name	Kodak Theatre
location	6801 Hollywood BoulevardLos Angeles, California
type	Indoor theatre
broke ground	1997
built	2001
opened	November 9, 2001
owner	CIM Group
seating type	Reserved
seating capacity	3,401
website	kodaktheatre.com }}

The Kodak Theatre is a live theatre in the Hollywood and Highland shopping mall and entertainment complex on Hollywood Boulevard and North Highland Avenue in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Since its opening on November 9, 2001, the theatre has been the home of the annual Academy Awards Ceremonies (The Oscars), which were first held there in March 2002, and is the first permanent home for the awards. Since 2002, the theater was also the home for ''American Idol''.

The theatre was designed by David Rockwell of the Rockwell Group, and Theatre Projects Consultants specifically with the Oscars in mind. It has a seating capacity for up to 3,401 people. The stage is one of the largest in the United States, roughly tied with the Elliot Hall of Music at Purdue University, measuring wide by deep. The theatre was sponsored by the Eastman Kodak company, which paid $75 million to have its name associated with the building. It is owned by CIM Group.

The theatre is particularly successful as a venue for a televised theatre performance (improving production values and economies in ''American Idol'' and the Academy Awards) through the planning and technical design. The architect and advisers undertook extensive consultation with many of the leading production personnel in Hollywood which led to highly functional production cable infrastructure systems including an underground cable bunker which passes below the theatre to truck locations in adjacent streets, accessible and substantial power, and a unique camera, sound and stage management cockpit designed by Rockwell in the orchestra seating area.

The Grand Staircase entrance columns hall to the Kodak Theatre is flanked by columns displaying the names of winners of the Academy Awards for Best Picture since 1927-1928, with blank spaces left for future Best Picture winners well into the 21st century. Still, a visitor during the rest of the year might have a hard time recognizing the landmark. In a fashion reminiscent of Hollywood's movie-making process, the building is "dressed" before the ceremony, including a different sign (though not always), drapery to hide all the storefronts, and the famous large red carpet.

The theatre is rented to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for weeks before the Oscar night. During the rest of the year, it hosts numerous live concerts, award shows, symphony performances and others. However, the 7,000 seat Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live has largely replaced the Kodak Theatre as the premier auditorium in L.A. since it opened in 2007, and some events formerly held at the Kodak are now regularly held at the Nokia, including the ''American Idol'' finals.

Past events

The Kodak Theatre is most commonly used for public cultural events such as concerts, shows, and performances. It is however used on occasion for private purposes such as weddings, etc.

Artists who have appeared at the Kodak Theatre include Gloria Trevi, Christina Aguilera, Elissa, Céline Dion, Andrea Bocelli, Dixie Chicks, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé Knowles, Alicia Keys, Elvis Costello, Vanilla Ice, Charice, Philipp Kirkorov, The Corrs, Barry Manilow, Prince, The New Power Generation, Ian Anderson, David Gilmour, Valy Hedjasi, Leila Forouhar, Andy Madadian, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Broadway musicals, dance shows, symphony performances and opera.

Other events have included the AFI Life Achievement Award to Tom Hanks, the ESPY Awards for excellence in sports performance yearly, the BET Awards and ''American Idol'' finales. In April 2006, it was home to the 33rd Daytime Emmy Awards, and it hosted the 34th Daytime Emmy Awards on June 15, 2007.

On March 20, 2004, 19-year-old Adán Sánchez became the youngest headliner to perform a sell-out concert at the theatre. He died in a car accident only seven days later.

In 2005, Nintendo launched its latest game console, the Wii, at the Kodak Theatre before E3 began. Nintendo used the venue again in 2006 for its pre-E3 news conference. The 2007 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was also held at the Kodak Theatre for the first time, having been held in New York in previous years.

The theatre has also hosted the Miss USA pageant twice, in 2004 and 2007.

Nintendo once again borrowed the venue for their 2008 E3 Press Conference after holding their previous year's conference in Santa Monica.

In December 2008, a production of "A Christmas Carol" starring Christopher Lloyd, John Goodman and Jane Leeves played sixteen performances over a two-week period.

In August 2009, the theatre hosted the ''So You Think You Can Dance'' finale for the first time.

On September 15, 2009, a concert by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, was filmed in the Theatre. The concert was a PBS Great Performances Christmas special of Bocelli's first ever Holiday album, ''My Christmas''.

On January 9, 2010, Japanese metal band X Japan made their first U.S. public appearance on top of the Theatre recording four music videos for their songs "Rusty Nail", "Jade", "Endless Rain", and "I.V.".

References

External links

Official Website of the Kodak Theatre

Category:Concert halls in the United States Category:Landmarks in Los Angeles, California Category:Theatres in Hollywood, California Category:Kodak Category:Academy Awards Category:Event venues established in 2001 Category:Latin Grammy Award venues

ar:مسرح كوداك bg:Кинотеатър Кодак ca:Teatre Kodak cs:Kodak Theatre de:Kodak Theatre el:Θέατρο Κόντακ es:Teatro Kodak fr:Théâtre Kodak ko:코닥 극장 it:Kodak Theatre lv:Kodak teātris nl:Kodak Theatre ja:コダック・シアター no:Kodak Theatre pl:Kodak Theatre pt:Teatro Kodak ru:Театр Кодак simple:Kodak Theatre sk:Kodak Theatre fi:Kodak-teatteri sv:Kodak Theatre tr:Kodak Tiyatrosu uk:Театр Кодак zh:柯達劇院

name	Camila Alves
birth date	January 28, 1982
birth place	Itambacuri, Minas Gerais, Brazil
occupation	Model
death date
height
haircolor	Brown
eyecolor	Brown
dress size	6 / 8
shoe size	8,5 US,39 EU,37 BR
spouse	Matthew McConaughey (2007–present) (partner)
website	http://camila.mymuxo.com/ }}

Camila Alves (born January 28, 1982) is a Brazilian model and television performer.

Early life

She was born in Itambacuri Minas Gerais, Brazil and spent her childhood between the beaches of Bahia and the farmlands of Minas Gerais. She was raised by her mother, an artist and designer, and her father, a farmer.

Alves arrived in Los Angeles, California at the young age of fifteen to visit her aunt, and never left. After working for four years as a house-cleaner and waitress, she successfully learned English and decided to make the United States her home.

Modeling career

At age 19, Alves moved to New York to pursue a career as a fashion model. Her new profession took her around the world: from Paris to Milan, China, various countries in Africa, and many destinations in between.

Business interests

In 2005, Alves and her mother, Fatima, decided to design and create handbags. To find the right handbag that her lifestyle and fashion sense called for, they experimented for three years before they finally created their handbag company, Muxo.

Television

In 2010, Alves hosted the Bravo Network's third season of their reality television show, Shear Genius.

Personal life

Alves lives in Malibu, California with her partner, actor Matthew McConaughey, and their two children, son Levi Alves McConaughey, and daughter Vida Alves McConaughey. Alves and McConaughey are committed to McConaughey’s charity, the j.k. livin foundation, which is, "…dedicated to helping teenage kids lead active lives and make healthy choices to become great men and women."

References

External links

Alves' Biography at My Muxo Handcrafted Leather Handbags

j.k. livin foundation

Category:Living people Category:1982 births Category:People from Belo Horizonte Category:Brazilian people of Black African descent Category:Brazilian film actors Category:Brazilian female models Category:Brazilian emigrants to the United States

de:Camila Alves pt:Camila Alves

name	Andrea Bocelli
background	solo_singer
born	September 22, 1958Pisa, Toscana, Italy
instrument	Vocals, keyboards, flute, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, harp, harmonica, guitar, drums, melodica
genre	Adult contemporary, classical, easy listening, Latin pop, opera, operatic pop, pop, vocal
occupation	Musician, songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist
years active	1992–present
label	Universal, Philips, PolyGram, Decca, Sugar
website	Andrea Bocelli
abilities	Echolocation }}

Andrea Bocelli, (; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor, multi-instrumentalist and classical crossover artist. Born with poor eyesight, he became completely blind at the age of twelve following a football accident.

Since winning the Newcomers section of the Sanremo Music Festival in 1994, Bocelli has recorded thirteen solo studio albums, of both pop and classical music, two greatest hits albums, and eight complete operas, selling over 70 million copies worldwide. Thus, he is the biggest-selling solo artist in the history of classical music and has caused core classical repertoire to "cross over" to the top of international pop charts and into previously uncharted territory in popular culture.

In 1998, he was named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People. In 1999, his nomination for Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards marked the first, and so far only time a classical artist had been nominated in the category, since Leontyne Price, in 1961. ''The Prayer'', his duet with Celine Dion for the animated film, ''The Quest for Camelot'', won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song and was nominated for an Academy Award in the same category. With the release of his classical album, ''Sacred Arias'', Bocelli captured a listing in the Guinness Book of World Records, as he simultaneously held the top 3 positions on the U.S. classical albums charts. Five of his albums have since reached the ''Top 10'' on the ''Billboard'' 200, and a record-setting 7, have topped the classical albums charts in the United States.

With over 5 million units sold worldwide, ''Sacred Arias'' became the biggest-selling classical album by a solo artist of all time, and with just under 20 million units sold worldwide, his 1997 pop album, ''Romanza'', became the best-selling album by an Italian artist ever, as well as the best-selling album by a foreign artist in Canada, and a number of other countries in Europe and Latin America. The album's first single, "Time to Say Goodbye", topped charts all over Europe, including Germany, where it stayed at the top of the charts for fourteen consecutive weeks, breaking the all-time sales record, with over 3 million copies sold in the country. He is widely regarded as the most popular Italian and classical singer in the world.

In 2006, Bocelli was made a Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, and on March 2, 2010, he was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for his contribution to Live Theater.

Early life

Childhood and education

Bocelli was born in 1958 to Alessandro and Edi Bocelli. They lived on the family farm, selling farm machinery and making wine in the small village of La Sterza, a frazione of Lajatico, Tuscany, Italy, which is about 40 km south of Pisa. Bocelli's mother and younger brother Alberto still live in the family home. Bocelli's father died in 2000.

As a young boy, Bocelli showed a great passion for music. His mother has said that music was the only thing that would comfort him. At the age of six he started piano lessons, and later also learned to play the flute, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, harp, guitar and drums.

Bocelli would also spend time singing during his childhood. At the age of 14 he won his first song competition, the Margherita d'Oro in Viareggio with ''O sole mio''.

After finishing secondary school in 1980, he studied law at the University of Pisa. To earn money Bocelli performed evenings in piano bars. He completed law school and spent one year as a court-appointed lawyer. It was there, in 1987, that he met his future wife, Enrica.

Loss of sight

It was evident at birth that Bocelli had problems with his sight, and after visits to many doctors, he was diagnosed with congenital glaucoma. In 1970, at the age of 12, he lost his sight completely following an accident during a football game.

Career

1992–94: Sanremo and ''Il mare calmo della sera''

In 1992, Italian rock star Zucchero held auditions for tenors to make a demo tape with of the song ''Miserere'' from his album of the same name, to send to Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti. After hearing Bocelli on tape, Pavarotti urged Zucchero to use Bocelli instead of him. The demo tape was from Caterina Caselli, who had discovered Bocelli. Caselli is Bocelli's current manager and producer.

