Andrea Bocelli has been in the limelight for a good 30 years now across his impressive career. A cinematic documentary about his life, Andrea Bocelli: Because I Believe, has just been made and is coming to UK cinemas this weekend. The new film offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at the opera singer going about his day-to-day life. So why now? Daily Express asked him this question and more in an exclusive interview.
How did your documentary come about? Why did you decide to have it made?
Unfortunately, I don’t know how to answer this question. There was something that was up in the air. There was a project that had been put to me, and I was quite hesitant at the beginning, because it’s almost embarrassing to tell the story of your life. And at the end, I was convinced, persuaded to do this documentary, because I thought for a second, if I had the opportunity today to watch a documentary on the life of some important, famous person from the past, where there was no possibility to film, I would have been very pleased. So I thought, in the same spiri,t that I would make this documentary to leave something for future generations to tell people what you can’t see about me on stage. So what’s in my life behind the scenes.
It was particularly interesting to see behind the scenes with your wife, she seems like your rock on and off stage.
Veronica has been working hard since the very beginning. When I met her, she was only 21 and she gave me a boost of energy and enthusiasm to carry on. I wasn’t very determined to keep singing when I met her, so she played a key role, and she still plays a key role in my life.
You performed recently for Pope Leo XIV and in Vatican City
I have a lot of hope in this new pope, who’s someone of a deep faith, to my knowledge, and is a highly knowledgeable and cultural person.
You too are a man of deep faith. How would you say your faith impacts your work day to day?
Well, without faith, there’s no life. It’s as simple as that. The idea that everything is going to finish when we end our earthly life wouldn’t give any hope to the future. There is an important poem of Saint Philip Neri, and it’s hard to translate. Maybe it would be nice to hear this form in Italian, because the words and the rhymes are very musical. It starts, if I lived a thousand years in joy and without struggles, what would I tell to death? Everything would be in vain. And then it sets a list of things. If I had, for instance, houses and villas and servants, thousands of them. What would be important for death? Everything is vain and it carries on. So this explains what would be life without faith.
You’ve had your 30th anniversary concerts across a couple of years. What does the future hold for you?
Well, the future is the hands of God. As we speak, we are talking about what’s the plan for the future. For sure, new ideas will come about. Great artists will be with me on that amazing stage for sure, and we shall see this time that we don’t have to rush.
Andrea Bocelli: Because I Believe is in UK cinemas from September 21 and tickets can be booked here.