The album, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Classical Albums chart and at No. 10 on the Billboard 200, spans film and musical genres, as well as languages, with one song in Spanish and seven of the 13 tracks in his native Italian. One of those Italian songs is a duet with pop star Ariana Grande, a favorite of Bocelli's children.
"They inspired me to call her for this," he says of his partner on the Once Upon a Time in America song "E più ti penso," which soared to No. 1 on Billboard's Classical Digital Songs chart last month. "I heard her voice and I liked it very much, and so I called her. And I was very happy to work with her."
Grande was overjoyed to work with Bocelli -- tweeting "mille graze!" to the opera star when their song was announced in September -- and the feeling was mutual. "She said that it was an honor to sing with me, but I, too, had the privilege to sing with her," he says. "It was a privilege for me because she allowed me to have my voice heard by her young fans."
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