Words cannot express the emotions this weekend has made us experience – the excitement, the anxiety, the craziness and, overall, the happiness. Looking through our Facebook profiles would probably be enough to realise that the reason behind this is the Italian trio "Il Volo’ visiting our islands this weekend, to deliver its outstanding concert to us Maltese, who have always adored the beauty of Italian music or as it is best known, “il bel canto”.
This wonderful experience would not have been possible without the help of Crimi Events, the team responsible for bringing Gianluca Ginoble, Piero Barone and Ignazio Boschetto to our little island. In fact, about a month ago, a lovely number of "Il Volo’ fans were asked to become "Il Volo’ ambassadors, following an announcement on the Crimi Events Facebook page. Our task was to spread the word about this highly awaited concert throughout Malta by asking shop owners to hang promotional posters up their walls. The response we got was incredibly astonishing, and that is when we became certain that this concert will definitely be a successful one…
28/08/15– Crimi Events were kind enough to give us all the details when the trio will arrive. In fact, we were among a great number of fans giving the boys a warm welcome by singing their hit song "Grande Amore’.
This was just the start of this jam-packed day as we then went to the Hilton hotel to greet the boys. Luckily enough, we were among the first fans to arrive and we had the privelege to join Gianluca, Piero and Ignazio as they were having a welcome drink in this luxurious hotel. We were a bit freaked out that we were in the same room as them, but eventually, we plucked up our courage and gave them some gifts and also took several other photos and selfies which we will cherish forever.
The boys’ next destination was the San Anton Gardens as the President of Malta kindly invited the boys to her palace whilst the Crimi Events Team also invited us, the "Il Volo’ ambassadors, to this event. Seeing the boys for yet another time was already great enough but the highlight of this event was Gianluca’s charming comment, “La ragazzi di Malta sono belli,” which undoubtedly melted all our hearts.
After all this activity, we were clearly overwhelmed and we decided to end this eventful day by having a drink at the Hilton lobby where a pianist was playing some beautiful melodies. However, just when we thought this day couldn’t get any better, we saw Piero Barone strolling through the corridor and getting closer and closer to us…saying we were astonished is an understatement yet we decided to act cool and natural. But we certainly did not manage to keep up the act for too long…he actually walked to us to have a little chat with us! Just a few moments later (*drum roll please*), he approached the pianist and yes, you probably guess what this led to…he started singing “O sole mio” exclusively for us – what a gentleman!
29/08/15– Undoubtedly, we had already been way too lucky, but we still wanted to make the best out of their stay in Malta and thus, we headed to their hotel once again. As soon as we arrived, we saw Piero having lunch downstairs, who was later joined by Ignazio. Their next activity planned for the day before the long-awaited concert that night, was a tennis match at the hotel’s tennis court — another sight we witnessed, at a distance, whilst putting ourselves in the shoes of the paparazzi for a few minutes. Piero immediately realised we were snapping photos but on the bright side, he waved and smiled at us.
Moving on to the big night of the trio’s stay, Crimi Events had promised that the ambassador who would put up the most posters around Malta will get rewarded with a backstage pass and I (Lara), having put up more than a 100 posters, managed to win this competition. I am now forever grateful to the Crimi team for this brilliant, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! I didn’t know how exclusive it was until I actually got there…not even the media, who had ’media passes’ could go inside!
After about 15 minutes I saw a black car approaching and my heart skipped a beat. It was really them! As soon as they got out of the car, they hurried towards a tent where they were interviewed by a TV station and then rushed into their dressing rooms since they were quite late. After that, I got the chance to take a photo with Ignazio, as he was the only one who wasn’t in the dressing room.
Eventually, the boys got out of the dressing room and rushed on stage, initiating the concert with the famous Italian song ’Il Mondo’. I watched the entire concert from the front row, with Piero actually waving right at me during ’Beautiful Day’.
The concert was beyond all our expectations. I must admit I teared up a few times, their voices are so unique! During the concert, the trio fooled around on stage and picked on Ignazio, making the audience not only enjoy their beautiful voices, but also laugh hysterically. During one of the songs, Gianluca even asked a fan to go up on stage with him as he sang the famous Elvis Presley song ’Can’t Help Falling in Love’.
As the concert ended, I rushed back backstage. As I greeted Piero with a, ’’wow, well done!’’, he smiled at me and invited me to hang out with them in their dressing room. Soon after, I got the chance to take a few photos with Piero and Gianluca (one can never have enough photos with them). The trio fooled around backstage, snapping some photos with fans and friends before hopping back into their car, making their way to their hotel.
30/08/15 – Our motto for this journey was definitely "enough is never enough’ since on Sunday, we decided to say our last goodbyes at the airport. Sadly enough, due to a change of plans, Ignazio returned back home early in the morning, and we were thus unable to see him off. Gianluca’s departure was also on short notice and it was only us (Claudia and Christine) and another ilvolover who managed to bid him goodbye. We literally arrived at the airport breathless as we had to run to make it just on time. The ever-so-sweet Gianluca surprised us by calling us "the twins’ as soon as we approached him, which cheered us up considering we were gutted knowing this memorable experience was coming to an end. Finally, Piero’s departure was later that evening, as he took it a bit easier by going jet-skiing whilst his fellow band-mates were heading back home. Thankfully, more volovers made it this time and we couldn’t help singing "’Grande Amore’’ once again to end this unforgettable journey full-circle.
As we’re nostalgically typing this story, we still can’t believe that all of this actually happened. We feel like we’re still living a dream. We sincerely hope that they will visit our country again but until then, we will have to wait 3 more weeks to see our “grande amori” again in the city of love, Verona, and relive the memories that we witnessed this past weekend!
