He has the looks of a Roman demigod, with a voice that sends female fans dizzy with desire. Dark-eyed and warm-hearted with Thunderbirds eyebrows, Matteo Bocelli – youngest son of world-famous tenor Andrea – is the charismatic 6ft 6 classical-crossover star rapidly becoming the voice of romance for a new generation. As well as singing at Kourtney Kardashian’s 2022 wedding, Matteo performed at Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s nuptials in June (for an estimated £225,000.) Surely, you’d think, he must have an Achilles heel…Arrogance, perhaps. Ego? Entitlement? But no. In conversation, this reborn Adonis is polite, humble, and helpful; even a little bashful. Despite his super-rich fans, Matteo, 27, is quick to point out his songs aren’t for the few. “When you make music, you make music for everyone. Does it really matter who is listening as long as you give them good feelings? For me, that’s mission accomplished.”
As Bezos walked down the aisle on the idyllic Venetian island of San Georgio Maggiore, Matteo sang beautiful ballad Anime Imperfette (Imperfect Souls), as featured ironically on Netflix drama, From Scratch. “For Miss Snachez I performed Can’t Help Falling In Love” – a hit for Elvis in 1961. “It was a declaration of love and for me to be part of it with my music was an honour.” You’re engaged yourself, aren’t you? I ask, referring to internet rumours linking him to American Oscar-nominated actress and singer Sofia Carson. Matteo laughs. “That’s a big word,” he says, moving swiftly on. The pair’s sultry stand-alone duet on If I Knew, released last October, probably sparked the rumour.
Born in the Mediterranean seaside town of Forte dei Marmi, Bocelli is the second son of opera star Andrea and his first wife Enrica Cenzatti. They divorced when Matteo was five; he has a half-sister, Virginia, 15, from his father’s second marriage to Veronica Berti. “There was always a lot of music in my life – my father singing and performing. In his house, I heard Frank Sinatra and a lot of opera, in my mum’s house, it was Queen and Lionel Richie.” His elder brother Amos, a spatial engineer, provided heavier sounds. “He introduced me to AC/DC, Muse, Slipknot…” Matteo started learning piano at six, but Andrea had no idea his son could sing until he was 16. “My father didn’t know how much I was singing. He was travelling a lot and his house always full of people working, so mostly I was singing at my mum’s. She asked my father to listen to me sing…”
Matteo sent his early recordings to Canadian producer David Foster, a family friend, who bit immediately. “He wanted to record with me. My father said, ‘No. You’re not ready, you’re not prepared.’ He was trying to protect me. But I said, when will I have such a good and important chance again?” After leaving school, Bocelli studied vocal techniques and classical piano at the Luigi Boccherini Conservatory of Music. He made his stage debut at 18, singing Verdi at the Colosseum in Rome. He was 21 when he first recorded with his father. That song, 2018’s Fall On Me, has since been streamed globally more than 400million times. They sang it together at that year’s Royal Variety Performance. Matteo’s warm tenor voice and sultry gaze make his solo performances catnip for female fans. “Fans make fantasies about me,” he smiles. “Some I can’t tell you. Girls give me gifts. It’s crazy in a good way. Last year a woman gifted me a little piano and inside was every picture she had taken from every show she’d been to, each with a little story attached. It was nice.”
Fame’s downside? Social media conmen. “People with fake accounts posing as me asking for money. There is only one official account, any other account using my name is fake.” To date he has performed for King Charles III and Queen Camilla, President Joe Biden, and the Sussexes. But Matteo rates family over celebrity. “Together with music, the thing I love most is to spend quality time with my family and friends,” he says. “Sitting around a table with the people I love, with wine and food, talking about life and love.” La dolce vita in a nutshell.
Home is a Tuscan farmhouse with tomato vines, olive groves, chickens, pigs, and a dog called Tosca. Here you will find Bocelli tinkering with old cars or making his own pasta. His well-received debut album, 2023’s Matteo, featured Chasing Stars, a touching ballad penned by Ed Sheeran and his brother Matt. Ed had famously collaborated with dad Andrea on the 2017 track, Perfect Symphony, but Matteo had been a fan ever since he saw him open for Taylor Swift in 2014. “I knew him from Lego House, but the way he was able to entertain a whole stadium, just him and a guitar. Oh my gosh. That’s when I fell in love with him as an artist. It’s not just Ed’s music, though, he’s a wonderful human being.” US composer Jon Batiste impresses him too – “I love the way he just follows his soul.”
If he was just riding his father’s coattails, Matteo’s career would have already tanked. Instead, he’s acquired 1.7million followers on Instagram and more than 4.6million likes on TikTok. Authenticity is the key, he says. “It’s important in life to show yourself the way you really are. Music is about feelings and if you’re not authentic, people will sense it. Only by being convinced in yourself are you able to convince an audience. That’s the strength of every artist. If you don’t really love what you do, you don’t survive.” Along the way, Matteo has appeared in The Simpsons and made his screen debut with Hackney’s own Idris Elba in the 2022 fantasy film, Three Thousand Years Of Longing. Bocelli played Prince Mustafa, and sang Cautionary Tale on the soundtrack, Elba starred as the Djinn.
Matteo released his second album, Falling In Love on Friday. From epic opener To Get To Love You to the warm and melodious closer Caruso via the insidiously catchy For You, the 11 classy tracks are sauteed in timeless romance, languid longing, and pop sensibility. He co-wrote every original song with top-drawer tunesmiths including Toby Gad (Beyonce, John Legend) and Iain Archer (Liam Gallagher, Niall Horan). “The most important thing is to get in the room together with their ideas. I usually come up with different lyrics and musical suggestions, then we develop them. I enjoy that creative process.” He sees himself as a simple romantic singing ballads. The moving To Get To Love You, co-written with Grammy-winner Amy Wadge, hits that mark.
Stand-outs include a cover of Mi Historia – “a beautiful song released before I was born; the original was more melancholy; our version is lighter and summery.” There is also a rare move up-tempo on Love Like This. Matteo’s last world tour ran for eight months, playing to more than 100,000 fans and selling out iconic venues like Sydney Opera House and Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame. Matteo won’t eat for at least six hours before a performance. “The show is pretty much all on me, you must give everything,” he says, adding with a smile, “I would love to relax a lot, but I don’t have time – there’s going to be time to rest, now I must push the gas.”
After European dates, he hits England for three 90 minute concerts in November; then come the USA, South America, and Australia. “I feel extremely privileged to have the chance to travel the world with my music. It’s beautiful. If I can keep going this way for the next ten years, I’ll be thrilled. If I ever stop loving music, I’ll call you, Garry, and we’ll have an interview about it.”
*Falling In Love is out now on Decca Records. Matteo Bocelli tours the UK in November.