Patricia Kelly

Patricia Kelly (2014)

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Grace & Kelly   DE 43 04/01/2016 (1 week) One more year   DE 3 March 13, 2020 (14 weeks)   AT 7th March 20, 2020 (1 week)   CH 7th 03/15/2020 (8 weeks)

Maria Patricia Kelly (born November 25th - according to her own statement on November 22nd - 1969 in Gamonal , Spain ) is an Irish - American singer , musician and songwriter . She was best known as a member of the multi-award-winning pop and folk band The Kelly Family , which was active as a street musician from 1974 to 1994 , achieved its commercial breakthrough in 1994 and, with more than 20 million records sold, was one of the most successful performers in Europe . Patricia Kelly has also worked as a solo artist since 2008.

biography

Musical career with the Kelly Family

→ Main article : The Kelly Family

left to right: Jimmy, Patricia, Paddy, Kathy and John Kelly street musicians, circa 1989

Patricia Kelly was born as the sixth child of the American teacher Daniel Jerome Kelly (1930-2002) and the second child of the American dancer Barbara-Ann Suokko (1946-1982) in Gamonal, Spain. She has four half siblings and seven full siblings.

At the age of five she started playing the guitar and making music on the street with her siblings. Her first sung title was the Andalusian Christmas carol "Blanco es el Niño". Patricia Kelly was tutored by her father, did not attend state school, and did not take a state final exam. In addition to English and German, she speaks French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch. When she was 13 years old, her mother died of breast cancer . Her father was an alcoholic. Together with her older siblings Kathy and John , she took care of the six younger siblings Jimmy , Joey , Barby, Paddy , Maite and Angelo . From around 1974 the family traveled as street musicians through the USA and Europe for around 20 years before they achieved their commercial breakthrough in 1994 with their album Over the Hump and the single "An Angel" from it. A wave of euphoria among predominantly female children and adolescents accompanied the musical success of the group, which from then on polarized the public due to their alternative lifestyle and their extravagant appearance.

For years the band performed in sold-out concert halls and stadiums and maintained their popularity with further number one placements. The single "First Time" composed by Patricia Kelly, in which she also acted as lead singer, was released in October 1995. It reached the top 20 and stayed in the German charts for a total of 18 weeks. Patricia Kelly turned down an offer from two major US corporations to break away from the family and market it as a solo artist. Together with her father, she was responsible for the management of the band from 1992 onwards. In 1996 she fell ill with inflammation of the spinal cord , which was accompanied by severe pain and symptoms of paralysis. During this time she was bedridden for several months and unable to perform live with the family. In addition to guitar, Patricia Kelly mainly plays bombo and harp in the band , but she also masters percussion instruments , banjo and zither .

Activity as a solo artist

In collaboration with the saxophonist Peter Materna , who has been a guest musician with the Kelly Family for many years, she designed her first solo project in 2008 with a mixture of folk and jazz. A joint tour took them through Germany. Numerous acoustic concerts followed, in which Patricia Kelly told her life story in a musical way. In 2009 she worked alongside Hannes Wader and Traugott Buhre on Professor Jeck's Numbers Circus , a CD for children that includes number songs and stories to sing along to. From November 25th to December 30th, 2009 Patricia Kelly appeared as a female protagonist in a double role as Christmas angel and Belle in the Charles Dickens musical Vom Geist der Weihnacht in the Capitol Theater in Düsseldorf. The following year she was a star guest in the Christmas Moments Christmas tour, conceived by Thomas Schwab and which has taken place annually since 1998, and sang the associated single Traum von Bethlehem . Accompanied by Schwab and other musicians from the ensemble, she presented her concert tour Moments with Patricia Kelly in spring 2011 . In this program, she interpreted traditionals in six languages from all the countries she has traveled in her life, including chansons , flamenco , country music and bel canto . The Songs and Stories tour followed in 2012 . A concert recording was released on CD and DVD in May 2012 under the title Essential . In November she released the album Blessed Christmas with twelve international Christmas carols.

From 2017 to 2020 she appeared again with five to six siblings in the group The Kelly Family .

