From Opera to Pop: Matteo Bocelli discusses his musical journey ahead of McCallum show

It’s no surprise that Matteo Bocelli, the son of legendary Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, chose music as a career path. But even though he grew up in a house filled with music, the elder Bocelli was initially “worried” about his son following in his footsteps.

In a recent interview with The Desert Sun, the 27-year-old said before he collaborated with his father on the 2018 song “Fall on Me” and in the 2022 Christmas special “A Bocelli Family Christmas,” his father spoke to him about the challenges of the music industry — the endurance required to face its negative aspects and the passion necessary to succeed as a professional singer.

Growing up, Bocelli was exposed to a broad range of music that included classical and opera as well as Ed Sheeran, Eminem, Queen, Lionel Richie and others. This diverse exposure helped shape his own musical taste and direction.

“Every time I ended a piano lesson playing Bach, Beethoven and Chopin, I would go home and play piano learning pop songs. There was an idea of pursuing a pop career and even though I did studies in classical voice, when I started working on my own songs, that (pop) was my path,” Bocelli said.

While Bocelli was working on a demo, his father was preparing a new album of original songs from various collaborators. The elder Bocelli initially thought “Fall on Me” was “too pop” for his taste. Matteo recorded a preview of the song because it “would be a shame to let it go,” which impressed producer Bob Ezrin. He convinced his father to record the song with him as a duet. It reached No. 8 on Billboard’s US Pop Digital Song Sales and No. 37 on the US Adult Pop Songs charts.