How Andrea Bocelli’s Co-Managers Shepherd His Legendary Career (And Voice): ‘It’s Like an Athlete’

Toward the end of the 2025 documentary Andrea Bocelli: Because I Believe, there’s a striking overhead shot of the famed, blind Italian tenor bicycling, carefree, along the Tuscan Riviera — side by side, hand in hand, with his wife and co-manager, Veronica. 

It’s a poetic image, one that captures the dynamic the Bocellis have both personally and professionally. When Veronica met Andrea in her early 20s, he had just parted ways with his longtime manager (due to what Veronica calls “many misunderstandings” in the documentary) and, at his request, she jumped into the role, despite knowing little English or anything much about the music business at the time.

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After asking if anyone at Bocelli’s Italian label, Sugar Music, could give her support, she met Francesco Pasquero. Today, more than two decades later, they co-manage Bocelli’s singular, global career, which now — after 29 Billboard 200 albums, 22 No. 1s on the Classical Albums chart and 2.22 billion official on-demand streams, according to Luminate — is still bridging the pop and classical worlds. 

Though Veronica half-jokes that her husband has insisted he’s retiring since the moment they met, Andrea Bocelli has had an astoundingly busy year. He and his son Matteo (who is also a singer) joined Snoop Dogg for the rapper’s NFL Christmas halftime special; he sang a Puccini aria as headliner of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in February; and he joined forces with Megan Thee Stallion, David Guetta and EJAE for “DNA (More Than a Game),” the official anthem of the FIFA World Cup, which they performed at the opening ceremony in Mexico City in June. 

This year, Bocelli also celebrated the 30th anniversary of Romanza, his international breakthrough that became one of the best-selling albums of all time; performed his usual two summer concerts at Teatro del Silenzio, the stunning outdoor theater in his birthplace of Lajatico, Tuscany, that has operated only the days of the year that Bocelli is performing since 2006; and played his annual holiday shows at Madison Square Garden in New York. Last year, Bocelli signed a five-year deal with AEG (in partnership with WME) that the promoter called “the most significant ever for a classical artist.” He’ll soon make his debut at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado — part of a schedule of roughly 80 shows a year the 68-year-old maintains. 

On the day Veronica and Pasquero speak to Billboard, Bocelli has just played two sold-out nights at the Hollywood Bowl with guests including Jennifer Hudson (with whom he duets for a song on the soundtrack for the upcoming film Maserati: The Brothers). “Until five to six years ago, the music industry was very American and Anglo-centric. Now, with BTS, with Rosalía, there is a bit more open-mindedness to listen to new languages and a different approach,” Pasquero reflects. “We are amazed at how after 30 years of coming back to the States we are still doing numbers unprecedented for a classical artist.”

I get the sense that the overall team around Andrea is tight, trust-based and familial. Is that fair? 

Veronica: Andrea always repeats that you never change a winning team. There was a moment when I felt that I wanted to give Andrea the possibility to be more international, so to be represented by somebody who was traveling more than us, and then I realized honestly that the kind of people we had were exactly what we needed.

When you are at Andrea’s level, and you have a gift that comes from God — because that’s the only way Andrea describes his gift — you have to really be careful of that gift and share it in the right way. So we bring him opportunities and he decides what to do, but we don’t give up very easily. When he makes the wrong decision, he has to change his mind sooner or later. [Laughs] 

Pasquero: We had a brief moment of working with Maverick, the LA-based management company, and for a number of reasons we decided that we were more than enough doing all the things that we were doing by ourselves.  

Veronica: Andrea always told us we didn’t believe in ourselves as much as he did.   

Andrea performed at three blockbuster sports events in the past year. What do you see as the value of him performing in front of these audiences? 

Veronica: That was his beginning — when Andrea sang “Time to Say Goodbye” [with Sarah Brightman in 1996, at the farewell bout of German boxer Henry Maske, a recording of which became his first No. 1 hit]. Emotion has to be connected with music in a certain way, and sport is the best catalyzer, the best emphasizer of what happens in that sense in our hearts.  

How did the World Cup opportunity come together? 

Veronica: We were friends before with the head of FIFA, and I said, “Whenever you do the World Cup, just remember that there’s only one Italian that is the biggest fan ever,” and he said of course I will. So as soon as the World Cup had been put together, I passed Andrea and Francesco [his] number. [Francesco is] the one who went through the process — picking the song, deciding which was the part that one artist had to do and not the other. So even the creative part was in our office. 

Pasquero: The World Cup is exactly how we work. Veronica had the sparkle, the idea, and then the realization happened together. With the label side, we approached a few artists here and there, but the song wasn’t really right for them, and then we ended up with this very peculiar quartet. [Laughs] The song that Andrea sang is not really Andrea’s style, but in my opinion, he sang it beautifully. It’s a very powerhouse song. 

How did you convince him to do something like the World Cup anthem? 

