Matteo Bocelli discusses blazing his path in pop music, his Ed Sheeran song and a new single ahead of Pittsburgh show

With a father like the famous Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, it’s only natural for Matteo Bocelli to hear the comparisons. Yet, the younger Bocelli said it’s important that he forges his own identity, and he’s doing so in the pop music world.

“Well, definitely identity is something I’ve always worked on, especially because as I often say, I signed to my label as an interpreter, not as a songwriter, and the label gave me this amazing chance to co-write with different composers, and I enjoyed it so much,” Matteo Bocelli said in a recent interview. “So, actually since then, I started to craft my own skill in writing, and I think that is very important because if you’re able to sing songs, to perform songs that speak about yourself, that are authentic to you, I think it’s a plus.”

The younger Bocelli did just that with his 2023 debut album, “Matteo,” which features the Ed Sheeran-written “Chasing Stars.” His tour — Night With Matteo: The Americas — restarts Nov. 29 in New Jersey and includes a Dec. 7 stop at the Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall.

With exposure to the classical and operatic music of his father, Matteo Bocelli said listening to and playing pop songs from all over the world as a child felt just as natural. He’s often shared the spotlight with his father, including a stirring performance of “Time To Say Goodbye” at this year’s Academy Awards, but he doesn’t view any comparisons as a negative.

“I always felt those expectations as positive in the sense that, if you follow a specific soccer player, you expect his son to be playing on the field with the same skills, same attitude, same everything,” he said, “But, again, the truth is that we all are different human beings, and obviously I probably inherited from him some aspects of his voice maybe because obviously growing up in the same house, always listening to his voice, you may get some of his attitude whenever you sing.

“I think that the genre of music helps on this, because I totally sing a different genre of music, and I’m enjoying every single minute of it. What I think helps you the most in this is the passion because obviously if you would be doing this for someone else, it would be a problem, but whenever you truly love something, you don’t really think of what people think about you.”

In a Zoom chat from Tuscany, Italy, the younger Bocelli, who is hoping to release another album in 2025, discussed “Chasing Stars,” his newest single and what he’d be doing if he wasn’t singing:

When it comes to singing, do you have a preference for what language you use? Is Italian easier than English?

Yeah, well, actually, Italian is my mother tongue language. English, it’s a language that I always performed and sang since I was very little because obviously I was listening to Elton John, Lionel Richie, Queen, Supertramp, Simon & Garfunkel, like everything. So, enjoying their music, I was also singing their music in their language, and that’s why today I feel comfortable in performing in English too.

How did you get involved with someone like Ed Sheeran on “Chasing Stars”?

Ed Sheeran’s song has been written totally by him and his brother (Matthew). I’ve been involved with him on the song because I’ve always been a super fan of him. Before getting the song, I saw him multiple times. I remember meeting him for the very first time in Milan for his first show in Italy. Before that, I never met him, but I saw him performing opening for Taylor Swift. Then after the Milano concert, I saw him again in Milan when he was doing the (MTV Europe Music Awards) TV. He was the host. And then again, I’ve always been following so much because to me, he’s an example of a talent but also as a human being. I think that every one of us has his own kind of music mentor. And, to me, it’s always been him.

And so I truly feel privileged to have one of his songs. And again, I chose the song also because actually the truth is that I received three songs of his. But I chose “Chasing Stars” because it was the one that truly felt authentic to myself because we both have in common the fact that our fathers were in love with music. And they were the ones that actually passed the passion into their kids.

Also I like the message behind the song that is about, again, chasing your dreams, chasing the stars, it’s chasing your dreams. And most of all, always try to be who you are. Because I feel like in this world, new generations always try to follow other people’s lifestyle, even more than what they do like. And I think that you lose the focus and that’s probably why today many young people don’t really have a passion, because we should more focus on what we like. And again, I always say I’ve been super lucky because I’ve been able to do what I love. But again, I chased it.

Is there anybody else that you want to collaborate with? Do you have a dream list of people that you’d like to perform with?

I always say it would be unfair to say a few names because there are truly so many talents out there that I’d love to collaborate with. But definitely I’m already happy about the few collaborations I made, the ones with Sofia, the one with Sanah, an incredible Polish artist, the one with Sebastian Yatra. We did this song called “Tu Luz Quedó” in Spanish, English and also Italian. And definitely my first collaboration was the one with my father.

You have a new single out, “If I Knew” with Sofia Carson, so how did that come together?

It’s a song that I wrote in L.A. a few years ago, and there are those songs that whenever you write you feel like they would work perfectly as a duet. I wrote the song with Sam DeRosa and when she put her vocals together with mine, it really felt like a duet. (It was originally planned as a solo track), but still I had a mind to make it a duet, and I thought of Sofia and luckily she said yes. I met her before obviously asking to collaborate together and she was, again I found not just a great talent but also a beautiful human being. I believe that collaborations should happen only when from both sides there’s excitement and there’s truly a will to make it happen, and that’s what happened, so I’m very, very happy.

If you weren’t doing music, what do you think that you’d be doing?

You know, I’m a very practical guy. I really love to create stuff, to work on things, and our family, my grandparents used to sell agricultural machines, and they always owned some land. So maybe in the agriculture (field). I would love to plant something on a tractor.

Mike Palm is a TribLive digital producer who also writes music reviews and features. A Westmoreland County native, he joined the Trib in 2001, where he spent years on the sports copy desk, including serving as night sports editor. He has been with the multimedia staff since 2013. He can be reached at [email protected].