During the In Memoriam segment of the 2024 Oscars on Sunday evening, Andrea Bocelli and his son Matteo Bocelli took to the stage for a tear-jerking surprise performance of Time To Say Goodbye.
The maestro’s original 1995 duet of Con the partirò with Sarah Brightman sold over 12 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time.
And now the Italian tenor’s new version with his 26-year-old son has been released as a single to mark the 30th anniversary.
Produced and arranged by Hans Zimmer, a stunning new music video has launched alongside it.
Andrea himself said: “It is the song of my life, it is the melody that represents me in the eyes of the world: reinventing it, thanks to the collaboration with Hans Zimmer, and singing it together with my son Matteo, represents an exciting challenge. It will be a new debut (and it is part of a larger upcoming project), and I am happy that it will take place on the same Oscar stage that already hosted me in ’99 together with my friend Céline Dion.”
Matteo Bocelli commented: “Time to Say Goodbye is more than a song to me, it’s my family’s national anthem, it’s the soundtrack to hundreds of memories. Singing it with my father in a new orchestration is a great honour, and to sing it on the Oscars stage is simply a dream come true!”
Hans Zimmer added: “It was an honour and a thrilling challenge to find a new musical perspective on a masterpiece; and to provide a cinematic landscape to two of the greatest voices in the world.”