Zucchero eventually persuaded Pavarotti to record the song with him and it became a hit throughout Europe. In Zucchero's European concert tour in 1993, it was Bocelli who accompanied him to sing the duet and he was also given solo sets in the concerts, singing "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's ''Turandot''. Bocelli signed with the Sugar Music label in Milan after the group's president heard Bocelli sing ''Miserere'' and "Nessun Dorma" at a birthday party for Zucchero.

In December Bocelli entered the preliminary round of the Sanremo Music Festival in the category of Giovani, performing both parts of the duet ''Miserere''. He won the preliminary competition with the highest marks ever recorded in the Newcomers section. On 28 December, he debuted in the classical world in a concert at the Teatro Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilia.

In February 1994 he entered the main Sanremo Festival competition with "Il mare calmo della sera", and he won the "Newcomers" section, again with a record score. His debut album, of the same name, was released and immediately entered the Italian Top Ten, going platinum within weeks.

In May he toured with Italian pop singer Gerardina Trovato. In September he sang at Pavarotti's annual Charity Gala concert, ''Pavarotti International'' in Modena, where he sang Ruggero Leoncavallo's "Mattinata" and sang a duet with Pavarotti, Maurizio Morante's ''Notte e Piscatore''. He also sang "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" from Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata in the finale, along with Nancy Gustafson, Giorgia, Andreas Vollenweider and Bryan Adams; and also Adams' song ''All for Love''.

In September he made his opera debut as Macduff in Verdi's ''Macbeth'' at the Teatro Verdi in Pisa. Bocelli had been an agnostic, but around 1994, partly as a result of immersing himself in the works of Tolstoy, he returned to the practice of the Catholic faith. He performed the hymn, "Adeste Fideles" in Rome before Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Basilica at Christmas.

1995–97: ''Bocelli'' and ''Romanza'' – Conquering Europe and Latin America

As winner of the 1994 Newcomers section at the Sanremo Festival, he was invited to return the following year, entering the main competition with "Con te partirò" and finishing in fourth place.

The song was included in his album ''Bocelli'' which was produced by Mauro Malavasi and released in the spring. His third album, ''Viaggio Italiano'', was released in autumn. Bocelli sang "Miserere" and "Funiculì, Funiculà" with guitarist John Miles. In Belgium, "Con te partirò" became the best-selling single of all time.

In 1996, Bocelli was invited to sing a duet with English soprano Sarah Brightman at the final bout of German IBF World Light-Heavyweight boxing champion Henry Maske. Brightman, a friend of Maske, approached Bocelli after she heard him singing "Con te partirò" whilst she was dining in a restaurant. Changing the title lyric of the song to "Time to Say Goodbye", they re-recorded it as a duet with members of the London Symphony Orchestra and sang it as a farewell for Maske. The single debuted atop the German charts, where it stayed for fourteen weeks. With sales nearing three million copies, and a sextuple platinum award, "Time to Say Goodbye" eclipsed the previous best-selling single by more than one million copies. He topped the Spanish singles chart in 1996 with a duet with Marta Sanchez, "Vivo Por Ella", the Spanish version of "Vivo per lei", recorded with Giorgia for the ''Romanza'' album. He also recorded a Portuguese version of the song with Sandy Leah.

The same year, Bocelli recorded "Je vis pour elle", the French version of "Vivo per lei", as a duet with French singer Hélène Ségara. Released in December 1997, the song became a hit in Belgium (Wallonia) and France, where it reached #1 on the charts. To date, it is the best-selling single for Ségara, and the second for Bocelli after "Time to Say Goodbye". On 3 March he appeared in Hamburg, Germany, with Sarah Brightman to receive the ECHO music award for "Best Single of the Year".

In August, he appeared at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, Italy, and then at the World Youth Festival in Paris, where he again sang in the presence of the Pope. In the summer, he gave 22 open air concerts in Germany, as well as an indoor concert in Oberhausen on 31 August. In September he performed in concert at the Piazza dei Cavalieri in Pisa for the home video ''A Night in Tuscany'' () with guests Nuccia Focile, Sarah Brightman and Zucchero. On 14 September in Munich, Germany, he received an ECHO Klassik "Best seller of the year" award for his album, ''Viaggio Italiano''.

Back in Italy in Bologna on 27 September, he yet again sang before the Pope at the International Eucharistic Congress. On 19 October, he sang at the TeleFood benefit concert held in the Vatican City, and organised by the Food and Agriculture Organization to raise awareness about world hunger. On 25 October he received a Bambi award, an annual television and media prize awarded by the German media company Hubert Burda Media, in the Klassik category in Cologne, Germany.

1998–99: ''Aria'', ''Sogno'' and ''Sacred Arias'' – Breaking into the United States

Bocelli made his debut in a major operatic role in 1998 when he played Rodolfo in a production of ''La bohème'' at the Teatro Comunale in Cagliari from 18 February to 25 February. His fifth album ''Aria - The Opera Album'' was released in March. On 19 April Bocelli entered the United States (USA) market with a concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. followed the next day by a reception at the White House with then US President Bill Clinton. On 5 May, he appeared in Monte Carlo, winning two World Music Awards, one in the category "Best Italian Singer", and one for "Best Classical Interpretation". He was also named one of People magazine's 50 most beautiful people of 1998.

In June, July, and August, he toured North and South America. His final concert of the tour at Madison Square Garden was sold out. In September, he received his next Echo Klassik award, this time for "Best selling classical album" with ''Aria - the opera album''. On Thanksgiving Eve Bocelli appeared as a guest on Céline Dion's Television special ''These Are Special Times'' in which he joined Dion with their hit ''The Prayer'' from Dion's album ''These Are Special Times'' and he also sang ''Ave Maria'' solo. Dion introduced him by saying, "I heard someone say – If God had a singing voice, he would sound a lot like Andrea Bocelli." As a result of his appearance on the show, his popularity in the USA further increased. Dion's album containing ''The Prayer'' was released in 1998 and re-issued with the DVD of the TV special in 2007. The song appeared on the ''Quest for Camelot'' soundtrack in 1998 and on Bocelli's album, ''Sogno'', the following year.

At the New Year, he performed two concerts at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas. The hotel used ''Con te partirò'' in its advertisements, further increasing his popularity in the USA. He also performed the first Internet live opera broadcast in its entirety from the Detroit Opera House, with Denyce Graves. At the 56th Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California on 24 January, ''The Prayer'' won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song from the film ''Quest for Camelot''. At the 41st Grammy Awards ceremony held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on 24 February, Bocelli was nominated in the Best New Artist category which was won by Lauryn Hill. Bocelli and Dion received a standing ovation after singing ''The Prayer''. The song was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song and performed by Bocelli and Dion at the ceremony held at the Los Angeles Music Center on 21 March.

From 11 April to 24 April, he toured the West coast of North America from San Diego to Vancouver, with a final performance before over 18,000 spectators at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Actress Elizabeth Taylor stood by his side on the stage during the encore, while he sang ''The Prayer''.

At the invitation of Steven Spielberg, Bocelli sang in Los Angeles on 15 May before Bill Clinton at an event on behalf of the Democratic Party. At the end of May he toured Portugal and Spain and sang with the Portuguese Fado singer Dulce Pontes. On 27 June he took part in the Michael Jackson benefit concert for suffering children in Munich's Olympic Stadium.

From 10 July to 27 August he appeared in a guest role at seven performances of ''The Merry Widow'' at the Verona Arena in Rome. As the "Tenor Conte Andrea" he performed three arias, "La donna è mobile" from Verdi's ''Rigoletto''; "Tu, che m' hai preso il cuor" from Franz Lehár's ''Land des Laechelns'' and "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" from Verdi's ''La traviata'', again receiving standing ovations.

On 10 September, together with soprano Daniela Dessi and two Polish singers, he performed at the Great Theatre of Łódź in Poland. From 7 October to 19 November, he made his United States operatic debut in Jules Massenet's ''Werther'' at the Detroit Opera House with the Michigan Opera Theater. He was cheered by the audiences, but criticized by the press.

He also performed at Rodeo Drive in Hollywood and gave further concerts in Detroit, Cleveland and Chicago, and made an appearance on Jay Leno's first installment of The Tonight Show. Then Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani gave him the Crystal Apple, a gift to celebrated personalities from New York City. His seventh album ''Sacred Arias'', which contains exclusively sacred music, was released worldwide on 8 November, and two weeks later reached first place in the USA Classic Billboard charts -- making Bocelli the first vocalist to hold all top three places on the chart, with ''Aria, the opera album'' in second place, and ''Viaggio Italiano'' in third place. The album also included the hymn of the Holy Year 2000 which was chosen as the official version by the Vatican in October.

Immediately after his return to Italy, Bocelli sang in Florence at a meeting of the centre-left Heads of State. Invited by Queen Elizabeth II, he performed at the annual Royal Variety Performance in Birmingham, UK, on 29 November. On 30 November, his book ''La musica del silenzio'', an autobiographical novel, was released in Italy.

From 12 December to 21 December he performed six concerts in Barcelona, Strasbourg, Lisbon, Zagreb, Budapest and Messina, directed by Lorin Maazel, some of which were broadcast on local television. He also performed on German television; Wetten, dass..? on 11 December and the José Carreras Gala in Leipzig on 17 December. On 31 December, he finished a marathon twenty-four concerts in thirty days, with a concert at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in New York in front of 8,000 people, welcoming in the new millennium.

2000–01: ''Verdi'' and ''Cieli di Toscana''

At the 42nd Grammy Awards on 23 February, Bocelli was nominated twice. ''The Prayer'' was nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals and for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. Bocelli performed it with Dion at the ceremony. His "World Tour 2000" started on 31 March. In May his ''Sacred Arias'' album was voted album of the year by listeners of the Classic FM radio station in the UK. His world tour continued from 12 May to 14 May with four concerts in Japan and South Korea. At the end of the UEFA European Football Championship he performed with Valery Gergiev and Renée Fleming at a concert on the River Maas in Rotterdam. On 6 July he performed at the Statue of Liberty in New York and on 17 August he performed in Giuseppi Verdi's Messa da Requiem at the Verona Arena in Rome. His seventh album ''Verdi'' was released on 11 September. In September he also performed three concerts in Australia. He received another Echo Klassik award for "Bestseller of the year" for ''Sacred Arias''. In November his first complete opera recording, ''La Bohème'' was released. In December he received another award in Germany, the Goldene Europa for classical music.

In January 2001, Bocelli portrayed the main character in Pietro Mascagni's opera ''L'amico Fritz'' at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona and again performed the tenor part in Verdi's Requiem. On 19 March the Requiem album was released with Bocelli as tenor. From 22 March to 6 April he toured North America accompanied by Cecilia Gasdia and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. On 17 June he performed at the re-opening of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. In July he performed two concerts in Dublin with Ana María Martínez and the New Symphony Orchestra. At the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice on 4 October he presented his new album ''Cieli di Toscana'' and was recognised for having sold more than 40 million albums worldwide. In October he opened the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sicilian opera composer Vincenzo Bellini in Catania. On 28 October, he sang Franz Schubert's ''Ellens dritter Gesang'' as a representative of the Roman Catholic faith, during a memorial concert at Ground Zero in New York City for the victims of the September 11 attacks there. In November he received the Platinum Europe Award for one million sales of the album ''Cieli di Toscana'', and at the Italian Music Awards he was given a special award from the Federation of the Italian Music Industry for his merits as an "Ambassador of Italian music in the world". He performed seven more concerts in the US accompanied by Ana María Martínez, and on 23 December, in front of the President of Italy and other guests of honour, he sang the Italian national anthem as well as works of Bellini and Verdi at the traditional Christmas concert in the Italian Senate, which was broadcast live on television for the first time.

