adminRobson Sharuko
H-Metro Editor
FOR a maiden tour of Europe, the musical gods could not have chosen a better city, and better country, for Daniel Gonora and his son Isaac.
Especially Daniel, in particular.
MILAN!
The jewel in the Italian crown, one of the four fashion capitals of the world, the others being London, Paris and New York.
The wealthiest city in Italy and home to the Milan Fashion Week and two major football clubs – AC and Inter Milan.
It’s also the home of some of the world’s leading museums and art galleries and a thriving arts industry has always been a big part of this city.
About 10 million tourists visit Milan every year from all over the world.
When they reconcile the statistics of those who made it this year, they will include Daniel Gonora, and his son Isaac.
For Gonora, the visually-impaired singer who made a name playing at Copacabana Rank, it’s a massive leap forward.
After all, it was in this city where the legendary Andrea Bocelli, cheered a stricken world, battered by the effects of a global shutdown brought about by Covid-19, during Easter, two years ago.
“On Easter Sunday (April 12), in a moment that made the world stand still, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli broke multiple records with an emotionally-charged solo performance, streamed exclusively live via YouTube from the Duomo in Milan,” broadwayworld.com reported.
“This historic event reached over 2.8 million peak concurrent viewers, making it one of the biggest musical live stream performances of all-time and the largest simultaneous audience for a classical live stream in YouTube history.
“The video received more than 28 million views from across the globe in its first 24 hours.
“Even prior to the stream beginning, more than one million viewers were present in the waiting room, in anticipation of the performance.
“It reached number 1 Trending on YouTube across U.S., U.K., Italy, Canada and throughout Latin America, including Mexico, Spain, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panamá, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, Nicaragua and Brazil.”
Bocelli, just like Gonora, is visually impaired.
He was born with congenital glaucoma and, at the age of 12, he became completely blind.
But, this did not stop him from pursuing his dreams and is now widely recognised as one of the greatest tenors in the world.
His career has seen him record 15 solo studio albums and selling about 80 million records across the world.
He has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to theatre, two World Music Awards and a Billboard Latin Music Lifetime Achievement Award.
Of course, like most Italians, he loves football and is a fan of Inter Milan.
“My passion for Inter started during my college years, when Inter was winning everything in Italy and the world,” he once said.
“When Inter won the Champions League in 2010, I was with my friends and I was listening to the game on the radio, and everything was a little bit in advance so I was celebrating before them.
“That night I was also brought to tears of joy. The treble is a feeling no one in Italy will be able to equal.”
Gonora’s football romance is something that we don’t know but what we know is that he is not only a talented musician but one who has refused to let his physical limitations derail his musical career.
He is probably not the finest visually-impaired musician to come out of this country because that throne will always be contested for by the likes of the late Paul Matavire.
But, given what he has had to deal with, the hurdles he has faced, the limitations that come with just the exposure of playing on the streets, getting to Milan has been a huge achievement.
It’s a world away from his base at the Copacabana Rank but that’s what life can do.
That’s what dreams can bring and, just in case he wants to know how music really pays, he just needs to give a phone call to Boccelli.
He will be told the Italian now has a net worth of US$100 million.
Online Reporter