There's been a fair few heartwarming moments during lockdown: whether it was clapping for key workers in the streets, wildlife returning to cities or family quizzes over Zoom, we all found a way to look after each other and make every day that little bit more bearable. Right at the beginning, if you can remember as far back as that, arguably the first heartstring tugger to come out of COVID-19 was in Italy, the first country to go into lockdown in Europe.
As people were confined to their homes, musicians began to take to their balconies, cheering up their neighbours with rousing renditions of the Italian national anthem. The footage of houses singing to each other went viral around the world. Now, as Formula 1 returned to Italy for the first time this year, Heineken has rewarded some of these musicians for their part in keeping the nation's spirits up by showcasing their talents at the recent Grand Prix in Monza.
Heineken, who are the title sponsors of the F1 Italian Grand Prix, brought together six musicians made famous by their performances on balconies in lockdown to perform Fratelli d'Italia ahead of the race last weekend as a thank you for their work during those dark days back in February and March.
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"It was an honour to perform the national anthem on the track at Monza," said tenor Maurizio Marchini, who made international headlines singing opera classic Nessun Dorma from his balcony in Florence. "It's a race that means so much to Italian people and I couldn't believe it when Heineken invited me to play. I was in complete shock."
Their first performance was at an empty opera house, Teatro Comunale Luciano Pavarotti in Modena, where they were greeted by F1 driver Charles Leclerc of the Ferrari team, who in turn asked them along to perform before the big race at the track in Monza. The musicians didn't know ahead of time that they would be playing before the Grand Prix, and the scenes that occurred when they took to the terraces of the otherwise empty racetrack to sing brought us right back to those uplifting performances in the spring.
Heineken has released a video which tells this story, with full reactions from the performers themselves, called 'Heineken presents: The Balcony Orchestra', which you can see here.
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This article was published in partnership with Heineken.