2002–05: ''Sentimento'' and ''Andrea''

In Berlin on 5 February he received a Goldene Kamera award in the "Music & Entertainment" category. On 6 March he received two World Music Awards in Monte Carlo: "World best selling classical artist" and "Best selling Italian artist". On 11 March, he gave a concert for peace at the Basilica di San Marco a Venezia in Venice, accompanied by the orchestra of the Teatro La Fenice and conducted by Lorin Maazel. On 15 March he took part in the opening of Walt Disney Studios Park in Marne-la-Vallée France. On 7 May Bocelli and Tony Renis received a Telegatto Italian Television award for the soundtrack of the series ''Cuore''. On 23 May he received the 2002 Classical BRIT Award for "Outstanding Contribution to Music". On 27 May he performed at the Villa Madama in Rome in front of USA president George W. Bush and Italian president Silvio Berlusconi. On 28 May he took part in "Pavarotti & Friends" charity concert in Modena in aid of Angola. In June he again toured the USA, then on 26 July and 3 August he portrayed Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton in ''Madama Butterfly'' at the 48th Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago. On 14 October he and Lorin Maazel presented his new album ''Sentimento'' to a worldwide audience. Further presentations took place in Milan and New York, and the album was released on 4 November, selling over two million copies in 40 days. On 24 October he started his ''Sentimento'' tour in Zürich which took in large arenas in several European and North American cities.

In February 2003, Bocelli performed ''Madama Butterfly'' in an exclusive Monte Carlo concert, which was attended by Caroline, Princess of Hanover. In March for the first time he appeared as a producer, at the Sanremo Festival, where the young artists Allunati and Jacqueline Ferry sang for his new record label, Clacksong. In May his second complete opera, ''Tosca'', was released. At a private benefit gala for the Royal National Institute of Blind People Bocelli sang in front of the British Royal Family. A day later he received two awards for ''Sentimento'' at the 2003 Classical BRIT Award held at the Royal Albert Hall in London – "Best selling classical album" and "Album of the year". On 24 May he performed in a benefit concert for the Arpa Foundation for Film, Music and Art in the Piazza del Campo in Siena, with sopranos Maria Luigia Borsi and Lucia Dessanti, baritone Soo Kyung Ahn, and violinist Ruth Rogers, accompanied by Marcello Rota and the Orchestra Città di Pisa. Three days later he was again invited to perform at "Pavarotti & Friends" in Modena and sang a medley of Neapolitan songs together with Pavarotti. In June he continued his ''Sentimento'' tour in Athens and Cyprus. In September he took part in a concert for the Justice ministers and Interior ministers of the European Union at the Parco della Musica in Rome. He then resumed his tour, accompanied by Maria Luigia Borsi, Ruth Rogers and Marcello Rota.

He won the "Favourite Specialist Performer" award at the UK National Music Awards in October 2003. In November he once again toured in the United States, this time accompanied by Ana Maria Martinez, Kallen Esperian and Steven Mercurio. In December he gave his first concert in China and at the end of the month sang Gounod's ''Ave Maria'' at Pavarotti's wedding in Modena.

In Bologna in January he performed as Werther in four performances of the opera of the same name. In April and May he toured Asia again, visiting Manila, Hong Kong and Singapore. In May he took part in a concert at Circo Massimo in Rome organised by Quincy Jones to launch the "We are the Future" project. In June his third complete opera ''Il trovatore'' was released. In July he played the part of Mario Cavaradossi in ''Tosca'' at the 50th Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago. And he took part in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) global campaign for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

In September he performed his "Once in a Lifetime" tour in Australia with concerts in Sydney and Melbourne and one concert in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he was joined on stage by New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra. On 15 October he performed at the People Conference Hall in Beijing, China, and on 17 October at the Great Hall in Shanghai.

During early 2005 Bocelli was on tour including performances in Madeira, Hungary, Norway, USA, UK, Italy and Germany. He also appeared in ''Sesame Street'' singing "Time to Say Goodnight" a parody of ''Time to Say Goodbye'' as a lullaby to Elmo. On 21 March he performed on the ''Music for Asia'' benefit concert in Rome, televised on Italia 1, in aid of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake appeal.

In June he performed at the Deutsche Opera in Berlin. On 2 July he performed at the Paris concert as part of the Live 8 event. Also during the second part of the year, he performed in Croatia, Serbia, Italy, the US, Dubai, Switzerland and finally in Scandinavia. On 28 August he performed at the Faenol Festival held in Vaynol, Wales and organised by Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel. In December his first contemporary music concert took place at a Lake Las Vegas village resort in Nevada, US, which was recorded for PBS and released as the ''Under the Desert Sky'' DVD. He also took part in the Royal Christmas Show, which took place in several cities in the USA in December. The album ''Werther'' was released in December. During 2005 he was invited by Pope Benedict XVI, George W. Bush and Queen Elizabeth II to perform at special events.

2006–07: ''Amore'' and ''Vivere, Greatest hits''

On 18 February he sang at the Toyota Center in Houston during the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2006 All-Star Weekend, and broadcast live on the TNT Cable television network.

On 26 February Bocelli sang "Because We Believe" from his ''Amore'' album in the Carnevale section of the closing ceremony of the Torino Olympics with a worldwide television audience. He also began another tour with a concert at the Piazza di Castello in Turin. In March he was honoured by the Italian state with a Grande Ufficiale Italian Order of Merit (Grand Officer of the Italian Republic), given to him by then President of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi for his worldwide work for his country as a singer. The award was presented to him at the Sanremo Festival where he performed a duet with American singer Christina Aguilera on 4 March. From 31 March to 2 April he took part in the Maggio Musicale in Florence where he sang the ''Canto di pace (Canto of peace)'' by Marco Tutino and the tenor part from Gioachino Rossini's ''Messa di Gloria'' and in Naples where he took part in Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle.

In April 2006, he featured as a guest coach on ''American Idol'' helping the finalists sing the week's themed songs, "Greatest Love Songs." He also performed on that week's results show. American Idol runner-up Katharine McPhee performed at three of Bocelli's concerts in California from 9 June to 11 June singing duets of ''Somos Novios'' and ''The Prayer'' with Bocelli. They also performed on '''J. C. Penney Jam: The Concert for America's Kids'' and recorded duet versions of ''Somos Novios'' for the resulting album, and also ''Can't Help Falling in Love'' on the CD of the Under the Desert Sky DVD.

In June he sang the Italian duet version of "Because We Believe", "Ama, credi e vai", with Gianna Nannini at the "großen Fan Party" at the opening of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, in Berlin in front of billions of worldwide television viewers.

On 1 July 2007, Bocelli performed "The Music of the Night" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's ''The Phantom of the Opera'', in a special musicals medley during the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Bocelli returned to his home town for a triumphant concert at the newly created Teatro del Silenzio in Lajatico on 5 July 2007, with guest appearance by Kenny G, Heather Headley, Lang Lang, Elisa, Sarah Brightman and Laura Pausini. The concert was later released as Vivere Live in Tuscany. In September he debuted at the Avery Fisher Hall, in New York, with four concerts. October saw the release of the opera album of Ruggero Leoncavallo's ''Pagliacci'' with Bocelli singing the role of Canio. In November he won the "Best Italian Artist" and "World's Best-selling Classical Artist" awards at the World Music Awards. In December he finished his 2006 tour with more concerts in North America and Europe.

Bocelli and Sarah Brightman's duet version of "Con te partirò" was used in the 2007 film ''Blades of Glory'', as an ice skating song. K-1 mixed martial arts fighter, Akiyama Yoshihiro started using "Con te partirò" as his ring entrance music. On 8 September Bocelli sang an arrangement of Mozart's ''Ave verum corpus'' at the funeral of Luciano Pavarotti in Modena, Italy.

On 21 October 2007, he sang "Con te partirò" with Katherine Jenkins on the UK television series ''Strictly Come Dancing'' results show, and on 30 October, he sang "The Prayer" with Céline Dion during an ITV Special ''An Audience with Céline Dion''. The show was broadcast on 23 December. Alongside fellow Italian singer Laura Pausini, he sang ''Vive Ya'' during the 2007 Latin Grammy Awards. The song, originally released in 1997 as a duet in Italian between Bocelli and Italian singer-songwriter Trovatto on Bocelli's ''Romanza'', was also released in English on his 2007 album, ''The Best of Andrea Bocelli: Vivere'', as ''Dare to Live''. The album, ''Vivere'', sold over 3 million copies.

2008: ''Incanto'' and ''Carmen''

On 20 January 2008, Bocelli received the Italian TV award Telegatto in platinum for ''Italian music in the world'', in Rome. He sang "La voce del silenzio" -- "The voice of silence" -- and "Dare to Live" during the ceremony. To promote the album, he performed ''"Canto della Terra"'' at The Alan Titchmarsh Show on the BBC in London on 1 February; was interviewed by Fabio Fazio on the Italian talk show ''Che tempo che fa'' on RAI 3 in Italy; and performed ''"Canto della terra"'', ''"A te"'' and ''"Besame mucho"'' from the album, as well as ''"My way"'' on 2 February; and made an appearance on The South Bank Show in London, where he sang the French aria "Pour mon âme" on 3 February. Then on 10 February, he performed "The Prayer" at the 50th Grammy Awards, held in Los Angeles, with Josh Groban in a tribute to Luciano Pavarotti, and sang ''"Dare to live"'' with Heather Headley the following day on ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno''.

In April he toured in Asia with performances in Tokyo, Taichung, Taiwan, and Seoul. Each concert was attended by over 15,000 people.

On 7 May 2008, he sang at Steel Aréna in Košice, Slovakia, in front of 8,000 people. Then 13 May he sang at the ''"Teatro delle Muse"'' in Ancona, Italy, for a charity concert for "Francesca Rava – N.P.H. Italia Onlus", a foundation that helps poor and disabled children around the world.

On 23 May 2008 he sang ''The Prayer'' with Katharine McPhee in a Las Vegas tribute concert for Canadian producer and songwriter David Foster. Bocelli later praised Filipina teen-aged singer Charice, whom he had first heard perform at that concert.

On 2 June 2008 he performed at the Piazza del Duomo, Milan in front of 80,000 people during a concert celebrating the anniversary of the Republic of Italy's formation.

From June 17 to June 28, Bocelli played the role of Don José on stage, opposite Hungarian mezzo-soprano Ildiko Komlosi as Carmen, in Georges Bizet's opera at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, in Rome, for four nights. Bocelli released the complete opera recording of ''Carmen'' in Italy in the same year, which he recorded in 2005. Myung-whun Chung conducted the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Chœur de Radio France for the recording, and Welsh Bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, was part of the Ensemble. The recording was not released internationally, until March 2010. ''Carmen: Duets & Arias'', a single-disc collection of some of the arias and duets of the recording, was also released in 2010.

