We Speak Pop

Il Volo Brings Down the House at Benchmark International Arena

Published

2 days ago

November 13, 2026

Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto and Gianluca Ginoble of Il Volo perform with a full orchestra at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa on November 12, 2026. Photo by Nicholas Bozeman.

There is a moment, about twenty minutes into an Il Volo concert, when you stop marveling at the technique and start feeling it in your ribs. On Thursday night at Benchmark International Arena, that moment came early, and it never really left. Three voices, a full orchestra, a deep red curtain and a Tampa crowd dressed for a special occasion added up to the most purely joyful big room show this city has seen all year.

The view from the back of the room, a full house watching Il Volo and the orchestra. Photo by Nicholas Bozeman.

A Room Ready for a Big Night

The arena leaned into the occasion before a note was sung, marking show day with a themed cocktail, the Bacio di Sole, and the crowd arrived in kind, dressed for a night out rather than a routine tour stop. Inside, the production made its intentions plain. Warm ring lights glowed at floor level, the orchestra sat on risers behind the singers, strings, brass, woodwinds, piano and harp all in place, and when the house lights dropped, phone screens rose all over the floor. Then the orchestra opened up, and the room went quiet in the way only a real hush can.

The conductor leads the orchestra that travels with Il Volo on every date of the tour. Photo by Nicholas Bozeman.

Three Voices, One Instrument

Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto and Gianluca Ginoble have sung together since they were teenagers, and it shows in the best way. They tease each other between songs, trade lines inside them, and step forward one at a time for the solo turns that give each voice its own weather. Ginoble floated through Music of the Night with a tenderness that held the whole arena still. Barone lit the fuse on E lucevan le stelle, all operatic fire. Boschetto took The Winner Takes It All and turned it into a show stopper, grinning like a man who knew exactly what he had just done.

Gianluca Ginoble takes his solo turn under the red lights. Photo by Nicholas Bozeman.

None of it works without the orchestra, and Barone will tell you so himself, with a number attached. The orchestra, he says, is eighty percent of their music. Watching the strings swell behind the three of them on Thursday, the number felt honest. It also explains the ease in the room. Seventeen years in, the three of them still look at each other the way they must have at the very start, like singing together is the most fun a person can have standing up, and the feeling is contagious.

Piero Barone in his solo spotlight. Photo by Nicholas Bozeman.

The Moments That Stopped the Room

Every great concert has a handful of moments the crowd will be retelling in the car on the way home, and this one stacked them up. The Impossible Dream stopped the show cold, a single voice and a swelling orchestra, and when it ended you could see people all over the floor wiping their eyes before the applause hit. Caruso did the opposite trick, pulling the arena down to a hush so complete you could hear the room holding its breath. Then ‘O Sole Mio brought the full house roaring to life, everybody on their feet, half the room singing along, the three of them beaming at the noise like it was the first time.

Ignazio Boschetto, full voice, mid note. Photo by Nicholas Bozeman.

What stays with you is the warmth of it. Between the big notes there is constant joking among the three, real gratitude to the fans who have carried them for seventeen years, and a sense that nobody on that stage is phoning in a single bar. Grande Amore landed like an anthem the whole building had been waiting all night to sing, and by the closing stretch the crowd was not watching a concert anymore. It was part of one.

Two voices trade lines in front of the orchestra. Photo by Nicholas Bozeman.

A Christmas Turn, Then the Big Finish

The night carried one more gift. With their new album Our Christmas just released, the trio folded a pair of Christmas songs into the evening, Adeste Fideles and Angels We Have Heard on High, and the arena settled into a candlelight kind of quiet in the middle of all that vocal size. It was a beautiful change of pace, and it made the climb to the finish feel even bigger. The show closed, as it had to, with Nessun dorma, three voices at full stretch over the orchestra, and when the last note faded the ovation rolled on and on, the trio standing in it with their hands over their hearts.

All three voices open at once against the red curtain. Photo by Nicholas Bozeman.

The full production, conductor, orchestra and harp under the tour lighting. Photo by Nicholas Bozeman.

Il Volo in front of the gold curtain, with the orchestra on risers behind them. Photo by Nicholas Bozeman.

Tampa photographer Nicholas Bozeman shot the night for We Speak Media, and his pictures carry the whole arc of it, the hush and the roar alike. The tour moves on from here, with Uncasville on November 15 and New York on November 17. If it stops anywhere near you, go. Some concerts you watch. This one you feel in your chest.

Photo Gallery

All photos by Nicholas Bozeman.

We Speak Pop

Tyla Opens North America Leg of The A*POP World Tour in Wheatland

Published

2 days ago

November 13, 2026

We Speak Media

Tyla performs live on stage during the opening night of the North America leg of The A*POP World Tour at Hard Rock Live in Wheatland, California

Tyla launched the North America leg of The A*POP World Tour last night at Hard Rock Live in Wheatland, California, opening with “THAT GIRL” and closing with an encore of “WATER” as her sophomore album A*POP continues its run at the top of the Billboard World Albums chart.

