In the 1990s, everybody loved tenors. In fact, the more the merrier.

That was because opera star Luciano Pavarotti, one of the most beloved singers on the planet, joined two other famous tenors, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, in a series of concerts that exploded into a phenomenon called the Three Tenors.

These tenors were not the first to do popular songs. But Pavarotti, especially, was known to partner with rockers, such as Bono, and singers in other genres to do awareness-raising for many causes as well as just for fun.

The Three Tenors eventually moved on with their solo careers with and without pop, and Pavarotti died in 2007. But in their wake, one tenor suddenly was not enough for the public. And “popera,” combining the opera voice with pop and or pop singers, became fashionable, marketable, and profitable.

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In 1995, casting about for a way to say happy birthday to TV Channel 10 in Brisbane, Australia, a man named Ken Lord upped the ante.

“There was a main TV channel called Channel 10 and they were having their 30th birthday, and they asked Kenny if he had any idea what they should do. And Ken being Ken, you, know, larger than life, said well Three Tenors, why wouldn’t we do the Ten Tenors?” said DJ Wendt.

The group, made up from 10 operatic tenors from a conservatory, performed three songs, repeating one when the audience clamored for an encore, Wendt said.

The Ten Tenors is still going strong and will return to Toledo on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Valentine Theatre, 410 Adams St. The group last played the Valentine in 2019. For tickets, $49 to $79, or more information, go to valentinetheatre.com.

After the 1995 act at the TV station proved to be a hit, Wendt said, a group of colleges students asked him to produce their shows. And Wendt is still producing them 27 years and 62 tenors later.

Wendt figures that the company does 150 to 250 shows a year, and has performed more than 2,200 tours in the United States alone since those early days, when a group of college students turned to him to put them out on the road. Since then, the tenors have been seen by 90 million people on worldwide tours. They have shared the stage with the likes of Lionel Richie, Rod Stewart, Andrea Bocelli, Willie Nelson, Alanis Morissette, and Christina Aguilera, and others, and have recorded 13 albums.

The most recent album, Love is in Air, is the name of the group’s current tour, which the tenors will perform at the Valentine.

“The idea behind the concert came about when I was talking to one of the guys who had been music director of the Ten Tenors for many years, and he was getting married and he asked me if the guys could sing Ed Sheeran’s ‘Perfect’ at the wedding,” Wendt said.

The show and album feature love songs that would be great wedding first dance songs, Wendt said, including “Unchained Melody” and of course, “Perfect.”

“There’s one medley in the show that presents a juxtaposition of love songs,” Wendt said. “It’s a breakup medley, and it’s hilarious. It’s a mashup of 22 different songs in that medley.”

But the show also has all the things that people who have seen the Ten Tenors before have come to love: humor and various solo arias, including, Wendt said, a “very well-known and big aria, but I won’t say what it is. It’s probably one of the most well-known arias of all time.”

Hint: It was one of Pavarotti’s signature arias.

“I bet I’ve heard it live about 3,000 times. The same with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ which not many groups can do live,” Wendt said.

The many tenor groups still out there include the Texas Tenors, the Irish Tenors and the Celtic Tenors, the Italian Tenors, Forte, Il Divo, Il Volo, and the Tenors, also known as the Canadian Tenors.

But what sets his show apart from the other “popera” groups out there, Wendt said, is the broad range of repertoire the Ten Tenors have in their show. “Pop, rock, disco, opera ... there might be a Bee Gees disco medley with a disco choreography.”

In fact, he said, the choreography that they do onstage is fairly unique to their group.

“We have a lot of choreography in our show, so it is a full show, not just a concert,” he said. “We keep moving, especially if someone happens to be sick on the night.”

Yes, he said, people always count, so it’s important to have a few spares available. However, because the coronavirus still haunts the world, in this tour, just 10 singers are on board the bus as part of what he calls the travel bubble. The current Ten Tenors are Cameron Barclay, Daniel Belle, Michael Edwards, Adrian Li Donni, Sebastian Maclaine, Jared Newall, Boyd Owen, Riley Sutton, Grady Swithenbank, and Sam Ward.

Wendt says he’s building a new show that will tour in Australia in July called the Highwaymen.

“It will be a tip of the hat to some of your country and western singers, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Glenn Campbell,” he said. “We once had an arrangement of ‘Rawhide.’ The first time we performed it in Tamworth (Australia’s Nashville) we did this medley of ‘Rawhide,’ choreography and everything. We got slammed by a lady after the show because she said that was western, not country. She was very angry.”

The current tour, though, is the first the group has done outside Australia since the lockdown.

’We’re excited to be back in Toledo,” Wendt said. “We’re excited to be back in the U.S. We’re excited just to be working. You know the last two years, it’s been really tough, really tough on the guys. Just touring and doing shows is what we love. It really gets into your blood.”

During the pandemic, Australia was one of the strictest nation in the world on lockdowns, he said. Some cities, such as Melbourne and Victoria were locked down from 280 to 290 days, according to Wendt.

“Not being able to work for that long was really hard on everyone,” he said. “That has a huge impact. You can see they’ve got their zest for life and spark being back on the road, you can tell they’re back to their normal selves. And they’re just happy people again.”

Wendt wants his audience members to be happy as well.

“We want Toledo to come out and see the show, forget about their own lives’ issues for a couple of hours, and just relax and be entertained, and we look forward to seeing all of you,” he said.

First Published April 3, 2022, 3:30 p.m.