On 20 July, Bocelli held his third concert at the Teatro del Silenzio in Lajatico, his hometown. The concert was a tribute to the cinema of Italy. Its performers included Italian composer and musician Nicola Piovani, Italian ballet dancer Roberto Bolle, Israeli singer Noa, and Charice. Then on 31 July, he performed at a concert in Vingis Park in Vilnius, Lithuania, in front of more than 18,000 people. Australian singer Tina Arena performed two duets with Bocelli -- ''"Canto Della Terra"'' and ''"The Prayer"'' -- at the closing stages of the concert.

On 7 August 2008, he held a benefit concert at Medjugorje, Bosnia Herzegovina, and was accompanied by Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Then, during the rest of August, he was on tour in Australia and New Zealand—for the third time—with performances at Vector Arena, Auckland, on the 20th; Entertainment Centre, Brisbane on the 22nd; Acer Arena, Sydney, on the 24th, Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, on the 27th; and Burswood Dome, Perth, on the 30th. His fiancée and both of his sons accompanied him on the tour. Tina Arena performed again with him in all 5 concerts during the tour.

On 26 September 2008, during the 2008 Veneto Festival, he held a concert in the Church of the Eremitani in Padova, Italy, in front of about 1000 people. He was accompanied by the I Solisti Veneti orchestra, celebrating its 50th birthday and conducted by Claudio Scimone, and by the Wiener Singakademie choir. The concert was a celebration of Giacomo Puccini's 150th birthday.

On 10 October and 11 he performed at Petra, singing ''"Dare to live"'' with Laura Pausini, as well as performing ''E Lucevan le Stelle'' from ''Tosca''. On 19 October he sang ''"O Surdato 'Nnamurato"'' and a duet of ''"Non Ti Scordar Di Me"'' with Cecilia Bartoli, both from the ''Incanto'' album, during the ECHO Awards in Germany; and later presented the soprano with an ECHO award. On 24 October, he performed at ''Piazza del Plebiscito'' in Naples, as a tribute to the city, where he celebrated the Italian release of ''Incanto''. Performing with him were flautist Andrea Griminelli, Italian pop singer Massimo Ranieri and soprano Cecilia Bartoli, with Steven Mercurio conducting the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. On 31 October, he performed a solo version of "The Prayer", as well as "Because", a song from ''Incanto'', live on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

On 21 November and 22, Bocelli was amongst a quartet of soloists (soprano Sabina Cvilak, mezzo-soprano Kate Aldrich and bass Alexander Vinogradov) to sing Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle, conducted by Plácido Domingo, at the Washington National Opera in Washington, D.C.. Bocelli sang twice in the piece and later the two famous tenors sang The Pearl Fishers duet which would be the first aria they had ever sang together. On 25 November and 26 he starred alongside soprano Verónica Villarroel in an opera in concert of Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana at the ''"Municipal Auditorium"'' in San Antonio, Texas. He later held a concert at ''"Atrio de la Catedral"'' in Campeche, Mexico, on 28 November, where he sang songs from ''Incanto'' as well as some of his Spanish hits, including ''Besame Mucho'', ''Somos Novios'', ''Amapola'' and ''Por ti Volare'' -- the Spanish version of ''Con te Partiro''.

2009: ''My Christmas'', first holiday album

On May 27, 2009, Bocelli sang "Il Gladiatore", from the Gladiator soundtrack, followed by the UEFA Champions League Anthem, which is based on "Zadok the Priest" by G.F. Handel, during the opening ceremony of the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final, in the Stadio Olimpico, in Rome.

On November 3, ''My Christmas'', his first Holiday album, produced by David Foster, was released and went on to become the best-selling Holiday album of the year.

The ''Andrea Bocelli & David Foster Christmas Special'', the PBS special of the album, first aired on Thanksgiving night in the United States, and continued to be broadcast in the United States and Canada throughout the month of December. In late November, the program was broadcast in Mexico and in the UK; it later aired, December 15 and 25, on Italia 1, in Italy, December 19, on TVE2 and TROS, in Spain and the Netherlands, and Christmas Eve, on vtm and RTL-TVI, in Belgium and Luxembourg.

On November 3, during the World Premiere of Disney's ''A Christmas Carol'', in Leicester Square, London, following the switching on of the annual Oxford Street and Regent Street Christmas lights, Bocelli led the St Paul's Cathedral Choir, and more than 14,000 people across the capital, as they broke the Official Guinness World Record for the biggest ever Christmas Carol sing-along, singing "Silent Night". He completed his performance in Leicester Square with, "God Bless Us Everyone", the closing song of the movie, which he provided the vocals for in English, Italian and Spanish. He returned to the United Kingdom, December 16, for an appearance on ''The One Show'', broadcast live by BBC One, and on ''The Alan Titchmarsh Show'' which aired December 18, on ITV1.

On November 21, a segment of ''Leute Heute'', a German tabloid-program on ZDF, was about ''My Christmas'' and Bocelli's meeting in Rome with Pope Benedict XVI and 250 other artists, an event which was broadcasted live earlier that day in Italy, by Rai Uno. Bocelli was also joined by the Piccolo Coro dell'Antoniano, in his home in Forte dei Marmi, where they sang "Caro Gesù Bambino", a song from ''My Christmas'' which was originally recorded by the choir in 1960. Rai Uno also broadcast the performance later that day, during the Zecchino d'Oro Festival. The following day, Bocelli was among Fabio Fazio's guests, on his popular Italian talk-show, Che tempo che fa, broadcast on Rai Tre. During the program Bocelli talked about his album and performed "The Lord's Prayer", "White Christmas", and "Silent Night". It was also announced that Bocelli would return to the show on December 20 and give a live concert of ''My Christmas''. Bocelli also took part in the annual 2009 ''José Carreras Gala'', on December 17, where he sang Adeste Fideles, before singing "White Christmas" with José Carreras for the very first time; this was broadcast live, by Das Erste, in Germany. He then returning to Italy, for a concert in the Upper Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi, on December 19, which was broadcast directly after the ''Urbi et Orbi'' blessing of Pope Benedict XVI, December 25, on Rai Uno.

In North America, Bocelli gave 6 concerts. On November 28, he performed in the Bank Atlantic Center, in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. He later performed in the Air Canada Centre, in Toronto, Canada, in the Izod Center, in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in the William Saroyan Theatre, in Fresno, California (changed from the much larger Save Mart Center due to scheduling conflicts), in the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, and finally in the Honda Center, in Anaheim, California, on December 3, 5, 8, 12, and 13. His last three arena concerts alone grossed a total of over 5,6 million dollars, placing him third on Billboard Magazine's week's Hot Tours ranking, behind the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Il Divo, who both held over 5 times more concerts worldwide, compared to Bocelli's three in the United States, explaining their better showings.

In the United States, Bocelli made a number of high profile TV appearances. He first performed "White Christmas" at the 83rd annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, broadcast live on NBC, November 26. He performed the song again on November 30 during ''The Today Show'' also live. His appearance on ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' during her ''Holiday Music Extravaganza'', where he sang "What Child Is This", with Mary J. Blige, and later closed the show with Adeste Fideles, was also aired the same day, and was later rebroadcast on December 23. Bocelli also sang "Adeste Fideles" and was interviewed by Barbara Walters and Joy Behar on ''The View'', which aired December 2, on ABC. On December 8, he performed "Jingle Bells" with The Muppets on NBC's ''The Jay Leno Show''. He also performed a number of songs from the album, including "The Christmas Song" with Natalie Cole, during a dinner at David Foster's mansion in Malibu, which was featured on ''The Dr. Phil Show'', on December 10. Bocelli also performed "White Christmas" and "Silent Night", on the ''Larry King Live'' and ''Fox & Friends'' holiday-specials, broadcast December 23, on CNN, and December 19, 24 and 25, on Fox News.

In Brasil, following the success of the South American leg of the ''Incanto tour'', were over 100,000 people attended his free concert at the São Paulo's "Parque Indipendencia", earlier in the year, it was announced that Bocelli would hold another Open-Air, entrance free, concert in Florianópolis, on December 28, where a crowd of about a million people was expected to attend. However, due to financial and political reasons, the concert was later canceled on short notice, along with all the other events scheduled for Christmas in the city.

2010: Hollywood Walk of Fame and FIFA World Cup

On January 31, 2010, during the 52nd Grammy Awards, Bocelli, Mary J. Blige and David Foster joined forces again, singing "Bridge over Troubled Water" to raise awareness for the victims of the Haiti earthquake. The three had previously made an appearance on CNN's Larry King Live, January 28, 2010, to announce the performance.

On March 2, he was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to Live Theater, at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard, in front of the Roosevelt Hotel.

On March 12, Bocelli made an appearance on Skavlan, in Oslo, Norway, to promote his upcoming Scandinavian tour, giving a rare interview to the show's host Fredrik Skavlan, and later performing "Voglio Vivere Cosi", from his 2008 album ''Incanto'', with Norwegian Boys' choir, Sølvguttene.

In April, he returned to Scandinavia, for a concert in Telenor Arena, in Oslo, Norway, on April 8, a concert in Forum Copenhagen, in Copenhagen, Denmark, on April 9, and finally a concert in the Ericsson Globe, in Stockholm, Sweden, on April 11. He was joined by Tony Award winner Heather Headley and 120 musicians from the Stockholm Concert Orchestra, in all three concerts, and by Swedish mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman in his Swedish concert.

On April 30, Bocelli sang "Nessun Dorma" during the opening ceremony of the Expo 2010, in Shanghai, China, in front of twenty heads of state and government, including Chinese President Hu Jintao, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. The following day, on May 1, he held a concert, titled ''Charming China'', at Shanghai Stadium, in front of an audience of 80,000 people, along with Chinese singers Song Zuying and Jay Chou, and Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang; the China Philharmonic Orchestra accompanied them under the direction of its artistic director Yu Long. The concert was later broadcasted by Shanghai TV, and by CCTV channels throughout mainland China.

The two appearances coincided with Bocelli's Asian tour, consisting of a concert in Budokan, Tokyo, Japan, on April 28, a concert in Jamsil Gymnasium, Seoul, South Korea, on May 2, a concert in Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, in Hong Kong, on May 4, a concert in Taipei Arena, Taipei, Taiwan, on May 6, The concert was later broadcasted, in its entirety, by Channel NewsAsia, on May 28 and 29, and by Okto, on May 30, in Singapore. An orchid in the Botanic Gardens' National Orchid Garden was also named after Bocelli in response to the concert. Australian pop singer Delta Goodrem performed again with Bocelli in all five concerts, after supporting him in his United States My Christmas 2009 winter tour.

On May 18, during the 2010 World Music Awards, Bocelli performed ""Un Amore Cosi Grande" from his 2008 album, ''Incanto'', and received his seventh World Music Award, for "Best Classical Artist".