Private life

Patricia Kelly has been married to the native Russian Denis Sawinkin since 2001 and is the mother of two sons (* 2001 and 2003). She was baptized a Catholic and has been a practicing Christian since becoming ill in the late 1990s . In 2010, her right breast was diagnosed with an aggressive pre-cancerous cancer. Due to the genetic predisposition, all of her breast tissue was removed and replaced with a prosthesis. Her younger son Ignatius "Iggi" Kelly came in 2017 when  Sat.1 telecast  The Voice Kids  with the song The Sound of Silence on. In the semifinals he was eliminated with the song Castle on the Hill .

Discography

Studio albums

• 2010: It Is Essential
• 2012: Blessed Christmas
• 2016: Grace & Kelly
• 2020: One More Year

Live albums

• 2012: Live concert "Essential"
• 2015: Live Acoustic Songs & Stories

Charity albums

• 2012: Christmas with Patricia Kelly

EPs

• 2008: A New Room
• 2009: Essential

Collaborations

• 2009: Professor Jecke Numbers Circus (One, Two, Three, Four, Five)
• 2009: Jimmy Kelly: Roots Diggin 'Deeper (Ohos Negros)
• 2010: Christmas Moments: Dream of Bethlehem (Dream of Bethlehem)

Video albums

• 2009: About the Christmas spirit
• 2012: Live concert "Essential"

social commitment

Patricia Kelly is committed to the papal missionary organization missio and appeared in 2010 at the missio cultural festival in Essen's Lichtburg and in 2011 in the main church of St. Michaelis in Hamburg . In 2012 the charity CD Christmas with Patricia Kelly was released , a large number of which was sent free of charge as part of the donation mail. She was also the godmother of the European song competition Welcome to Europe .

literature

• Patricia Kelly: The sound of my life: memories of stormy and sunny times . Adeo , Asslar 2014; updated new edition 2017, ISBN 978-3-86334-175-6 .

Web links

Commons : Patricia Kelly  - Collection of Images

• Literature by and about Patricia Kelly in the catalog of the German National Library
• Patricia Kelly website
• Interview in Pro Medienmagazin 3/2014, p. 43 (PDF; 27.0 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH
2. ↑ https://www.vip.de/cms/kelly-family-darum-hat-patricia-zwei-geburtstage-4442471.html
3. ↑ TV interview with Markus Lanz on June 29, 2011
4. ↑ First Time chart source ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Musicline.de , accessed on November 5, 2012
5. ↑ Interview with Patricia Kelly on the WDR-2 radio show Montalk , November 23, 2009
6. ↑ Patricia Kelly: Through Illness to Faith Unserkirche.de, November 20, 2008, accessed on November 5, 2012
7. ↑ capitol-theater.de ( Memento from February 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
8. ↑ Christmas Moments on tour with star guest Patricia Kelly ( Memento from October 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) musikmarkt.de , October 15, 2010, accessed on November 5, 2012
9. ↑ Moments with Patricia Kelly eifelzeitung.de, March 2, 2011, accessed November 5, 2012
10. ↑ http://www.schlagerplanet.com/news/aktuelle-nachrichten/kelly-family-comeback-in-dortmund-2017_n9254.html
11. ↑ Patricia Kelly: "I am grateful that I can still feel like a woman" ( Memento from October 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) stern.de, October 18, 2011
12. ↑ RP ONLINE: 'The Voice Kids': Little Kelly conquers hearts. Retrieved March 15, 2017 . 
13. ^ The Voice Kids - Iggi: Sound Of Silence. Retrieved March 15, 2017 . 
14. ↑ Südwest Presse Online-Dienst GmbH: Ruben sings in "The Voice" in the semifinals . In: swp.de . March 7, 2017 ( swp.de [accessed March 15, 2017]).
15. ^ NDR interview with Patricia Kelly, March 10, 2012, accessed on November 5, 2012
16. ↑ Patricia Kelly sings for India, missio-hilft.de, accessed on November 5, 2012
17. ↑ Christian World Music in Hamburg's Michel, missio-hilft.de, accessed on November 5, 2012
18. ↑ Information and tender 2012 welcometoeurope.de, accessed on November 5, 2012