Where NJ fans can see Andrea Bocelli

Even people who know nothing about opera know the name Andrea Bocelli. Celine Dion once said, “If God would have a singing voice, he must sound a lot like Andrea Bocelli.”

I don’t know, would God be a tenor?

In addition to recording nine complete operas, Bocelli has put out pop and classical music and has sold 75 million records worldwide.

Fans, get ready to make that bucket list one line shorter because Andrea Bocelli is touring this fall. He won’t be performing directly in NJ but he’ll be close. It is a brief tour in the U.S. beginning Nov. 29 in San Antonio, Texas and ending Dec. 17 in Hollywood, Florida.

But on Wednesday, Dec. 13 Andrea Bocelli performs at Madison Square Garden. Very convenient for Garden State fans.

For South Jersey fans he will perform at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Thursday, Dec. 7.

You can expect these shows to include love songs as well as holiday music from his "My Christmas" and "A Family Christmas" albums. Seeing Bocelli perform these so close to the holiday should be quite special.

Tickets to see Andrea Bocelli go on sale through Ticketmaster on April 24 at 10 a.m. but for a higher price you can find tickets right now on secondary sites like Vivid Seats and StubHub. As I write this, one front-row ticket at MSG is going for $4,428 on StubHub.

Bocelli is 64 years old. He was born with impaired vision from congenital glaucoma, then at age 12 became completely blind due to a brain hemorrhage from a sports injury.

He wasn't always so famous. He performed in piano bars and small local singing contests. He didn't rise to fame until he was 36 years old, in 1994, winning the newcomer’s category of the 44th Sanremo Music Festival performing "Il mare calmo della sera."

Here’s that long-ago performance.

Hard to think of this legend as a newcomer.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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