Veronica: We play for him the song, and he needs to like the voice, the way they express themselves. That’s something an artist can’t fake: the spirit, the soul. It doesn’t matter if he likes the song or not. He pays a lot of attention to the lyrics, and if he doesn’t understand the lyrics — that’s a problem for us most of the time — he wants to have the translation.  

Pasquero: EJAE is coming from the K-pop world, but she’s got a beautiful, massive voice.  

Veronica: The first call he does to see the reaction is his kids. So he will go to Amos or Matteo or Virginia like, “Do you know these artists?” And they go, “Oh my God, are you kidding me? Yes, Dad, you have to do it.” And then he’s excited. 

Were there concrete results you saw from him having that global stage? 

Pasquero: We noticed a very big impact on social numbers in terms of interaction. The report that we got the following day was over 4.6 billion impressions of Andrea’s name all over the world. And I have to be honest, we saw a big spike of K-pop followers coming into our world. [EJAE and Andrea’s] fans fell in love with each other, basically. 

It seems like he is presented with constant opportunities, from high-profile collaborations to global events. How do you decide which to do? 

Veronica: Opportunity arises every day; it’s a matter of deciding which one is the one that can make a difference. I do remember Maestro Luciano Pavarotti giving me a big lesson, when I started with Andrea: he took me aside and said, “Remember, the big careers are made out of no. You have to learn how to say no.” I was very young, and to me, every single occasion was like a “wow” occasion. He said, “Your husband is a diamond. You have to treat him like a diamond. So, he can’t be for everybody. He can’t be for every event. You have to choose carefully.” Now, we can easily tell speaking five minutes over the phone if it’s the kind of event he has to be part of or not. 

That said, it seems like he is very open-minded about what he does — and in that sense says yes to a lot. 

Veronica: Andrea says no to every single thing we propose! There’s no yes! [Laughs] I’m the yes person! Not a yes man, which is a very different meaning. We’re always like, “Yes, of course we have to do it!” Andrea’s like, “There’s no way.” It’s not a matter of money; he doesn’t care about all that. Most of the time, he has no idea how much he’s getting, and it’s not those things that drive him.  

Pasquero: Tell her the story about when we got No. 1 in the U.S. and U.K. for the first time in Billboard history. [His 2018 album Si became his first to debut atop the Billboard 200 and UK Albums charts.] 

Veronica: We got the news in the middle of the night he was No. 1 in the world. So we jump into Andrea’s bed, “Andrea, you’re number one!” He covers himself, turns over, and tells us, “I’m the same as yesterday, and I will be the same person tomorrow. I’m happy for you both.” He reminded us, tomorrow you will have somebody else that is going to be No. 1, and we’re going to keep it as a beautiful memory, but we have to do the same things we were doing yesterday and be the best we can.  

He collaborates with so many different genres of artists. 

Veronica: He has no idea who they are before. He only listens to classical music. He doesn’t even know his own pop music!   

The Teatro del Silenzio is such a singular venue. Where did the idea for it come from? 

Veronica: There was an architect that was born exactly where Andrea was, and he came to us and he said, “Andrea, you have to let the world come to you.” And I was like, “Is this crazy? What is he talking about? How can you bring 15,000, 20,000, now 40,000 people to the middle of nowhere?” Because Lajatico, it’s a tiny place, 800 souls [who don’t] speak one single word of English, one route brings you to this hill in the middle of nowhere. And Andrea said, “Yes, yes, yes. Okay, let’s do the project.” Then he shut the door and said, “Now you say no.” I said, “Why do you always say yes, and then I have to be the one to say no? I’m not going to say no! At least let’s try.” And we tried the first year, and he was right. People came from all over the world. We got this information a few days ago — 5% of the people come from Italy. 95% come from Ohio, Finland, everywhere. 

Pasquero: I’ve recently been to see Oasis in Manchester, and it’s that kind of vibe. Andrea is Lajatico. He’s happier there; he sings like he is another person there, because he’s home with all his friends and his horses and his dogs.    

What can other artists learn from Andrea’s example about how to have a career with this kind of longevity?   

Pasquero: Andrea is still a student. The first question that the whole team asks him when he wakes up, even before “How are you?” is, “How’s your voice?” Because the entire ecosystem of Andrea is based only on the voice — and to preserve that voice, he trains every single day, he studies every single day. Today is a show day, he’s not going to talk — maybe only like a whisper to say, “Let’s go get some pasta.” He doesn’t drink on tour. He absolutely doesn’t smoke. He eats white rice, grilled chicken and vegetables to avoid reflux. It’s like an athlete. So the suggestion that I would give to other artists is, you need to take this very seriously if you want to do this as a job.  

Veronica: All the time, we leave a concert and there’s a river of people coming out and Andrea’s like, “Isn’t it incredible?” He is still the kind of person that will be excited to hear himself on the radio, and I think it’s what really makes a difference. Because whenever you lose that curiosity, that excitement, you lose everything.