On July 5, Bocelli gave a concert at the opening of the Khan Shatyry Entertainment Center, in Astana, on the occasion of Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev's 70th birthday. Among the guests were, the President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, the President of Turkey, Abdullah Gül, the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, the President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, the President of Tajikistan, Emomalii Rahmon, the President of Kyrgyzstan, Roza Otunbayeva, the Crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the King of Jordan, Abdullah II.

On July 9, Bocelli headlined the "Celebrate Africa: The Grand Finale" Concert of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, at the Coca-Cola Dome, in Johannesburg, South Africa, to mark the end of the World Cup, two days before the World Cup final. During the concert, Bocelli was joined by Canadian rock star, Bryan Adams, Italian flautist, Andrea Griminelli, and South African singers, Nianell and Pretty Yende. FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, South Africain president, Jacob Zuma, and Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, were among the 12,000 in attendance.

On July 13, Montenegrin Statehood Day, Bocelli gave a concert at the seaside resort of Sveti Stefan, in western Montenegro, to mark the Golden Jubilee of the Sveti Stefan Hotel. During the hour-long show, on a stage right in front of the island-hotel's perimeter wall, Bocelli sang well-known arias, as well as some of his more popular hits, to the assembled dignitaries, including Montenegro's top officials, representatives of the diplomatic corps and many faces from cultural, political and public life, as well as many current and former tourist entrepreneurs who had contributed to the development of Montenegrin tourism.

On Juy 14, Bocelli gave a concert at the European Parliament's Espace Léopold, in Brussels, Belgium, during "Rome in the heart of the future", an event hosted by the Vice President of the European Parliament for the seventh parliament, MEP, Roberta Angelilli, "to highlight the city of Rome as the capital of international tourism through an important and ambitious project in Europe." A screening of the film ''Homage to Rome'', directed by Franco Zeffirelli, who was present during the event, and starring Bocelli, in his cinematographic debut, and Italian fashion model, Monica Bellucci, was shown prior to the special concert. The event was also attended by the President of the European Parliament, MEP, Jerzy Buzek, European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, Antonio Tajani, the Mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, the President of Lazio, Renata Polverini.

On July 25, Bocelli held the fifth and final edition of the Teatro del Silenzio, in his hometown of Lajatico, Tuscany, to an audience of 10,000, double the amount of the first edition of the annual Festival, held in 2006. After performing with Spanish tenor, Plácido Domingo and Welsh Mezzo-soprano, Katherine Jenkins on the previous edition of the Festival, in 2009, Bocelli's guests included the only other surviving member of The Three Tenors, Spanish Catalan tenor, José Carreras, and Italian rock singer, Zucchero. Sculptures by Swiss artist Kurt Laurenz Metzler, who attended the concert, were exhibited during this year's edition. The Teatro del Silenzio has in past incorporated sculptures by artists such as Arnaldo Pomodoro and Igor Mitoraj. Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida, who was also in attendance, donated a Bronze statue she had made of Bocelli, to the city of Lajatico, in the afternoon just before the concert. Bocelli was also awarded the ''Pisano Doc'', during the dress rehearsal for the concert, on July 24, "in recognition for a great citizen, who with his extraordinary art and his humanity brings great prestige, honor and respect to the city of Pisa", and received, the 2010 ''Premio Lunezia nel mondo'', during a private ceremony held on July 21, for "the musical-literary quality of his songs."

In September 2010, Bocelli held a concert at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, in Athens, Greece. The concert was attended by George Papandreou, the prime minister of Greece and Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens, among others. All proceeds were donated to help cure cancer. Bocelli also gave concerts in Cairo, Egypt, in front of the pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza, as well as a fundraising concert inside the famous Duomo di Milano to benefit victims of the 2010 Haiti Earthquake.

As part of the 2010 leg of the ''My Christmas Tour'', Bocelli gave two concerts in the two largest indoor arenas of the United Kingdom, The O2 Arena, in London, and The M.E.N Arena, in Manchester, and a concert in the largest indoor arena in Ireland, The O2, in Dublin, in late November 2010. His sold out concert at the O2 in London, was the most attended show in the venue's history, with 16,500 people attending the event. In early December, Bocelli gave 6 concerts in the United States. He performed in Madison Square Garden, in New York City, Prudential Center, in Newark, New Jersey, TD Garden, in Boston, Toyota Center, in Houston, Staples Center, in Los Angeles, and the MGM Grand's Garden Arena, in the Las Vegas Strip. The Toyota Center concert, in Houston, was attended by former president George Bush, Sr. and first lady Barbara Bush.

Bocelli also took part in the Christmas in Washington special on December 12, in the presence of president Barack Obama and the first lady. On December 19, Bocelli gave a concert, conducted by Claudio Scimone, in the Italian Senate. The concert was attended by Italy's top officials including Italy's president Giorgio Napolitano, Renato Schifani, the president of the Italian Senate, Gianfranco Fini, the president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and Tarcisio Bertone, Cardinal Secretary of State of the Holy See.

2011: Notte Illuminata Tour and Metropolitan Opera debut

In January, Bocelli gave three concerts in Germany. The concerts in Munich, Berlin, and Hamburg were all part of the Notte Illuminata Tour, launched in Pisa, at the Teatro Verdi, December 2010. In February, Bocelli made his Metropolitan Opera debut, performing a recital, as part of the tour.

In late March, early April, as part of the 2011 Latin Leg of his Incanto Tour, Bocelli gave concerts in Buenos Aires, Bogotá, and Panama City.

In May 2011, Bocelli held 5 concerts in East and Southeast Asia, and was joined by New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra during the Tour. He first gave a concert in Jakarta, Indonesia, his first visit to the country. The concert was attended by Indonesia's top political personalities, including Golkar Party chairman, billionaire Aburizal Bakrie, PDI-P chairwoman and daughter of former president's Sukarno, Megawati Sukarnoputri, herself a former president, and former president Suharto's second eldest daughter, Siti Hediyanti. Bocelli held two other concerts in Taipei, and two concerts in Beijing.

It was announced that Bocelli will give a free concert in September, on the Great Lawn of Central Park in New York City. He will be accompanied by the New York Philharmonic conducted by its music director, Alan Gilbert.

Voice

With the exception of the negative views of some Classical music critics, Bocelli is widely celebrated as a singer and is admired around the world. His voice's timbre is as recognisable as a signature, with a versatility ranging from the Bel canto to the furore of Verismo, from the sacred repertoire to popular ballads.

Franco Corelli, one of the greatest Spinto tenors of the twentieth century, praised Bocelli's voice after hearing it for the first time during a Master class in 1986, in Turin, and would later give him private lessons. Another great Italian tenor who championed Bocelli's singing from the very beginning was Luciano Pavarotti. Pavarotti publicly admired Bocelli's voice and played an early part in the younger man's career. He reportedly stated that "''There is no one finer,''" upon hearing his voice for the very first time. Bocelli would later sing during both his wedding ceremony, in 2003, and his funeral, in 2007.

After conducting Bocelli in the ''Verdi'' album, in 2000, Zubin Mehta commented that "''Andrea's voice is special in many ways. First of all, he has a complete control from forte to pianissimo on any note. The end of 'Celeste Aida,' he attacks the high B flat full voice and then pulls it down to nothing — hardly anybody can do that, it's also very risky on the stage at the opera. But it's not that we tried it 15 times and he got it once; he can do it every time. He can also, in the middle of a phrase, without breathing, change the color of a note, so it's a conductor's dream to ask and to get it because most people can't do that.''" The interview where Mehta made those comments was featured in a BBC documentary about Bocelli, entitled the "Story Behind the Voice". Mehta also compared Bocelli's voice to the old Italian style of singers, such as Tito Schipa.

The same documentary also featured an interview with Spanish Catalan tenor, José Carreras. He commented that "''The first time I had the possibility to listen to Andrea, he was a part of the Sanremo Festival. And I thought wow, that's a nice voice, very beautiful color, very tenor like.''" He proceeded by saying, "''I always thought that he has a wonderful instrument, that he knows very much how to use it.''"

Lorin Maazel, who conducted Bocelli's 2002 Classical album, ''Sentimento'', was also featured in the documentary. In the interview he says that "''Andrea Bocelli has amazing Tessitura, almost three Octaves, I would think two and a half, has excellent and very easy top notes; but he can also fill out the lower register very successfully.''" Maazel also praised Bocelli's Musical talent and knowledge of music, and compared his voice to that of celebrated Irish tenor John McCormack, during an interview with Charlie Rose, in 2002.

Similarly, during a 1999 interview on The Charlie Rose show, American soprano Renée Fleming praised Bocelli's voice, by saying "''first of all the sound is beautiful. There is something very soulful about the way he sings and it's captured the hearts of something like, the last I've heard eleven million fans.''" Grammy winning Puerto Rican soprano, Ana María Martínez, who regularly performs with Bocelli, also said that "''More than anything, Andrea has something that is unique in that he brings this light that is always around him. And this purity of heart and beauty of sound just touches the listener. It can’t be described.''"

French Canadian singer Celine Dion famously said while introducing him during her Christmas Special for ''These Are Special Times'', in 1998, that "''if God would have a singing voice, he must sound a lot like Andrea Bocelli''," and multiple Grammy Award winner David Foster, a producer of the album, often describes Bocelli's voice as the most beautiful in the world. Similarly, seven-time Grammy Award winning Jazz singer, Al Jarreau, who performed with Bocelli on the "Night of the Proms" tour in Europe, in 1995, described him as "''the most beautiful voice in the world,''" and American talk show host, Oprah Winfrey, commented on her talk show that, "''when I hear Andrea sing, I burst into tears''."

After attending Bocelli's concert at the Hollywood Bowl in 2009, the first time she'd been out "in months", legendary American actress Elizabeth Taylor said, "''My mind, my soul were transported by his beauty, his voice, his inner being. God has kissed this man and I thank God for it.''" Taylor had been a passionate fan of Bocelli's since the beginning of his music career in the mid-90's. Other fans include, Prince Albert of Monaco, who invited the tenor to sing at his wedding, as well as Sarah, Duchess of York, and actress Isabella Rossellini. Bocelli's voice was also a favorite of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, and Pope John Paul II, for whom he sang on many occasions, and released ''Credo'', a ''DVD'' dedicated to his life, shortly after his death, in 2006.

Other world class artists from both the Pop and Opera worlds have also publicly expressed their admiration, including opera singers Plácido Domingo, and Cecilia Bartoli, who collaborated with Bocelli, and conductor Myung-whun Chung, who conducted Bocelli's 1999 album, ''Sacred Arias''. Some point to his "poor phrasing, uneven tone and lack of technique."

In 1999, ''The New York Times'' chief music critic Anthony Tommasini in his review of Bocelli's North American opera debut at the Detroit Opera House in the title role of Massenet's ''Werther'' commented, "The basic color of Mr. Bocelli's voice is warm and pleasant, but he lacks the technique to support and project his sound. His sustained notes wobble. His soft high notes are painfully weak. Inadequate breath control often forces him to clip off notes prematurely at the end of phrases." In December 2000 Tommasini again criticised Bocelli, this time for his ''La bohème'' album when he claimed that Bocelli "still has trouble with basic things, like breath support" and his voice had been "carefully recorded", "to help it match the trained voices of the other cast members in fullness and presence."

