Andrea Bocelli has said he warned his son Matteo about the “difficulties” he would face if he followed him into a career in the music industry.
The Italian tenor, 63, has three children including the budding performer, 24, who has been studying at the widely respected Lucca Conservatory.
He told the PA news agency that despite his words, his son had been confident he was ready for the challenge.
To get into the Christmas spirit we wanted to share with you the full performance of 'Adeste Fideles' taken from Believe In Christmas Encore global livestream which is on this weekend.
Watch the full video: https://t.co/IA7cKdVS8OGet your tickets: https://t.co/rISf54H1pS pic.twitter.com/4JIR88275F
— Andrea Bocelli (@AndreaBocelli) December 7, 2021
He said: “(My daughter) Virginia loves music, she likes to sing and is studying the piano, however at the moment her involvement in the limelight alongside her dad is a game and little more, as it should be.
“Matteo, on the other hand, is embarking on a career as an artist: despite the fact that I warned him about the difficulties he would encounter, he is sure of the choice that he has undertaken independently and that he is cultivating with passion, determination and promising results.
“I’m pleased. The success he’s achieving with his first single Solo bodes well.”
Bocelli, whose Christmas show Believe In Christmas is airing again this week, announced in May 2020 that he and members of his family had caught coronavirus.
The acclaimed singer said he lost his voice for two weeks.
He said: “I just lost my voice for two weeks as well as my sense of taste and smell at the time. Most of my family had Covid at the same time, in almost asymptomatic form. I had already recovered by Spring 2020.
“I wasn’t afraid but I felt a lot of frustration and sadness, thinking about the suffering of so many less fortunate people, about the pain of those who have lost loved ones, without even being able to be there without even being able to be there with them.”
Weeks after recovering from the virus, he performed a live-streamed concert from the empty Duomo cathedral in Milan to mark Easter Sunday.
Bocelli said it had been a “hugely moving” experience.
“I believe that is yet another demonstration that people are increasingly hungry for beauty and spirituality,” he told PA.
“That they need to begin again from higher values and to dialog with one’s own soul. I chose to be in Milan, during the most acute period of the first lockdown and on Easter day, to pray together, at a painful time, and reaffirm the life-saving power of the Christian message.
“It was hugely moving to feel so much unity and fellowship in the forced separation. It was truly an unforgettable experience.”
Andrea Bocelli’s Believe In Christmas – Encore, recorded at the Teatro Regio Di Parma, streams globally between December 10 and 12 online. A portion of the proceeds will benefit The Andrea Bocelli Foundation.