that "it's true that they don't love carpeting because of allergies, but I don't believe they caused damages intentionally".[96][97] Subsequently, Barbara D'Urso arranged a live meeting during the Italian TV broadcast Pomeriggio 5 between the director of the Hotel du Lac and Il Volo's press managers. The director denied all the statements attributed to him, clearly saying that all the story was fake news, resizing the events to some unmade beds and some pamphlets fallen from the desk in one of the rooms where the trio was staying.[98][99]
Drug in Boschetto's drink[edit]
Boschetto revealed that he was drugged during a party after a concert in Miami, waking up on the grass without remembering anything. The singer found himself completely confused with no memory of the night before. Apparently, a friend of his died in a car accident after being in that same venue the following month.[100]
