If you have ever visited Disney World, you know that it is a place where you can have wonderful experiences. However, some guests add even more magic by displaying their amazing gifts. A man named Justin Gigliello was vacationing at the Grand Floridian Resort in Orlando, Florida in April 2019. On one day of their trip, shortly after Gigliello finished eating lunch with his family, the talented man’s daughter asked him for a special request that would lead to the family’s online fame.
Be sure to reach the end of this article to see the full video 🙂
After leaving the restaurant, they saw a pianist dressed in a tuxedo. The musician was playing the piano in the hotel lobby. Gigliello started to dance with Lyla, his then 6-year-old daughter. After the pianist finished playing his song, Lyla told him that her daddy also played the piano.
Gigliello then told the pianist that his gift focused more on singing. However, Gigliello’s talent reaches far beyond ordinary singing.
Gigliello attended The Boston Conservatory where he was trained to perform as an opera singer, according to Ormond Beach Observer. He also taught voice lessons from his former home in Connecticut, as NBC Connecticut reports. Plus, Justin is a volunteer firefighter at the North Stonington Volunteer Fire Department.
When Gigliello and Lyla spotted the pianist, Gigliello was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of shorts. People were stunned when they heard him sing “Ave Maria.” His voice filled the hotel lobby as a small appreciative audience began to gather around the piano.In the video, Lyla looks at her dad with adoration in her eyes. Gigliello later uploaded the video to Twitter.
People could not get over the look on his daughter’s face. Lyla later told NBC News that she loves listening to her dad singing “Ave Maria.”
Lyla’s mom, Lauren Gigliello, mentioned that Lyla loves Justin Gigliello’s singing voice. Justin Gigliello and Lyla frequently sing together. Plus, Justin Gigliello sings Lyla to sleep every night. After Justin finished singing in the hotel lobby, everyone began to cheer and clap.
Justin Gigliello said he was overjoyed at the favorable response. He also mentioned that he and his parents used to visit Disney World when he was a boy.
Justin Gigliello said that they stayed at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, which was right next door to the Grand Floridian Resort. They used to walk to the Grand Floridan Resort lobby and listen to piano music. So the recent event brought up happy memories of Justin’s childhood. Justin Gigliello’s influence on his daughter has given her a desire to become a professional singer one day.
But we shouldn’t forget that it took Justin Gigliello a lot of time and dedication to get to where he is today. Ormond Beach Observer reports in an article from September 2020 that Justin Gigliello’s passion for music began when he was a young child. But this singer-to-be didn’t grow up listening to Luciano Pavarotti. Instead, he and his father would put on records by The Beatles and Frank Sinatra, and Justin Gigliello would often sing around the house. Eventually, however, Justin Gigliello’s mother took notice of her son’s talent, contacting a voice coach.
The coach told Justin Gigliello and his parents that the then 15-year-old high school student had an excellent operatic voice.
“At that point, I didn’t really want to sing opera,” Justin Gigliello told the Ormond Beach Observer. “I wanted to sing more R&B type of music, more Frank Sinatra type of music, but my teacher said, ‘Just try it. See how it goes,’ and I ended up falling in love with it.”
Thanks to a bit of motherly intuition and the guidance of his voice teacher, Justin Gigliello came to love opera. For him, it became a refuge away from the bullying the young man experienced, a place where he felt accepted, according to the local publication. It’s no wonder, then, that a passionate Justin Gigliello began to score the lead roles in high school performances. And when he finally graduated high school, he continued his singing career at the Boston Conservatory, a world-class performing arts college at the Berklee College of Music.
And today, nearly a decade later, Justin Gigliello continues to sing — except, with the birth of his daughter eight years ago, he’s singing less opera and more Disney.
“Music is in the house constantly, every day,” he told the Ormond Beach Observer. “We’re constantly either singing to Disney music or playing around on the piano or just singing.”
Since Justin Gigliello Disney video spread across the internet, getting picked up by news outlets from Good Morning America to The Boston Globe, he has also moved with his family to Ormond Beach, Florida, which is just an hour away from Disney World in Orlando.
According to the Ormond Beach Observer, the Gigliellos moved to Florida from Connecticut in order to give Justin Gigliello the opportunity to apply for jobs at Disney. His dream job? Singing at the Grand Floridian for Disney’s fairytale weddings. But at the end of the day, singing remains important for the reactions he gets from his audience — whether at Disney or for his daughter in the kitchen.
“As long as I can portray what I’m presenting in the right way, and they’re enjoying it, that means I did my job well,” Justin Gigliello told the local paper. “That’s what I love to see.”
Fans of Justin Gigliello can follow him on Twitter or YouTube, where he continues to post videos of himself singing to popular Disney hits like “Hercules’” “I Can Go The Distance.”
“(Going viral) is absolutely incredible! It is something I couldn’t even imagine being possible,” Justin Gigliello told his alma mater in the wake of his “Ave Maria” video. “Everything has happened so fast and my family and I are just trying to stay in the moment as much as possible. We are taking it one day at a time, and are so appreciative of everyone who has viewed and shared the video. They all made this happen, and we are eternally grateful.”
If you have been touched by this video, feel free to let us know in the comments below. What do you think of Justin Gigliello’s voice? Were you surprised when he opened his mouth? Let us know, and don’t forget to pass this along to your friends and family to inspire them today!
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