When Andrea Bocelli sang a Cuban love song with Jennifer Lopez in surprising duet

4 November 2024, 16:00

The best-selling Italian tenor has sung some surprising duets across his lifetime of making music. Have you heard his love song with Jennifer Lopez?

Much like Luciano Pavarotti before him, Andrea Bocelli has always known the power of a crossover duet to move audiences.

This year, the much-loved Italian tenor is celebrating his decades-long singing career. His debut album Il mare calmo della sera, which was certified platinum within weeks, was released 30 years ago, in 1994.

In October this year, Decca Records has released an album of his greatest duets, from Ed Sheeran and Celine Dion… to pop star and actress, Jennifer Lopez.

In April 2013, the unlikely duo lent their voices to the Season 16 results show of Dancing with the Stars, as dancers Valentin Chmerkovskiy and Anna Trebunskaya performed a winning routine in the foreground.

The song choice was the classic ‘Quizás, quizás, quizás’ by Cuban songwriter Osvaldo Farrés, a love song that became a hit for Bobby Capó in 1947.

Read more: When Pavarotti and Tracy Chapman stunned the world in a soulful operatic duet

[HD] Andrea Bocelli and Jennifer Lopez - Quizas, Quizas, Quizas-DWTS-16-Results

The following year an English version of Farrés’ hit was recorded, with the lyrics ‘Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps’. Doris Day recorded it in 1965 and the cover was later used in the 1992 movie Strictly Ballroom.

After the Italian tenor opens the song with the backing of a big band, Lopez approaches Bocelli before they join in harmony. Bocelli and Lopez’s light, lyrical voices are a natural fit, blending beautifully in the Spanish language duet.

Lopez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, has had an incredible influence on Hollywood and the pop charts, increasing the visibility of Latino actors and performers on our screens and helping to usher in an explosion of Latin pop music in the mainstream.

Her duet with Bocelli was a perfect coming-together of two musical worlds. It features as the third track on Bocelli’s 2024 album Duets, which celebrates the duets Bocelli sang across his incredible career in music from Gwen Stefani to a time-defying duet with Édith Piaf.