Mesa, AZ — The Ikeda Theater at the Mesa Arts Center showcases the highest level of elite performers and so attracts refined audiences who appreciate talent and bask in emotional experiences. On this Sunday evening, the house was again packed and everyone was dressed to the nines to see Matteo Bocelli, a young Italian who carries the surname of vocal royalty. He has been traveling the world to showcase his own signature sound and to earn the prestige associated with the name.
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As the house lights went down, the stage lights began to twirl to a soundscape, heralding a message in multiple languages, perhaps foreshadowing the culturally diverse lyrics that would soon ensue. A spotlight landed on an unassuming man walking onto the stage with a boyish smile and a friendly wave. His ‘GQ’ hair and stylish olive green jacket gave him the appearance of the charismatic crooners of the timeless ages.
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He had the demeanor of a close, personal friend who just wanted to humbly share his songs in hopes that somebody might like them. He kicked off the show with “Love Like This” and “Naïve” – two upbeat songs from his new album, Falling In Love. It’s safe to say that everybody liked them!
The new album was produced at Bocelli’s home in Tuscany, Italy, with producer Martin Terefe and was just released in September 2025. The album’s style is listed as “a blend of Italian heritage and modern pop,” and that does seem to sum up the song selections in his setlist, which included 10 of the 11 songs from this new album (none from his debut album, Matteo, released two years ago, although the song “Honesty” is often part of his setlist).
Most songs were in English, but several were in his native tongue of Italian. Luckily, music is the universal language that makes translation unnecessary. Every song was a story and the bilingual Bocelli would introduce each one with the back story in English for the American audience. His conversational delivery and, of course, his Italian accent commanded the attention of everyone in the audience.
“I’m so excited to be back in Arizona,” he said, “I love you guys. I love everything about this place… the weather, the temperature… coming from New York, it was pretty cold there.” This reference was to his Thanksgiving appearance three days prior at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. There, Bocelli performed the Lucio Dalla cover of “Caruso,” which would eventually be the closing song of this show.
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Some may have incorrectly assumed that he would fill the night with operatic overtures laced with vocal gymnastics at the upper reaches of human abilities. However, his superpower is not what you would expect from The Three Tenors, but instead the precision of tone, the emotional infused melodies, and the relatability of the upper echelon of the world’s pop solo artists. One could easily cite influences of Frank Sinatra, Julio Iglesias, and Elvis Presley from decades before he was even born, to the modern array of artists like Josh Groban, Michael Bublé, and Ed Sheeran.
In fact, Bocelli did a cover of Sheeran’s “Perfect Symphony” and Presley’s “I Can’t Help Falling In Love” during his set. All of this is not to say that he has limited range and power. There were moments when he channeled the vocal prowess of his tenor father and his upper range seemed to be where he found his most iconic sound. Later there were moments of soft falsetto on the other end of the spectrum. His singing evolved through each song to adapt to the array of styles, and though moments were reminiscent of his idols, he introduced his own unique blend.
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The backing band was a foursome that were introduced by first name only as Andrea on guitar, Eduardo on drums, Patricia on bass, and Fabio on keyboards . For the majority of the set, Bocelli was the frontman with the band lined up on the risers behind him, but for the song “Glimpse of Happiness,” he sat down at the piano as the fifth musician. “I’ve been studying (piano) for many years, without any good results,” he joked, “But at least I enjoy it a lot.” He was humble, but very talented and delivered a beautiful song after telling the story of his collaboration on it with Jon Batiste. He would later share his guitar playing abilities too on the song “Angel In Disguise” as part of the three song encore.
The dynamics of the set ebbed and flowed with ballads and songs meant for dancing. Bocelli turned on the charm when he drifted into the audience to samba dance with adoring fans as he sang the classic Italian song “Quando, Quando, Quando.” The energy of the crowd flowed into the next song, “Tempo,” which was so fun to listen to and even more fun to watch as Bocelli tickled the ivories again and bassist Patricia and guitarist Andrea came out front to do solos. The show was devoid of unnecessary pyrotechnics and theatrical tricks of the trade, but chock full of musicianship, candidness, and connection.
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The recurring theme of the evening was love. The tour was named “Falling In Love” world tour in support of the new record of the same name that included the song of the same name! A block of three of the new songs had “love” in the title… don’t let the language fool you with the first one, “Amnesia D’Amore,” a song originally written for his father, but after singing on the original demo tape, Matteo asked to keep the song for himself. This was followed by “Loving You” and then the title track, “Falling In Love.” He introduced this song:
“And now the song that gave the title to the album, and the album title is “Falling In Love.” And why this song? Because I thought that it was describing with its title… the whole meaning of the project. It’s about falling in love. I do believe that it’s important to be able to fall in love every day of your life. (pause) I’m a good boy, not in that sense (audience chuckles). But falling love for everything that surrounds us. You know you wake up in the morning and just admire the nature… and simply your love with it… and it makes you happy and it makes you feel fulfilled.”
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The handful of cover songs that were mixed in seemed to perfectly complement the character of his originals and of course highlighted his versatility. He introduced “Mi Historia Entre Tus Dedos” as a duet that he recorded with Gianluca Grignani, who had huge success with it in 1994 in Italy (note that Bocelli would not be born until 1997) and then the whole Latin market. He said, “It probably didn’t reach the US, but there’s always a first time.” This one had the audience singing along. “Anime Imperfette” is another song that may not be on either of Bocelli’s albums, but it’s not really a cover. It is the Italian song that he sang for the Netflix series “From Scratch” that appears on the series soundtrack. This song was preceded by an epic synth solo by Fabio.
The Ed Sheeran cover of “Perfect Symphony” was definitely a highlight. Sheeran contacted Andrea Bocelli to do a duet of the song with him. Matteo recalled, “So one day Ed Sheeran called my father… I wish he had called me, but… (audience laughs)I had some good pasta with him still.” In the video, Sheeran sings the first half in English and Andrea belts out the response in Italian before they harmonize at the end. Matteo and his father have since sung the song together, but this time he was on his own and he brought the house down when he switched to Italian to sing his father’s part.
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He performed “Fall On Me,” the duet he originally recorded with his father for Andrea’s 2018 album Si. Matteo shared the story of how this song was really how he got started. He had sung on the demo for this song and it was pitched to the team who was looking for original songs for Andrea’s upcoming album. “So I made the demo,” he said, “And the first two people to listen to it were the president of the label and the producer they were working with, Bob Ezrin. And he goes, ‘you know I love this song, I think it should be on the record, but I also love this guy, but it is not Andrea’ – it was me.” And it came to be their duet. This night it was his song and it brought a standing ovation.
The three-song encore consisted of two more songs from the new album: “Angel In Disguise” on which he played acoustic guitar, and “If I Can’t Have You,” that featured an astounding rock guitar solo by Andrea while Bocelli played piano.
Before the last song, Bocelli told the story of how David Foster discovered him and wanted to produce him, but his father wasn’t on board since he was too young and needed to stay in school. As time went by, Foster still found opportunities to put Bocelli on world stages such as his 75th birthday celebration at the Hollywood Bowl and the American ICON Awards where they chose to cover the Lucio Dalla song “Caruso.” It has become a personal favorite for Bocelli and he closes each show with this song. He finally recorded his own version of this song and it is appropriately the closing track on Falling In Love. As he held the last note of this passionate song the room erupted with applause that continued through the final bow. He left center stage with a huge smile on his face, giving a final wave and glance to everyone.
As much as it meant for this audience to receive the gift of his musical talents, it truly seemed that it meant even more to him to share them.
Photography © Katherine Amy Vega, Kataklizmic Design
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