When Andrea Bocelli popped up in 1996 next to Sarah Brightman, singing what would become one of history’s biggest-selling singles in Time To Say Goodbye, it seemed the then 38-year-old Tuscan with the voluminous hair and luxuriant tenor had arrived on the world stage fully-formed.

Not so, Bocelli tells AFR Weekend from a hotel room in Paris, where the night before he had graced the Ballon d’Or ceremony – a European football equivalent to the Brownlows – with Nessun Dorma, an aria of which he’s been the spiritual keeper since 2007’s passing of his early champion: Luciano Pavarotti.