Angelo Kelly
Angelo Gabriele Kelly (born December 23, 1981 in Pamplona , Spain ) is an Irish-American singer , musician and composer . He was best known as the youngest member of the pop and folk band The Kelly Family , which has received numerous music awards and , from the mid-1990s, was one of the most commercially successful performers in Europe with more than 20 million records sold. Together with his brother Paddy , he was in the focus of public interest as an idol of young girls. With the song I Can't Help Myself composed by him , the Kelly Family achieved their first number 1 hit in Germany and at the same time the most successful title of their career to date. In 2006 Angelo Kelly published his solo debut I'm Ready . Since then he has been active as a solo artist.
biography
Musical career with the Kelly Family
Angelo Kelly was born in Pamplona as the twelfth child of the American teacher Daniel Jerome Kelly and the eighth child of the American dancer Barbara Ann. He has four half siblings and seven full siblings. As part of prenatal care, his mother was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. In order not to endanger the unborn son, she refused chemotherapy . After her death in November 1982, her father, who was alcoholic at the time, remained a single parent and the family lived in modest circumstances. From early childhood on, Angelo Kelly traveled with his family as a street musician through Europe and the USA and played several concerts a day as he got older. He took over his first vocal passages on the 1985 vinyl single Hiroshima - I'm Sorry , his first song Pee-Pee from the album Keep On Singing (1989) he wrote at the age of seven. As part of the street concerts, Angelo Kelly initially played guitar and percussion instruments , and his teachers included the Indonesian percussionist Nippy Noya . Around 1993 his interest increasingly focused on drums; from the age of 14 he was a master student of the Panamanian jazz drummer Billy Cobham .
With their album Over the Hump and the single An Angel released from it , the Kelly Family achieved their commercial breakthrough in 1994 and polarized the public from then on. The then 12-year-old Angelo and his 16-year-old brother Paddy rose to become teenage stars and, as lead singers, became the focus of both critics and opponents. For several years Angelo Kelly was unable to move around in public without security guards. Like his siblings, he was tutored by his father and did not attend conventional schools. Although the Kelly Family had been living in Germany for several years, the then President of the Cologne District, Franz-Josef Antwerpes, did not intend to force Angelo Kelly to attend a public school until March 1996. In February of the same year, however, his authority had already announced in writing that it would declare its “consent to the premature end of compulsory education”.
Angelo Kelly's characteristic optical feature was his hip-length, light blonde hair, which was sometimes twisted up with papillots for appearances . Because of the curls created in this way and the boyish voice, he was often referred to in the media as "angelic". At the age of 13, Angelo Kelly composed the track I Can't Help Myself , which reached the top of the charts in ten countries in the summer of 1996, including Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. It was also the first song that he interpreted as lead singer after changing his voice . He achieved further success with the title Because It's Love , which entered the German charts at number 3 in September 1997, and the single I Will Be Your Bride , which reached position 14 exactly one year later. Angelo Kelly said he composed these three tracks as well as the song Once in a While from the album Over the Hump for his future wife Kira. He met Kira Harms, the daughter of the Rostock local politician Detlev Harms, in Warnemünde at the end of 1990 . They have been a couple since 1998 and were married in 2005. They have five children together (as of 2018).
Angelo Kelly made his last appearance with the Kelly Family for the time being as part of the church tour in 2007. From 2017 he performed again together with five to six of his siblings in the group The Kelly Family . On May 14th, 2020 he announced that he would be leaving the band after a burn-out.
Solo career
Together with Billy Cobham, Angelo Kelly released the DVD Call and Response in April 2004 , which includes drum solos by the two musicians. From September 2004 he also worked as a guest lecturer at a drum school in Düsseldorf . In 2006 Angelo Kelly founded his own label TEN 4 ONE . In July of the same year he released his solo debut album I'm Ready , which was distributed by Edel and reached number 54 in the German charts. Claus Fischer acted as co-producer. Kelly was involved as a drummer on the musical soundtrack POE - Pech und Schwefel by Frank Nimsgern and Heinz Rudolf Kunze , released by Sony BMG in 2006 . Several solo albums, singles and DVDs followed, often recorded live as part of European tours. In 2008 Angelo Kelly took on the challenge of the show stern TV to cover the 1,400-kilometer route from Pamplona to Cologne in the shortest possible time without his own financial means and without the aid of flights. He was only allowed to earn the necessary money for accommodation, food and transport as a street musician with voice and guitar. He reached the goal after five days.
Caused by memories of the alternative lifestyle of his childhood, Angelo Kelly traveled with his wife and five children in a 20-year-old Mercedes bus through Europe from March 2010. He was accompanied by a documentary filmmaker over a period of five months. Just like his album, which was released in 2012, the DVD resulting from the filming is entitled Off Road . After he initially made music on the street, as he wished, he moved his performances to theaters again in 2012. At the concerts he is supported musically by his wife and children.