In describing Bocelli's singing, ''New York Times'' music critic Bernard Holland noted, "the tone is rasping, thin and, in general, poorly supported. Even the most modest upward movement thins it even more, signalling what appears to be the onset of strangulation. To his credit, Mr Bocelli sings mostly in tune. But his phrasing tends toward carelessness and rhythmic jumble... The diction is not clear." Furthermore, Holland observed that "The critic's duty is to report that Mr Bocelli is not a very good singer." The Associated Press reported "Passion? Yes. Power. No. Bocelli's voice – though robust in spirit and precisely in tune, even in the upper register – had a thin quality that never opened up." Similarly, classical music critic Andrew Clement found Bocelli's studio opera recordings consistently disappointing in quality: "Bocelli's profoundly unmusical contribution, with its unvaryingly coarse tone, wayward intonation and never a phrase properly shaped, fatally undermines all their contributions." Anne Midgette of ''The New York Times'' agreed, noting "a thinness of voice, oddly anemic phrasing (including shortchanging upper notes of phrases in a most untenorial manner), a curious lack of expression."

In 2008, in a live performance, Bocelli was described by Baltimore Sun music critic Tim Smith thus: "as unaided by electronics, he produced an undernourished, often under-pitch tone. Top notes were strained, phrases monochromatic. Bocelli's most loyal fans presumably didn't mind any of the weaknesses, but, frankly, I found most of his singing embarrassing."

During a 2009 performance in New York, the music critic Steve Smith wrote "For cognoscenti of vocal artistry the risks involved in Mr. Bocelli's undertakings, both then and now, need no explanation. Substantial technical shortcomings masked by amplification are laid bare in a more conventional classical setting. Mr. Bocelli's tone can be pleasant, and his pitch is generally secure. But his voice is small and not well supported; his phrasing, wayward and oddly inexpressive."

In 2010, Joe Banno of the ''Washington Post'' gave an unfavorable review of Bocelli's Carmen recording, describing the oft-noted failings in Bocelli's vocal resources on full display in this performance: "Bocelli, to be fair, possesses an essentially lovely tenor and knows his stuff when it comes to selling a pop ballad. And Decca's close miking of his puny voice inflates his sound to near-Franco Corelli-like dimensions. But his short-breathed, clumsily phrased, interpretively blank and often pinched and strained singing makes his Don Jose a tough listen."

An audio commentary by New York Times editor Anne Midgette providing a comparison of Bocelli's tone and technique with Luciano Pavarotti's appears below. According to the commentary, Bocelli's tone and technique is not as firm or full as Pavarotti's. And Bocelli's singing of the high note in the passage sounds "squeezed" as opposed to the "ringing" quality Pavarotti achieves when singing the same note in the passage.

In a 2011 review of an all-classical recital, Zachary Woolfe of the ''New York Times'' commented that Bocelli "seemed out of his element and ill at ease... listeners responded politely and pleasantly, as if fulfilling their duty, a bit puzzled by the gap between the cautious sounds they were hearing and the smooth polish of Mr. Bocelli's blockbuster recordings." Woolfe goes on to observe "If people don’t know the works on a program (and Sunday evening's selection was far from populist), the singer needs to make those works happen, to prove them. But Mr. Bocelli was too nervous and not a powerful enough artist to do that. Even the French songs that were seemingly the best fit for his delicate instrument fell flat. Demonstrating little responsiveness to text or emotional specificity — Fauré's "Lune Blanche" did have an aptly gauzy sheen — they passed in a blur. In Mr. Bocelli's conception of the canon there is little audible difference between Handel and Gounod, and little urgency to either, a bland homogeneity... Ringing Pavarotti-style high notes are difficult for Mr. Bocelli; his effect of choice is extended falsetto tones, with which he dramatically ended several numbers. The audience responded warmly to this easy tactic, keen for something, anything, it could recognize as charismatic, stylish singing."

Recognition

Honors

50px Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (''Grande Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana'') awarded in Rome, on March 4, 2006.

50px Made a Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of Duarte, Sanchez and Mella by the President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernández in 2009, for his contributions to International art and culture.

50px Honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for his contribution to live theater, at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard, in 2010.

ECHO music award for "Best Single of the Year", for ''Time to Say Goodbye'', in 1997.

ECHO Klassik "Best seller of the year" award for his album, ''Viaggio Italiano'' in 1997.

Bambi Award in 1997.

Two World Music Awards, one in the category "Best Italian Singer", and one for "Best Classical Interpretation" in 1998.

ECHO Klassik, for "Best selling classical album" with ''Aria - The Opera Album'' in 1998.

ECHO Klassik for "Bestseller of the year" for ''Sacred Arias'' in 2000.

Two 2000 Classical BRIT Awards for "Best selling classical album" and "Album of the year" for ''Sacred Arias'' in 2000.

Goldene Europa for classical music in 2000.

Goldene Kamera award in the "Music & Entertainment" category 2002.

Two World Music Awards, for "World best selling classical artist" and for "Best selling Italian artist" in 2002.

Telegatto award for the soundtrack of the series ''Cuore'' in 2002.

2002 Classical BRIT Award for "Outstanding Contribution to Music" in 2002.

Two 2003 Classical BRIT Awards for "Best selling classical album" and "Album of the year" for ''Sentimento'' in 2003.

Two World Music Awards for "Best Italian Artist" and "World's Best-selling Classical Artist" in 2006.

Telegatto award in platinum for ''Italian music in the world'' in 2008.

World Music Awards for "World's Best-selling Classical Artist" in 2010.

Personal life

Bocelli met his first wife, Enrica Cenzatti, while singing at piano bars early in his career. They were married on 27 June 1992, and had two children. Their first child, Amos, was born in February 1995. Their second son, Matteo was born in October 1997. The couple separated in 2002. Although not yet divorced, Bocelli lives with his girlfriend and manager, Veronica Berti. They met in 2002.

The couple live in a spacious villa, which used to be a hotel, in Forte dei Marmi on the Mediterranean, complete with recording studio. Meanwhile, Bocelli's estranged wife and two sons live in the couple's previous residence in the same comune, in Versilia.

On 30 April 2000, Bocelli's father, Sandro Bocelli, died. His mother encouraged him to honour his commitments, and so he sang for the Pope, in Rome, on May 1, and immediately returned home for the funeral. At his July 5 performance, filmed for PBS as ''American Dream—Andrea Bocelli's Statue of Liberty Concert'', Bocelli dedicated the encore ''Sogno'' (Dream), from his 1999 album ''Sogno'', to the memory of his father.

A section of the way along the beach in Jesolo, on the Italian Adriatic coast, was named after Bocelli on 11 August 2003.

Teatro del Silenzio

In 2006, Bocelli influenced the municipality of his hometown Lajatico to build an outdoor theatre, the "Teatro del Silenzio". Bocelli serves as its honorary president and performs for one night only, every July, the rest of the year, the theatre remains silent.

Since the opening in 2006, Bocelli has held 5 concerts, in every July, with guests ranging from opera singers Plácido Domingo and José Carreras to classical crossover artists Sarah Brightman and Katherine Jenkins, as well as Italian rock and pop stars Zucchero, Laura Pausini, and Elisa. Bocelli's guests have also included instrumentalists Lang Lang, Chris Botti, and Kenny G. The 2007 edition of the "Teatro del Silenzio" was released on ''DVD'' in 2008.

Discography

Albums

Studio albums

1994: ''Il Mare Calmo della Sera''

1995: ''Bocelli''

1996/1997: ''Viaggio Italiano''

1997: ''Aria – the opera album''

1999: ''Sogno''

1999: ''Sacred Arias''

2000: ''Verdi''

2001: ''Cieli di Toscana''

2002: ''Sentimento''

2004: ''Andrea''

2006: ''Amore''

2008: ''Incanto''

2009: ''My Christmas''

Compilation albums

1997: ''Romanza''

2007: ''The Best of Andrea Bocelli: Vivere''

Collaborative albums

1997: ''A Hymn for the World''

1998: ''A Hymn for the World 2'' (''Voices From Heaven'')

2000: ''Verdi's Requiem''

2010: ''Carmen: Duets & Arias''

Complete opera recordings

2000: ''La bohème''

2003: ''Tosca''

2004: ''Il trovatore''

2005: ''Werther''

2006: ''Pagliacci''

2007: ''Cavalleria rusticana''

2008/2010: ''Carmen''

2010: ''Andrea Chénier''

Digital albums

2011: ''Notte Illuminata''

Singles

Duet singles

1995: "Vivo per lei" (with Giorgia)

1996: "Vivo por ella" (with Marta Sánchez)

1996: "Vivo por ella" (with Sandy Leah)

1996: "Time to Say Goodbye" (with Sarah Brightman)

1997: "Ich lebe für sie" (with Judy Weiss)

1997: "Je vis pour elle" (with Helene Segara)

1999: "The Prayer" (with Celine Dion)

2001: "L'Abitudine" (with Helena Hellwig)

2006: "Somos Novios (It's Impossible)" (with Christina Aguilera)

2006: "Because we believe" (with Marco Borsato)

2006: "Ama credi e vai" (with Gianna Nannini)

2007: "Dare to live" (with Laura Pausini)

2008: "Vive Ya" (with Laura Pausini)

2009: "What Child Is This" (with Mary J. Blige)

2010: "Bridge over Troubled Water" (with Mary J. Blige)

Solo singles

1994: "Il mare calmo della sera"

1995: "Con te partirò"/"Vivere"

1995: "Macchine da guerra"

1995: "Per amore"

1999: "Ave Maria"

1999: "Canto della Terra"

2001: "Melodramma"

2001: "Mille Lune Mille Onde"

2004: "Dell'amore non si sa"

2004: "Un nuovo giorno"

2009: "White Christmas/Bianco Natale"

Live albums & videos

1998: ''A Night in Tuscany''

2000: ''Sacred Arias: The Home Video''

2002: ''Tuscan Skies (Cieli di Toscana)''

2006: ''Credo: John Paul II''

2006: ''Under the Desert Sky''

2008: ''Vivere Live in Tuscany''

2008: '' Incanto The Documentary''

2009: ''My Christmas Special''

Bibliography

2000: ''The Music of Silence: A Memoir'' (''La musica del silenzio'') - Autobiography

2010: ''The Music of Silence: A Memoir'' - Reworked autobiography

See also

Teatro del Silenzio

Andrea Bocelli discography

List of Popera artists

List of Easy Listening artists

List of Adult Contemporary artists

List of awards and nominations received by Andrea Bocelli

List of best-selling music artists

References

External links

Bocelli's official site

Official German fan site (English version)

Bocelli Community

Official forum

Bocelli on Myspace.com

Bocelli on Facebook.com

Bocelli on Youtube.com

Bocelli on discogs.com

Biography of Andrea Bocelli, from RAI International

Bocelli pages at Music City

Andrea Bocelli on Universal Classics and Jazz Website

Andrea Bocelli section on classicalx.com

C Music TV Profile of Andrea Bocelli

Bocelli lyrics

classical-crossover tenor

Category:1958 births Category:Blind musicians Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from atheism or agnosticism Category:Crooners Category:Decca Records artists Category:French-language singers Category:English-language singers Category:German-language singers Category:Italian drummers Category:Italian flautists Category:Italian guitarists Category:Italian harpists Category:Italian keyboardists Category:Italian lawyers Category:Italian-language singers Category:Italian male singers Category:Italian opera singers Category:Italian philanthropists Category:Italian pianists Category:Italian pop singers Category:Italian Roman Catholics Category:Italian saxophonists Category:Italian singers Category:Italian singer-songwriters Category:Italian tenors Category:Italian trombonists Category:Italian trumpeters Category:Living people Category:Multi-instrumentalists Category:Opera crossover singers Category:Operatic tenors Category:People from the Province of Pisa Category:Portuguese-language singers Category:Sanremo Music Festival winners Category:Spanish-language singers Category:Torch singers Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:Universal Music Group artists Category:University of Pisa alumni Category:World Music Awards winners

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name	Marina Vlady
birth name	Marina de Poliakoff-Baidaroff
birth date	May 10, 1938
birth place	Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France
occupation	Actress
years active	1949–2001
spouse	Robert Hossein (1955-1959)(divorced) Jean-Claude Brouillet (1963-1966) (divorced) Vladimir Vysotsky (1970-1980)(his death)
website	}}

Marina Vlady (born Marina de Poliakoff-Baidaroff in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine on 10 May 1938) is a French actress.

