Roberto Alagna was born on June 7, 1963 is a French operatic tenor. Alagna was born in Clichy-sous-Bois, Seine-Saint-Denis, France.

His family of Sicilian immigrants was very musically talented. As a teenager the young Alagna began busking and singing pop in Parisian cabarets for tips. Influenced primarily by the films of Mario Lanza, but also from recordings of many historic tenors, he then switched to opera. He is largely self-taught as a singer, but he learned most of the tenor repertory from Cuban contrabassist and opera fan Rafael Ruiz.

After winning the Luciano Pavarotti Voice Competition, Alagna made his professional debut in 1988 as Alfredo Germont in La Traviata with the Glyndebourne touring company. This led to many engagements throughout the smaller cities in France and Italy, mainly again as Alfredo, a role he would eventually sing over 150 times.

Alagna opened the 2006-07 season at La Scala on December 7, 2006 in the new production of Aida by Franco Zeffirelli. During the second performance (Dec. 10, 2006), Alagna, whose opening performance was considered ill-at-ease, was "booed" and "whistled" by the loggione (opera fans who sit in the less-expensive seats at the very back of the Scala), and walked off the stage.

The tenor's reaction to his public criticism was denounced as immature and unprofessional by La Scala management and Zeffirelli, who said, “A professional should never behave in this way. Alagna is too sensitive, it is too easy to hurt his feelings. He does not know how to act like a true star.” 

The role of Radames was taken over successfully for the rest of the performance by his understudy Antonello Palombi, who entered on stage wearing jeans and a black shirt..

Alagna has recently been engaged to cover the indisposed Rolando Villazon in Romeo et Juliette at the Met opposite Anna Netrebko for two of the performances this coming September.