In 2013 Kelly and his family moved to Ireland. At the end of 2014 he went on a mixtape tour . He was supported on stage by his long-time friend and musician Matthias Krauss. On this tour he covered and interpreted exclusively pieces by other artists such as Miley Cyrus , Bruce Springsteen , Aerosmith , One Direction , Philipp Poisel , Oasis , The Black Eyed Peas etc. Two more live albums Mixtape I and Mixtape II were created . In 2015 Angelo returned to the stage with his own family with his Irish Christmas program . For the first time he went public with his wife and children in private. When they emigrated to Ireland, Angelo Kelly and his family were accompanied by the Vox program Goodbye Germany . In 2017 Angelo was on the jury for It takes 2, almost exactly a year later in January 2018 he was broadcast as a celebrity undercover boss under the pseudonym Matthew Bradley.
In 2019 he was a guest musician in MTV Unplugged by the German band Santiano . He sang the songs Land Of Green and Drums And Guns - Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya with the Santiano fiddler Pete Sage, who was a former roadie with the Kelly Family .
Kelly took part in the TV show The Masked Singer on ProSieben in 2020 . He was unmasked or revealed as a cockroach on March 24, 2020 after he left the show at his own request. He was no longer live on the show. Kelly appeared in two live shows and was eliminated as the third participant.
After he had to cancel all TV productions in Germany due to the travel restrictions imposed as part of the Corona crisis in order to be able to stay with his family in Ireland, the song "Stay With Me", which was written by his wife Kira, was canceled released the album "Coming Home".
Live band (Angelo and Kira Kelly with their children)
- Angelo Kelly (born December 23, 1981; voc, g, keyb, dr, perc)
- Kira Kelly (* October 7, 1978 as Kira Harms; voc, keyb, perc)
- Gabriel Jerome Kelly (born July 3, 2001; voc, keyb, dr, perc)
- Helen Josephine Kelly (born November 5, 2002; voc, b, perc)
- Emma Maria Kelly (born March 6, 2006; voc, perc)
- Joseph Ewan Gregory Walter Kelly (born November 23, 2010; voc, perc)
- William Emanuel Kelly (born July 17, 2015)
Discography
|
Chart placements (preliminary) Explanation of the data |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Albums | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Studio albums
- 2006: I'm Ready
- 2007: Rejoice and Be Glad
- 2008: Lost Sons
- 2012: Off Road
- 2014: Welcome Home (Angelo Kelly & Family)
- 2015: Irish Christmas (Angelo Kelly & Family)
- 2018: Irish Heart (Angelo Kelly & Family)
- 2020: Coming Home (Angelo Kelly & Family)
Live albums
- 2008: Up Close
- 2008: Live in Madrid
- 2009: The Traveler - Live in Warsaw
- 2009: The Traveler
- 2012: Off Road Live
- 2012: Off Road Live 2
- 2012: Off Road the Christmas Show
- 2014: Live in Berlin
- 2014: MixTape Live
- 2015: MixTape Live Vol. 2
- 2018: Irish Heart Live
Singles
- 2006: Finally One (EP)
- 2007: Let Me Dream
- 2008: Smile for the Picture
- 2012: Slow Down
- 2018: Irish Heart
- 2020: Stay with me
DVDs
- 2004: Call & Response (with Billy Cobham )
- 2006: Piano Drums
- 2007: I'm Ready
- 2008: Up Close
- 2009: Live in Madrid
- 2009: The Traveler
- 2012: Off Road Documentary
- 2012: Off Road - Live in Stuttgart
- 2018: Irish Heart - Live
Filmography (selection)
- 2018: class reunion 1.0
Awards
-
Golden hen
- 2018: in the music category
swell
- ^ Documentation ancestors wanted , WDR television, broadcast on January 27, 2012
- ↑ Interview with Markus Lanz , broadcast on June 29, 2011
- ↑ Antwerpes vs. Kelly Focus Magazine No. 15, April 6, 1996, accessed December 19, 2012
- ↑ Interview with Angelo Kelly in the NDR talk show DAS !, 2006
- ↑ Chart source Because It's Love ( Memento from November 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Musicline.de , accessed on December 19, 2012
- ↑ Chart source I Will Be Your Bride hitparade.ch, accessed on December 19, 2012
- ↑ THAT! - Interview with musician Angelo Kelly and family NDR television , broadcast on June 16, 2018
- ↑ The Kelly Family is back! SchlagerPlanet.com, accessed November 6, 2017
- ↑ Thorge Schramm: Kelly Family: Angelo Kelly leaves the band! In: Schlager.de. Deutsche Medienportale GmbH, May 14, 2020, accessed on May 14, 2020 .
- ^ Homepage Drummers Institute accessed December 19, 2012
- ↑ Chart source I'm Ready ( Memento from April 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Musicline.de, accessed on December 19, 2012 2012
- ↑ stern TV , broadcast on June 11, 2008.
- ↑ The little angel has grown up . In: Weser Kurier , December 3, 2012, accessed on December 19, 2012.
- ↑ Angelo Kelly's emigrant family brings quota record
- ↑ Santiano's MTV Unplugged album will be released on October 18th. universal-music.de, accessed on April 15, 2020 .
- ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH
- ↑ Awards: DE
Web links
- Official website
- Angelo Kelly in the Internet Movie Database (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kelly, Angelo |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kelly, Angelo Gabriele (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Irish singer, musician and composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 23, 1981 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pamplona , Spain |