Bocelli's love songs target worldwide market

Stephanie · Joined: Jan 14, 2006 Posts: 66

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=musicNews&storyID=2006-01-28T011647Z_01_N27222348_RTRIDST_0_MUSIC-BOCELLI-DC.XML&archived=False

Bocelli's love songs target worldwide market
Fri Jan 27, 2006 8:17 PM ET

By Leila Cobo
MIAMI (Billboard) - The difference between "Amore" and "Amor" is more than just a letter.

The words are the two titles to blind Italian singer Andrea Bocelli's upcoming albums. "Amore," the international, multilingual version, comes out January 31 in the United States and February 24 in much of the rest of the world. "Amor," the all-Spanish version, will arrive in the Latin market March 22.

It is not just different editions that set "Amore"/"Amor" (Sugar/Universal) apart from Bocelli's previous albums.

Thanks to strategy and sheer luck, the release of "Amore," a collection of romantic pop standards, will coincide with Valentine's Day and with the Winter Olympics taking place in Italy. This has opened the door for the superstar (who has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, according to his label) to benefit from an unprecedented multimedia avalanche. In addition to love songs for the romantic holiday, Bocelli sings an Olympics theme, which he wrote with David Foster and Amy Gillies.

Bocelli will perform the track, "Because We Believe," at the February 26 closing ceremonies of the Olympics. It will mark the first Bocelli song to be marketed as a radio single since 1997.

"You can't really overlook the Valentine's Day aspect," Universal Classics chairman Chris Roberts says. "Every one of his previous albums, except two, were released in the fall gift season. We said, 'Let's have this be less about a gift and more about connecting an emotion.' That's the center of it and everything else floats from that."

All of Bocelli's albums are romantic, but nowhere is that theme more prevalent than on "Amore." Its tracks include "Besame Mucho," "Somos Novios" (popularized in English as "It's Impossible" and recorded here as a duet with Christina Aguilera) and the Italian "Canzoni Stonate," with Stevie Wonder on vocals and harmonica.

Tying in with the Valentine theme, "Amore" will be promoted in the United States with a massive TV campaign, an iTunes promotion offering an exclusive bonus track (featuring Chris Botti) and partnerships with retailers -- including Starbucks, Whole Foods and JCPenney -- designed to take Bocelli's music directly to the consumer. A PBS special will air in March.

Bocelli says the choice of repertoire hinged on quality and emotion.

"Millions of songs have been written, and at the end of the day there are only seven notes," he observes, speaking on the phone from his home in Italy. "Why, therefore, should we insist on recording new music when it lacks true inspiration, that fundamental honesty which is the only thing that can touch people's hearts? It's much, much better to focus our attention on a repertoire which has made entire generations dream all over the world."

Bocelli played many of the songs as a student performing in piano bars. "So it was a very moving experience for me to revisit this extraordinary musical world, with the experience I have today and a different vocal awareness," he says. "It is with these songs that many people experienced their first love, many got engaged, married or simply spent unforgettable evenings."

Stephanie · Joined: Jan 14, 2006 Posts: 66

Much of the repertoire also happened to be in Spanish. This prompted Humberto Gatica, who produced the albums with David Foster, to propose an all-Spanish version of the album to market to the Spanish-speaking world.

"I always thought a man with so beautiful a voice singing in a different timbre, softer and more romantic, brings originality and credibility to a language as romantic as Spanish," Gatica says.

"Amor" does not include the Olympics theme, and, therefore, will be marketed in a different manner at a different time, which accounts for its later release.

Bocelli has achieved worldwide fame. But "Amore" and "Amor" are internationally ambitious, aimed to expand the singer's audience as well as reclaim some of the fan base he established with his previous pop albums.

In Italy, Bocelli will follow his Olympics performance with an appearance at the Sanremo Festival (which will run February 27- March 4), along with the country's three other main musical exports: Eros Ramazzotti, Laura Pausini and Zucchero.

Filippo Sugar, CEO of Bocelli's Milan-based Sugar Records label, admits that Bocelli is usually so busy promoting abroad that his sales have slipped domestically since his international career took off. "The need to correct this is one of the reasons why we've decided to arrange a separate release schedule," Sugar says.

Fueled by anticipated international appeal and repertoire, expectations for "Amore" are high. But Bocelli thinks success will be natural.

"This is a repertoire which doesn't feel any disadvantage from the difference in the language, as it is firmly based on the principles of the two undoubtedly universal languages, which are those of music and of love," Bocelli says. "Both of these speak directly to people's hearts, and the words used to express these simply serve as a support."

Reuters/Billboard