She won the Best Actress Award at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival for ''The Conjugal Bed''. 1955-1959 she was married to actor/director Robert Hossein. 1963-1966 she was married to Jean-Claude Brouillet, a French "entrepreneur", owner of two airlines and member of French Resistance during the WW II. From 1969 until his death in 1980 she was married to Russian poet and songwriter Vladimir Vysotsky.

Marina Vlady is the sister of actresses Odile Versois, Hélène Vallier and Olga Baïdar-Poliakoff; her father was a noted artist of Russian heritage. Like her siblings, she began acting as a child and for a while pursued a ballet career. Projecting a more sensual, alluring image than her sisters, she gained international renown. She was also starred by Jean-Luc Godard in the female lead in ''2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle'' (1967). One of her few English roles was Kate Percy in Orson Welles' ''Chimes at Midnight''. Her TV credits include the 1983 mini series ''La Chambre des Dames''.

She wrote "Vladimir, or the Aborted Flight" a memoir of her great and tragic relationship with Vladimir Vysotsky, translated into Russian, German, Armenian and many other languages. Marina Vlady was Vladimir Vysotsky last wife from 1969 to his death in 1980.

Marina had been married before and had 3 children, while Vladimir had two. Fueled by Marina's exotic status as a Frenchwoman in the Soviet Union, and Vladimir's unmatched popularity in his country, their love was passionate and impulsive. They were married in 1969. For 10 years the two maintained a long-distance relationship as Marina compromised her career in France in order to spend more time in Moscow, and Vladimir's friends pulled strings in order for him to be allowed to travel abroad to stay with his wife. Marina eventually joined the Communist Party of France, which essentially gave her an unlimited-entry visa into the Soviet Union, and provided Vladimir with some immunity against prosecution by the government, which was becoming weary of his covertly anti-Soviet lyrics and his odds-defying popularity with the masses. The problems of his long-distance relationship with Vlady inspired several of Vysotsky's songs.

References

External links

Marina Vlady at Cinémathèque française

Category:1938 births Category:Living people Category:People from Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine Category:French actors Category:French people of Russian descent

bg:Марина Влади de:Marina Vlady et:Marina Vlady eo:Marina Vlady fr:Marina Vlady hy:Մարինա Վլադի it:Marina Vlady lb:Marina Vlady hu:Marina Vlady ja:マリナ・ヴラディ pl:Marina Vlady pt:Marina Vlady ro:Marina Vlady ru:Влади, Марина sv:Marina Vlady tr:Marina Vladi uk:Марина Владі

name	Nancy Grace
birthname	Nancy Ann Grace
birth date	October 23, 1959
birth place	Macon, Georgia, United States
education	Mercer University (B.A./J.D.)New York University (LL.M.)
occupation	Political commentator, television personality, former prosecutor
years active	1996–present
spouse	David Linch (2007–present)
religion	Christian
children	Lucy Elizabeth, John David
credits	''Closing Arguments'' anchor (1996–2007) ''Nancy Grace'' anchor (2005–present)
agent	}}

Nancy Ann Grace (born October 23, 1959) is an American legal commentator, television host, television journalist, and former prosecutor. She frequently discusses issues from what she describes as a victims' rights standpoint, with an outspoken style that has won her both praise and condemnation. She is the host of ''Nancy Grace'', a nightly celebrity news and current affairs show on HLN, and she was the host of Court TV's ''Closing Arguments''. She also co-wrote the book ''Objection! — How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System.'' She was also the host of ''Swift Justice with Nancy Grace'', a syndicated courtroom reality show on which her replacement, former Clark County District Court Judge Jackie Glass, was announced May 24, 2011, effective at the end of its first season.

Early life

Nancy Grace was born in Macon, Georgia, the youngest of three children, to Mac Grace, a freight agent for Southern Railway, and Elizabeth Grace, a payroll clerk for a manufacturing plant. Grace has two older siblings: a brother, Mac Jr., and a sister, Ginny. The members of the Grace family have been longtime members of Macon's Liberty United Methodist Church, where Nancy's mother Elizabeth plays the church organ and her father Mac was once a Sunday School teacher.

Grace attended high school at Macon's Windsor Academy, graduating in 1977. She attended Valdosta State University, and later received a B.A. from Mercer University. As a student, Grace was a fan of Shakespearean literature, and intended to become an English professor after graduating from college. However, after the murder of her fiancé, Keith Griffin, when she was 19, Grace decided to enroll in law school and went on to become a felony prosecutor and a supporter of victims' rights.

Grace was a member of the law review at and received her Juris Doctor degree from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University. She went on to earn a Master of Laws degree in constitutional and criminal law from New York University. She has written articles and opinion pieces for legal periodicals, including the ''American Bar Association Journal''. Grace worked as a clerk for a federal court judge and practiced antitrust and consumer protection law with the Federal Trade Commission. She taught litigation at the Georgia State University College of Law and business law at GSU's School of Business. As of 2006, she is part of Mercer University's board of trustees and adopted a section of the street surrounding the law school.

Career as prosecutor

Grace worked for nearly a decade in the Atlanta-Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney's office as Special Prosecutor. Her work focused on felony cases involving serial murder, serial rape, serial child molestation, and arson.

Grace left the prosecutors' office after the District Attorney she had been working under decided not to run for reelection.

Prosecutorial misconduct

The Supreme Court of Georgia has twice commented on Grace's conduct as a prosecutor. First, in a 1994 heroin drug trafficking case, ''Bell v. State'', the Court declared a mistrial, saying that Grace had "exceeded the wide latitude of closing argument" by drawing comparisons to unrelated murder and rape cases.

In 1997, the court was more severe, overturning the murder-arson conviction of businessman W. W. Carr in the death of his wife. While the court said its reversal was not due to these transgressions, since the case had turned primarily on circumstantial evidence, it nevertheless concluded "the conduct of the prosecuting attorney in this case demonstrated her disregard of the notions of due process and fairness, and was inexcusable." Carr was freed in 2004 when The Georgia Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Fulton County had waited too long to retry him, thereby unfairly prejudicing his right to a fair trial.

Despite upholding the conviction she sought, a panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in a 2005 opinion that Grace "played fast and loose" with her ethical duties and failed to "fulfill her responsibilities" as a prosecutor in the 1990 triple murder trial of Herbert Connell Stephens. The court agreed that it was "difficult to conclude that Grace did not knowingly use ... [apparently false] testimony" from a detective that there were no other suspects, despite the existence of outstanding arrest warrants for other men.

Career as broadcaster

After leaving the Fulton County prosecutors' office, Grace was approached by and accepted an offer from Court TV founder Steven Brill to do a legal commentary show alongside Johnnie Cochran. When Cochran left the show, Grace was moved to a solo trial coverage show on CourtTV.

In 2005, she began hosting a regular primetime legal analysis show on CNN Headline News (now HLN) in addition to her CourtTV show. On May 9, 2007, Grace announced that she would be leaving Court TV to focus more on her CNN Headline News Program and charity work. She did her last show on Court TV on June 19, 2007.

Nancy Grace has a distinctive interviewing style mixing vocal questions with multimedia stats displays. The Foundation of American Women in Radio & Television has presented Nancy Grace with two Gracie Awards for her Court TV show.

Nancy Grace had been covering the Casey Anthony story for years. After the controversial verdict ruled that Casey Anthony was not guilty, her show on HLN had its highest ratings ever in the 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. hour slots on Tuesday, July 5, 2011.

List of shows

''Nancy Grace''

Controversies

In 2011 a New York Times article David Carr wrote “Since her show began in 2005, the presumption of innocence has found a willful enemy in the former prosecutor turned broadcast judge-and-jury." He criticized her handling of the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, the Duke lacrosse team rape case, the Melinda Duckett interview and suidcide and the Caylee Anthony case. George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told Carr that Grace, as an attorney and reporter, “has managed to demean both professions with her hype, rabid persona, and sensational analysis. Some part of the public takes her seriously, and her show erodes the respect for basic rights.”

Elizabeth Smart kidnapping

During the 2002 Elizabeth Smart kidnapping case, when suspect Richard Ricci was arrested by police on the basis that he had a criminal record and had worked on the Smarts' home, Grace immediately and repeatedly proclaimed on CourtTV and CNN's Larry King that Ricci "was guilty," although there was little evidence to support this claim. She also suggested publicly that Ricci's girlfriend was involved in the cover-up of his alleged crime. Grace continued to accuse Ricci, though he died while in custody.

It was later revealed that Smart was kidnapped by Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, two individuals with whom Richard Ricci had no connection.

When CourtTV confronted Grace seven months later to ask whether she was incorrect in her assertion that Ricci was guilty, and whether or not she felt bad about it in any way, she stated that Ricci was "a known ex-con, a known felon, and brought suspicion on himself, so who could blame anyone for claiming he was the perpetrator?" When Larry King asked her about the matter, she equated criticism of herself with criticism of the police in the case. She said: "I'm not letting you take the police with me on a guilt trip."

In July 2006, Grace interviewed Smart, who was promoting a legislative bill. Grace repeatedly asked her for information regarding her abduction. Smart told her she didn't feel comfortable discussing it, despite Grace's persistence in the matter. Finally, Grace stopped when Smart said she "didn't appreciate [Grace] bringing all this up."

Duke lacrosse allegations

Grace took a vehemently pro-prosecution position throughout the 2006 Duke University lacrosse case, in which Crystal Gail Mangum, a stripper and North Carolina Central University student, falsely accused three members of Duke University's men's lacrosse team of raping her at a party. Prior to Duke suspending its men's lacrosse team's season, she sarcastically noted on the air, "I'm so glad they didn't miss a lacrosse game over a little thing like gang rape!" and "Why would you go to a cop in an alleged gang rape case, say, and lie and give misleading information?" After the disbarment of District Attorney Mike Nifong, Attorney General Roy Cooper pronounced all three players innocent of the rape charges made by Mangum and Nifong. On the following broadcast of her show, Grace did not appear and a substitute reporter, Jane Velez-Mitchell, announced the removal of all charges.

