How Andrea Bocelli Live Stream Became An Unexpected Box Office Success – Variety

When Andrea Bocelli’s performance was conceived at Easter at the Duomo di Milan, it was primarily intended as a local event, or at least localized in Italy. The instigator of the live broadcast, the mayor of Milan, came up with the idea with the intention of elevating his home country, the country most affected in some of the critical weeks of the coronavirus pandemic.

It became a global tuning event, of course, for many people who saw it as a substitute for the church and many more who could never have darkened one’s door. Approximately 5 million people worldwide logged into YouTube to watch the half-hour sacred music concert as it was happening. By Monday night, the archived presentation had 32 million views. Clearly, it transcended religion, nationality, age, demographics, and even musical preference to become the characteristic cultural event of the pandemic.

“The mayor of Milan wanted to ask Andrea to say a kind of great prayer for all the Italian communities hit by the Covid,” says Francesco Pasquero., The Maverick Management man in Milan, who is co-managed by Bocelli. “Andrea accepted the invitation, and then we started to build the project, and it got bigger and bigger. Now we discover that it has reached 30 million visits in less than 24 hours, which is incredible considering the type of artist he is and the type of audience he has, the type of repertoire he performed, because it is pure classical music, and the We had a hard time putting this together. “

For a concert whose primary audience might have been considered parishioners or classical attendees, especially, demographic and spiritual significance seemed to be at stake. Note that Beyonce’s performance at Coachella, which previously held a YouTube record two years ago, had less than a tenth of viewers tuned in to Bocelli live.

“Andrea has been really impressed by the amount of comments we receive around the world, but most importantly from the (non-) Catholic people,” says Pasquero. “So this event went far beyond the religious. And the one that really struck me was: “This performance was the one we will remember in 20 years (of) these days.” So it feels like some kind of living history. “

“I’m personally not that religious,” says the singer’s co-director, Maverick’s partner Scott Rodger. “But somehow he managed to connect with people on an emotional level, especially” Amazing Grace ” [the lone English-language number]regardless of your religious background or whatever faith you practice. And we definitely hit people who aren’t necessarily as interested in classical music as their first choice. Reaching several generations on platforms is something you expect when you aim big, but in this way, you surpassed everything we hoped we could achieve. ”

It is made even more remarkable considering that the mayor’s request came on March 20 and that, less than a month later, the six-camera session held with tens of millions of viewers was conducted by a skeleton on-site crew of 15 people, including the artist’s team. The plaza outside the empty cathedral was cleared, and only Bocelli and his only organ companion were left without a mask.

“For an event of this nature, that’s as simple as can be,” says Rodger. Pasquero, who was on site, said the number of crew available for that shoot would generally have at least tripled. The minimization meant that even Bocelli’s son was not present at the shoot, although he was attended, as always, by his wife, Veronica.

For anyone wondering how live the filming was – most of the performance from inside the cathedral was done in real time, shortly after 7 p.m. in Italy and 1 p.m. on the east coast of the United States. The only segment that was recorded before the live broadcast began was the climactic performance of “Amazing Grace” on the steps outside the cathedral, like anyone wondering how Bocelli could have run from the altar to one’s front door. of the five largest. churches in the world could have guessed. “Amazing Grace” took two takes to capture, due to an audio problem the first time; everything else was at the time.

Having the blind singer walking alone from the main door of the cathedral towards a microphone placed at a certain distance for that end may have surprised some viewers, but it was not a trick. “Andrea is that type of person who is quite used to moving alone,” says Pasquero. “He knows perfectly well how to use all of his other senses, and is very independent in that regard. Of course, we had to tell him the space we were moving into and where the microphone was located. But with some special suggestions, we managed to do it very simple “.

The established list for the 25-minute performance was Bocelli’s choice, and he got off to a good start with the selection process, selling 5 million copies worldwide of a 1999 album titled “Sacred Arias”.

Although YouTube is not used to seeing these types of numbers for a live broadcast, Maverick was confident that the platform could withstand demand. “I did a live broadcast about 18 months ago with Paul McCartney on Grand Central Station,” says Rodger, “so I had complete confidence in YouTube and its ability to bring millions of simultaneous viewers around the world without the platform going down. will fall. ” … I think they expected it to be big, but they had no idea it would be as big as it was. “

The intent of the show’s tone was that it would provide hope and solidarity … but it would also feel as lonely as a show that would take place without an audience in one of the world’s largest venues would necessarily have to.

“In this unprecedented time, there was obviously no choice in deciding whether to have an audience or not,” says Rodger, “and I think it absolutely resonated with audiences worldwide, especially with the footage that was edited from (the streets of ) London, Paris, New York and other cities in the world that were completely desolate and empty. And the church itself echoed that sentiment. Here is Andrea himself isolated, along with an organist, in an empty church, just like the churches around the world that are equally empty. ” Pasquero adds: “Yesterday, Milan was basically a symbol to represent the rest of the world, and that is why we really insisted on adding all the other images from all the other cities in the world, because it was a great international prayer.”

Bocelli’s label Universal is looking to release audio of the performance to streaming services, with an emphasis on “Amazing Grace,” which can be released independently as a music video augmented by behind-the-scenes footage from the shoot.