Last night, two-time GRAMMY Award-winning global singer and songwriter Tyla launched the North America leg of her highly anticipated THE A*POP WORLD TOUR at Hard Rock Live in Wheatland, CA. The tour celebrates the release of her highly anticipated sophomore studio album, A*POP, which arrived July 24 via FAX and Epic Records.

Tyla opened the show with “THAT GIRL” before delivering performances of “Jump,” “PUSH 2 START,” “Truth or Dare” and more. The setlist also featured fan favorites and chart-topping hits including, “SHE DID IT AGAIN” and “SHAKE AH”, “CHANEL,” before closing with an encore performance of “WATER.” The production brought the A*POP aesthetic to life, transforming the stage into a vibrant, club-like setting with black lights, neon outfits and bold splashes of paint.

THE A*POP WORLD TOUR continues tomorrow with a performance at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco before making stops in Vancouver, Chicago, Brooklyn, Los Angeles and more. The North America leg concludes on Saturday, December 19 at Fontainebleau Las Vegas. Tyla will then bring the tour to Africa for select performances in Cape Town and Johannesburg early January before supporting Bruno Mars on his Australia and New Zealand dates of The Romantic Tour throughout February and March.

The tour follows Tyla’s 2025 We Wanna Party Tour across Asia and the UAE, which included sold-out performances in Japan. THE A*POP WORLD TOUR marks her first full-scale headline tour spanning North America, Europe, the UK and Africa.

Released July 24, A*POP features 14 tracks, including “CHANEL,” “IS IT,” “SHE DID IT AGAIN” and “IS IT LOVE.” The album is available to stream now at tyla.lnk.to/APOP. The record has already won critical and commercial accolades, debuting at #1 on the Billboard World Albums chart and earning praise from outlets like Pitchfork, who called her a “sexy, infectious, fun new voice” in the pop mainstream.

Tickets and tour information are available at TylaWorld.com.

Tyla, The A*POP World Tour North America Dates

Thu Nov 12 — Wheatland, CA — Hard Rock Live
Fri Nov 13 — San Francisco, CA — Bill Graham Civic Auditorium*
Sun Nov 15 — Vancouver, BC — Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre
Tue Nov 17 — Seattle, WA — WAMU Theater @ Lumen Field
Fri Nov 20 — Denver, CO — Fillmore Auditorium
Sun Nov 22 — Chicago, IL — Aragon Ballroom
Wed Nov 25 — Boston, MA — MGM Music Hall at Fenway
Thu Nov 26 — Toronto, ON — Coca-Cola Coliseum
Sat Nov 28 — Brooklyn, NY — Brooklyn Paramount
Sun Nov 29 — Brooklyn, NY — Brooklyn Paramount
Wed Dec 2 — Washington, DC — The Anthem*
Sat Dec 5 — Tampa, FL — Yuengling Center
Sun Dec 6 — Atlanta, GA — Coca-Cola Roxy
Wed Dec 9 — Irving, TX — The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
Thu Dec 10 — Houston, TX — 713 Music Hall
Fri Dec 11 — Austin, TX — Moody Center
Mon Dec 14 — Phoenix, AZ — Arizona Financial Theatre
Tue Dec 15 — San Diego, CA — Viejas Arena
Wed Dec 16 — Los Angeles, CA — YouTube Theater
Sat Dec 19 — Las Vegas, NV — Fontainebleau Las Vegas

Tyla, The A*POP World Tour Africa Dates

Mon Jan 4 — Cape Town, South Africa – Green Point Track*
Fri Jan 8 — Johannesburg, South Africa – Expo Centre, Nasrec*
Sat Jan 9 — Johannesburg, South Africa – Expo Centre, Nasrec*
*Non-Live Nation Date

About Tyla

In an era where niche culture has taken priority over monoculture, two-time GRAMMY® winner TYLA has ascended to true and unequivocal global superstar status. With A*POP, asserted and fully aware of her presence in pop music, she presents a project that refuses containment or dismissal. It’s confrontational, candid but fun, and spills authenticity rooted in where she’s from: a country that has always spoken in more than one musical language. Through this language, she reveals her range not just as an African artist, but as a global pop star with an entire world behind her.

TYLA’s journey got off to a historic beginning in 2024, when she won her first GRAMMY® Award, and made Billboard chart history with the three-time RIAA® Platinum smash hit “WATER,” and the release of her seminal debut albums, TYLA and TYLA+. The set produced another Hot 100 and GRAMMY®-winning hit, “PUSH 2 START,” and sent seven songs to the U.S. Afrobeats chart, including two no. 1s. The campaign made TYLA the highest-charting African female soloist on the Billboard 200. With her highly-anticipated second go-round, A*POP, TYLA picked up where she left off. “CHANEL,” one of the album’s standout singles, was an immediate pop sensation. It topped the U.S. Afrobeats chart and earned over 150 million video views, while TYLA’s follow-up effort, the Zara Larsson-assisted, Y2K-inspired “SHE DID IT AGAIN,” became a disruptive moment, and amplified TYLA’s commitment to the pop star realm. “IS IT LOVE?,” the album’s third single, earned TYLA her record fourth no. 1 on the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats chart. A*POP is available now.