Grigolo embodied the intersection of operatic tradition and pop appeal, projecting the charisma and flair of Robbie Williams while delivering a voice comparable to Luciano Pavarotti. After performing alongside the celebrated tenor in childhood, he received the nickname Il Pavarottino, though he later forged a distinct mature approach and steered his work away from crossover material toward classical repertoire.
Born in Arezzo, Grigolo relocated to Rome while still young, where his abilities drew attention promptly. At age nine, accompanying his mother to an eye examination, he heard singing from an adjoining room and launched into his own version of “Ave Maria.” The optician’s father, impressed, arranged an immediate audition for the Sistine Chapel Choir, where the boy joined and performed as a soloist. At thirteen he took the role of the Pastorello in Tosca at Rome’s opera house, sharing the stage with Pavarotti. By eighteen he sang with the Vienna Opera Company; at twenty-three he became the youngest male artist to appear at Milan’s La Scala. He was also the first Italian man excused from compulsory military service on the grounds that it would interrupt his career.
Grigolo performed in The Barber of Seville, La Traviata, Così Fan Tutte, Faust, and additional operas before accepting the part of Tony in West Side Story. Appearing opposite James Gandolfini convinced him that opera could attract broader audiences. Although he came close to joining Il Divo, disagreements with Simon Cowell ended the prospect; instead he released the solo album In the Hands of Love in 2006, a project he described as “popera.” The record included “Maria” from West Side Story together with the pop selections “All in Love Is Fair” and “Bedshaped.” The U.K. Official Charts Company’s Classical Advisory Panel classified it as exactly 35.7 percent classical—short of the required minimum of 60 percent—so the album was restricted to the pop charts, where it entered the Top Ten, sold strongly, and earned a European Border Breakers Award.
The following year Grigolo recorded West Side Story with Hayley Westenra to commemorate the musical’s fiftieth anniversary, with Leonard Bernstein conducting. He then returned to classical music, appearing at a 2008 tribute concert for Pavarotti in Chicago and signing with Sony Classical. His first release for the label, the 2010 album The Italian Tenor, deliberately placed him in the lineage of earlier artists such as Caruso and Lanza; consisting chiefly of arias by Verdi and Puccini, it coincided with his Metropolitan Opera debut in La Bohème. In subsequent years he continued to sing at leading opera houses worldwide and issued two further recital albums, Arrivederci (2011) and Ave Maria (2013), both of which sold well and intensified interest in the young tenor’s prospects.
