ASU Football Player Turned Viral Singing Star Gus Farwell Returns to Tempe

You might not expect to find an opera singer on the 50-yard line, but Gus Farwell isn’t letting preconceived notions about athletes get in the way of his dreams. When he returns to Arizona State University (ASU) on Friday, November 4, to perform a program called "Gridiron to ASU Gammage," his voice will reach beyond the stands to prove that music might not heal all wounds, but it's definitely a medicine worth taking.

It's possible you already know who he is: Farwell went viral in 2020 during the pandemic for videos of him singing opera from a balcony in Barcelona, Spain.

“My then-11-year-old daughter videoed it from our other balcony. My wife posted it and then it just went crazy," Farwell says. "I still don’t know how it went the way that it did. I guess that’s one of the definitions of ‘viral’ because you can’t track it; people are just copying and pasting it everywhere.”

But before Farwell was a famous singing star, he was an ASU football player.

Farwell comes from an athletic family. His father, the late Jim Farwell, was a rowing coach at Santa Clara and Stanford universities, while his older brother Joe was a football star at the University of Oregon. Although sports was in his blood, as a teenager, he also had an interest in theater arts.

“I think, I always liked music as a kid, for sure,” Farwell says. “My father died right before my 15th birthday, in the middle of my freshman year of high school, from pancreatic cancer. And so, it probably started after that as a coping mechanism, something that sort of expressed how I felt. I sort of found musical theater in about my sophomore, junior year of high school. I went and saw Phantom of the Opera in San Francisco at the Curran Theatre. I remember walking out of the theater going, ‘Wow, you can actually do that as a job?’”

He discovered a love of opera at the age of 18, and not long after that, he enrolled at ASU, where he became a backup quarterback helping lead the team to the 1996 Rose Bowl. But that accomplishment would be overshadowed by the death of his best friend, Jill, who was killed by a drunk driver.

She had been a great source of support for Farwell after he lost his father.

“That one was almost worse than my dad because it just brought all the stuff that I hadn’t dealt with about my dad back out,” he says. “That’s why I walked away from football. That’s why I walked away from Arizona State after that, because I just kinda lost interest in things for a while.”

Farwell eventually returned to college and graduated from Santa Clara University in Northern California. After graduation, he spent time in Europe. Paris didn't suit him, and he wanted to be near the beach, so he ended up in Barcelona. It was during that trip that he would meet his future wife, Claire.

Claire encouraged him to develop his vocal talent, which led to opportunities such as performing at charity events like the 2012 Muhammad Ali Celebrity Fight Night in Scottsdale, where Tom Hanks, moved by his rendition of “O Solo Mio,” gave him flowers. Later on, Spanish opera star Placido Domingo would give him a personal vote of confidence too.


When COVID-19 hit the world in 2020, Farwell was living in Barcelona with his family. The people of the city would routinely stand outside in the streets and applaud the health care workers at the end of the day.

“So we were out there, and an ambulance came by,” Farwell says, recalling that first day as he stood on his balcony. “Everybody sort of cheered for it like it was like a running back, running down the field or something. It felt like a sports moment, and I just sort of got caught up in the moment and probably had had some wine at that point, and I just sang out the last couple of notes of ‘Nessun Dorma’ and everybody really cheered. I thought that was it. And the next morning my wife says to me, ‘Why don’t you actually sing something for them tonight?’”

The next night, he went out again and sang the first verse and chorus of “O Solo Mio.” The crowd below responded with a collective “otra, otra, otra” meaning “another, another, another.”

On the third night, he admits his performance was a little lackluster, so on the fourth night he pulled out all the stops and set up his sound system on the balcony. That evening's performance was the one that went viral. All told, Farwell recorded more than 60 balcony performances.

With his newfound fame, Farwell became an internet star, and his nightly serenades drew more and more people.

“It became this beautiful thing," he says. It became a daily ritual. Seriously, it probably saved me more than it did anything for anyone else because it gave me something to do during that time.”

Farwell sang everything from Meatloaf to Mozart for 65 days until local authorities asked him to stop, as the crowds he was drawing were becoming a concern. On the last day, he remembers the energy coming from his fans. As his wife opened up the balcony doors, Farwell could hear the applause.

“It was clearly so many more people than were normally out there. When I walked out on that balcony, the applause just raised up to a level that I’ve never experienced as a performer. It was so special, that final performance. It was just sort of this beautiful relationship ... we got through this together,” he says.

Today, Farwell is getting ready for an encore — not from a balcony in Barcelona, but among his peers at ASU. Even though his time in Europe was special, his upcoming appearance at the “Gridiron to ASU Gammage” event is a culmination of his experiences and his career, as well as a meaningful return to Tempe.

“The dynamic has changed so much,” says Farwell. “When I left there, when I walked away, I failed all my classes, I left in the middle of the semester. It was such a dark place for me for such a long time. The university has been so amazing how they’ve welcomed me back and invited me to do this. I feel so welcomed. It’s bright again for me. I’m coming back to sort of finish what I started.”

Gridiron to ASU Gammage. 6 to 7:30 p.m. preshow tailgate with food trucks, 7:30 p.m. performance. ASU Gammage, 1200 South Forest Avenue, Tempe. Admission is free but pre-registration is required.