Suicide of interviewee Melinda Duckett

In September 2006, 21-year-old Melinda Duckett committed suicide following an interview conducted by Grace concerning the disappearance of Duckett's 2-year-old son Trenton.

Grace interviewed Duckett less than two weeks after the child went missing, questioning her for her alleged lack of openness regarding her son's disappearance, asking Duckett "Where were you? Why aren't you telling us where you were that day?" Duckett appeared confused and was unable to answer whether or not she had taken a polygraph test. When Grace asked her why she could not account for specific details, Duckett began to reply, "Because I was told not to," to which Grace responded, "Ms. Duckett, you are not telling us for a reason. What is the reason? You refuse to give even the simplest facts of where you were with your son before he went missing. It is day twelve." According to the CNN transcript, Duckett replied, "(INAUDIBLE) with all media. It's not just there, just all media. Period." Grace then moved on to a media psychologist who asserted that Duckett was "skirting around the issue."

The next day, before the airing of the show, Duckett shot herself, a death that relatives claim was influenced by media scrutiny, particularly from Grace. Speaking to ''The Orlando Sentinel'', Duckett's grandfather Bill Eubank said, "Nancy Grace and the others, they just bashed her to the end. She was not one anyone ever would have thought of to do something like this." CNN has also been criticized for allowing the show to air in the wake of Duckett's suicide. Police investigating the case had not named Melinda Duckett as a suspect in the case at the time, but after her suicide the police did say that, as nearly all parents are in missing-child cases, she was a suspect from the beginning.

In an interview on ''Good Morning America'', Nancy Grace said in reaction to events that "If anything, I would suggest that guilt made her commit suicide. To suggest that a 15- or 20-minute interview can cause someone to commit suicide is focusing on the wrong thing." She then said that, while she sympathized with the family, she knew from her own experience as a victim of crime that such people look for somebody else to blame.

While describing it as an "extremely sad development," Janine Iamunno, a spokeswoman for Grace, said that her program would continue to follow the case as they had a "responsibility to bring attention to this case in the hopes of helping find Trenton Duckett." Grace commented that "I do not feel that our show is to blame for what happened to Melinda Duckett. The truth is not always nice or polite or easy to go down. Sometimes it's harsh, and it hurts."

On November 21, 2006, thesmokinggun.com exposed pending litigation on behalf of the estate of Melinda Duckett, asserting a wrongful death claim against CNN and Grace. The attorney for the estate alleges that, even if Duckett did kill her own son, Grace's aggressive questioning traumatized Duckett so much that she committed suicide. She also argues that CNN's decision to air the interview after Duckett's suicide traumatized her family. Trenton has never been found.

On November 8, 2010, Grace reached a settlement with the estate of Melinda Duckett to create a $200,000 trust fund dedicated to locating Trenton. This settlement was reached a month before a jury trial was scheduled to start. According to the agreement, if the young boy is found alive before he turns 13, the remaining proceeds in the trust will be administered by a trustee – Trenton's great-aunt Kathleen Calvert – until he turns 18 and the funds are transferred for his use. If Trenton is not found by his 13th birthday, or if he is found but is not alive, the funds will be transferred immediately to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "We are pleased the lawsuit has been dismissed. The statement speaks for itself," a spokeswoman for CNN said.

Caylee Anthony case

From 2008 to 2011 the Caylee Anthony disappearance and the prosecution, trial and acquittal of her mother Casey Anthony on charges of murder of the child were a regular feature of the Nancy Grace show. She would reveal every new detail of the story. Her program is cited as having "almost single-handedly inflated the Anthony case from a routine local murder into a national obsession". Nancy Grace referred to Casey Anthony as the "tot mom," a phrase Elizabeth Flock in the Washington Post described as “almost derisive-sounding.”

The Nancy Grace audience more than doubled in the weeks after the start of the Anthony trial. David Carr wrote that Grace took her show to the trial scene in Clearwater, Florida in order to “hurl invective from a close, intimate distance.” Grace expressed rage at Anthony's acquittal right after announcement of the verdict, saying: "Tot Mom's lies seem to have worked. The devil is dancing tonight."

In a press conference after the verdicts were read, Cheney Mason, one of Casey Anthony's defense attorneys, blamed the media for a "media assassination" which led to public hatred toward Casey Anthony. He also said: "I can tell you that my colleagues from coast to coast and border to border have condemned this whole process of lawyers getting on television and talking about cases that they don't know a damn thing about, and don't have the experience to back up their words or the law to do it."

Grace took it personally and responded, "What does he care about what pundits are saying?" Stating she had as much legal experience as Mason, she criticized the defense attorneys for taking on the media before mentioning Caylee's name in their news conference and stated that "[T]here is no way that this is a verdict that speaks the truth."

Michelle Zierler, director of the Project in Law and Journalism at New York Law School said Grace "is always certain that the defendant is guilty and needs instant punishment" and this had affected her analysis of the case. Howard Finkelstein, the Broward County, Florida public defender said "Nancy Grace should offend every journalist out there. These lawyers on TV during the Anthony trial only offered one side, everybody believed them, and now you've got a big chunk of the population that thinks the legal system let them down. Every time that happens, you lose part of the national community."

On the day Casey Anthony was sentenced on misdemeanor counts of lying to investigators, a supporter held a sign reading: "Nancy Grace, stop trying to ruin innocent lives. The jury has spoken. P.S. Our legal system still works!"

In a televised appearance with media expert Dan Abrams, Grace stated about Anthony’s being freed from jail that “No one wishes for vigilante justice; nobody advocates that. People who are opposed to the jury verdict, that think it was wrong, are really seeking justice, and I do not believe those people are interested in harming Tot Mom Casey Anthony.” Abrams commented that “There are too many people out there who love Nancy Grace, who watch Nancy Grace on a regular basis, who are going to see her out there somewhere and are going to give her a very, very hard time wherever she goes.”

Other work

Grace co-wrote the book ''Objection! — How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System'', which was published by Hyperion on June 8, 2005. The book caused notable controversy because Grace referred to defense lawyers as "pigs" and compared them to Nazi concentration camp guards.

According to an article first published by the ''New York Daily News'' in September 2006, Grace plagiarized 359 words spread sequentially across pages 204–5 of the book, lifted without indication from an August 5, 2002 article in ''The New York Times'' written by Sabra Chartrand. Hyperion accepted Grace's claim that the plagiarism was an "inadvertent error" but insisted that Grace send a letter to the ''Times'' promising that the content would be corrected in future printings. Hyperion explained that under contract, Grace must hold the publisher harmless in the event that the ''Times'' filed a lawsuit against her.

Nancy Grace's first work of fiction, ''The Eleventh Victim'', also published by Hyperion, was released on August 11, 2009. The mystery thriller follows a young psychology student, Hailey Dean, whose fiancé is murdered just weeks before their wedding. She goes on to prosecute violent crime and is forced to reckon with what she left behind.'' Publishers Weekly'' described it as "less than compelling." A second novel, ''Death on the D-List'', was published on August 10, 2010.

Grace has also helped staff a hotline at an Atlanta battered women’s center for 10 years.

Personal life

Marriage and motherhood

In April 2007, Grace married David Linch, an Atlanta investment banker, in a small private ceremony. The two had met while she was studying at Mercer University in the '70s. Grace, who had given up on marriage after the death of her fiancé, said, "We've been in touch all these years, and a lot of time, we were separated by geography and time. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision to get married. I told my family only two days before the wedding."

On June 26, 2007, an emotional Grace announced on her HLN talk show that her life had "taken a U-turn" in that she was pregnant and expecting twins due in January 2008. Lucy and John David arrived on November 4, 2007.

When questioned, she would not reveal whether or not she underwent fertility treatments. But the expectant mom did say that finding "such happiness" at this point in her life should inspire people. " She also did not explain the apparent discrepancy between the announced twins' January 2008 birth date and their actual birth in November 2007. The April 2007 wedding date is notably 7 months earlier than the twins' birth, giving speculation as to the honesty behind her public statement that the decision to marry was "spur-of-the-moment."

Allegations regarding fiancé's murder

In March 2006, an article in the ''New York Observer'' suggested that in her book ''Objection!'', Grace had embellished the story of her college fiancé's 1979 murder and the ensuing trial to make it better support her image. Grace has described the tragedy as the impetus for her career as a prosecutor and victims' rights advocate, and has often publicly referred to the incident. The ''Observer'' researched the murder and found several apparent contradictions between the events and Grace's subsequent statements, including the following:

Her fiancé, Keith Griffin, was shot not at random by a stranger, but by a former coworker, Tommy McCoy.

McCoy did not have a prior criminal record and, rather than denying the crime, confessed on the night of the murder.

The jury deliberated for a few hours, not days.

There was no ongoing string of appeals (McCoy's family did not want any). McCoy has only once filed a habeas petition, which was rejected.

Grace told the ''Observer'' she had not looked into the case in many years and "tried not to think about it." She said she made her previous statements about the case "with the knowledge I had."

In response to Keith Olbermann's claims in a March 2007 ''Rolling Stone'' interview in which he was quoted as saying, "Anybody who would embellish the story of their own fiancé's murder should spend that hour a day not on television but in a psychiatrist's chair," Grace stated, "I did not put myself through law school and fight for all those years for victims of crime to waste one minute of my time, my energy, and my education in a war of words with Keith Olbermann, whom I've never met nor had any disagreement. I feel we have X amount of time on Earth, and that when we give in to our detractors or spend needless time on silly fights, I think that's abusing the chance we have to do something good."

Keith Griffin's murderer, Tommy McCoy, was released from the Georgia Department of Corrections on December 5, 2006.

Grace in popular culture

"Law and Order" connection

The ''Law & Order'' programs often base their fictional stories on real-life events and have featured stories based on Grace on several occasions.

In an episode of ''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'', an overzealous reporter named Cindy Marino (played by Kali Rocha) causes the mother of a kidnapped son to commit suicide, echoing the Melinda Duckett incident.

Grace has also been parodied repeatedly on ''Law & Order: Criminal Intent'' by a character named Faith Yancy (Geneva Carr) who hosts a similar talk show (''Inside American Justice'') that sensationalizes whatever case the main characters are working on and makes it difficult for them to gain access to key witnesses. The character has appeared on the episodes "In the Wee Small Hours" (original air date November 6, 2005), "Masquerade" (original air date October 31, 2006), "Albatross" (original air date February 6, 2007), "Neighborhood Watch" (original air date August 10, 2008), and "Lady's Man" (original air date June 28, 2009).

On May 22, 2007, Grace appeared in the ''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' episode "Screwed" the season 8 finale, playing herself opposite Star Jones.

Bibliography

References

External links

CNN's Nancy Grace Show

CNN's Bio of Nancy Grace

CNN Transcript: Interview with Larry King

CNN Transcript: "Nancy Grace" Show

Category:1959 births Category:American prosecutors Category:American television personalities Category:CNN people Category:Georgia (U.S. state) lawyers Category:Living people Category:Mercer University alumni Category:People from Atlanta, Georgia Category:People from Macon, Georgia Category:American women journalists

fr:Nancy Grace