Paul Abela

Paul Abela (born March 1, 1954 in Detroit , Michigan , USA ) is a Maltese pop musician , composer and conductor . In 1991, 1992, 1996 and 2001 he was involved as a composer and conductor in the Eurovision Song Contest .

Life

childhood

Abela was born to Maltese parents in Detroit and was therefore a citizen of the United States in addition to British and Maltese. His father, like many of his compatriots, had moved to the United States after World War II to find work that was not available in Malta at the time. He stayed in Detroit for twelve years, working first for the Ford plant and later for a pharmaceutical manufacturer. In 1957 the family went back to Malta and settled in Mosta , where the father opened a grocery store.

Career as a musician

Paul Abela came into contact with music through his uncle, who lived as a professional drummer in Canada. Paul learned the accordion and switched to the piano at the age of thirteen. In the same year 1967 he became a member of a music group called New Cuorey , which performed over the summer in a hotel on Mellieħa Bay , and played the electronic organ there , which had become popular with bands like Procol Harum .

Paul Abela succeeded in becoming one of the few professional musicians in the Maltese archipelago . During the eleven years (1967-1978), which he did in New Cuorey - quartet played, the group produced several singles in English , primarily for sale to hotel guests, but also to Maltese for the domestic Plattenarkt. With the Maltese song Bħal daż-żmien konna flimkien they managed to achieve a number 1 hit in Malta in 1973, as well as in 1976 with L-aħħar bidwi f'wied il-għasel . Paul Abela wrote both titles together with the copywriter Alfred C. Sant, who lives in Mosta. The song from 1976 was also recorded in Italian by Claudio Baglioni . Sant and Abela also worked together on the song Live for Tomorrow , which was sung by Mary Spiteri in the Maltese elimination for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1975 and which came in second.

In 1972 and 1973 Paul Abela took private composition lessons with Charles Camilleri . Together with his friend Charles Gatt , a jazz musician, he enrolled at the renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston ( Massachusetts ) in 1978 and graduated three years later with a diploma. When he returned to Malta in 1981, he was immediately offered the opportunity to write a rock opera with lyricist Ray Mahoney about important stages in the history of Malta . Ġensna (Maltese for "Our Nation") became the most successful musical in the Maltese language. It was performed 35 times in the sold-out Valletta Conference Center in front of an audience of 1,000, and at an open-air performance in the megalithic temple of Ħaġar Qim . Since its premiere, Ġensna has seen several new productions. Paul Abela wrote other musicals in the following years, including Bastilja ( Bastille ), Ali Baba , Taħt tliet saltniet and 1565 about the siege of Malta in that year.

Abela taught from 1985 to 2008 at the Johann Strauss School of Music in Valletta , which was later renamed the Malta School of Music . He leads the Malta Concert Orchestra of the Pjazza Teatru Rjal .

family

Paul Abela has been married to the singer and composer Georgina Abela since October 2, 1986, and they have a son, Ryan Abela, who is also a musician.

Web links

• Bas Tukker: Paul Abela. In: And the conductor is ... www.eurovisionartists.nl, 2019, accessed on February 12, 2020 . 
• New Cuorey at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ġensna, a nation's music. In: The Times of Malta , March 21, 2009.
2. ↑ Paul Abela. In: Pjazza Teatru Rjal. Government of Malta, accessed February 12, 2020 .