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Blogilkar Exclusive: KURT CALLEJA INTERVIEW - BELIEVE AND ACHIEVE!


Last night in Amsterdam, Robert had the chance to ask some questions to the Maltese singer KURT CALLEJA before he would move on to Milan for another promotional activity tonight, in London Live 2.0 Tv programme.

Could you please tell the readers a bit more about yourself, your experience in music and when you got known in Malta?
Kurt:I am a 23 year old guy and the eldest of 3 boys. My youngest brother Kevin plays the guitar in my band. He is going to be on stage with me on Eurovision. Originally, I was studying to be a chef in the kitchen and actually did that a couple of years. And during that time I was also taking some singing lessons and working on getting to know the music better. That was the reason to stop in the kitchen because I was getting some good work in the music business so i decided to get a day job and do that in the evenings. About a year later I moved to London and full time I was working as a flight attendant. In the evenings, I was playing in bars, restaurants and clubs. It was a great experience. After that year, I returned to Malta and started to do television there 3 weeks later. We are speaking now of the year 2009. At first and until now I mostly sing covers but recently I started writing my own songs. Because the thing is, I can write some good lyrics but my music melodies are very cartoon/ 8 year old melodies that does not sound very modern. So, what I'm doing now is that I write lyrics and collaborate with Johan from Sweden who is my composer. He also composed my Eurovision song “This is the night “ and my preselection song from last year in the Maltese selection. I never had a training in writing lyrics but I remember doing this already at a young age. Writing lyrics on my Eurovision song “This is the night “only took me 25 minutes.
Could you please explain how you got in contact with a Swedish composer and how a Swedish song reached you?
Kurt: I was invited to sing in Venice by the Ministry of Culture. Johan, a vocal coach from Sweden was there also with his students. Meeting Johan was just coincidental and was my destiny. We were having lunch, chatting and what started as a joke turned out in something nice. Last year, he sent a song to me that I really liked. We did well with it in the Maltese preselection of 2011. We got a 3rd place out of 160 applicants so that was not bad at all. We decided to work on the same recipe this year with a difference in style.. Last year, we made a soft rock ballad. This year, its more of a dancy song which I think is more appropriate for Eurovision. We use the same team, the same recipe but just the things we made mistakes in, we did not do them.
Will you release a full album soon after Eurovision?
Yes, in fact as soon as I get back from Eurovision I have only week free. Because I will fly to Sweden to work with Johan on another 3 tracks. I will include last years preselection song also on the album and I got a track written by my guitarist and another song will be written by a famous Maltese singer/songwriter. All together the album will have 8 tracks. I will launch the new album after the summer no matter what the outcome of Eurovision will be. I will be going all around Europe to the places where I did my Eurovision promotion to promote the new album.
Malta is a small country. For professionals in the music business it's quite difficult nowadays. Can you do this as a full time living?
You have to be versatile. You have to be very ready to work at the moment's notice. But yes, you can. I can play the piano a bit and I can do that for the whole night. If they need me in a club, I need my club repertoire or I can do a traditional Maltese night. I love to do coverversions and give my own colour to it. In the future I hope to do more of my own and would love if others would cover my songs.
We are one month away from Eurovision. This coming month, how will your agenda look like?
I'm sure this month will pass by very quickly. The next 2 days I will be in Milan where I will be singing on a very popular tv programme. Then I will go back to Malta where I will have a show everyday for about 1,5 weeks. In the meantime I have to squeeze in rehearsals with the band, vocal training and physical training. The act for Eurovision is done. We just have to rehearse it constantly
to be able to do it with more confidence. The 5th of May is my birthday and that will be my only free weekend before Eurovision. I will treat myself to a nice massage. Monday the 14th of May, I will already arrive in Baku. There the time will also be full with rehearsals and promotion activities.
Do you know any of the former Maltese Eurovision singers?
I'm very lucky to be the nephew of the Maltese singer of Eurovision 1993: William Mangion. I know Fabrizio Faniello ( ESC 2001, 2006 ) who is doing a promotion in Indonesia right now.
Are you hoping for an International career with the help of Eurovision and your new cd?
I'm lucky. I think, I have a quite open mind. I met people that helped me to think outside the box. My plan is, I do not know if it will work or not, to be able to use Eurovision as a platform to launch an international career. I have been a Eurovision fan all of my life and I see it already as a big achievement to participate in it. It was always a dream of me and an ambition to mark this on my checklist of things to do in my career. Since the winning of the Maltese preselection especially ESC countries like Azerbaijan, Turkey and Spain showed great interest. Outside Europe, there are 2 countries interested to launch my cd: Malaysia and Australia.
Have you listened to all the other songs of this year's Eurovision? What you think of it?
I did not have the time to listen to all of them. It's a shame. I did listen to the Spanish song and I think Pastora Soler has an amazing voice. She has a lot of potential. The song transmits so much emotion. My personal style is closer to the German song: Roman Lob's Standing Still. My preselection song from last year is a bit similar to the German song. So, when I heard the German song for the 1st time I was a bit surprised.
Do you have a special message to Blogilkar's readers?
I guess this is my motto, I really enjoy to share this with other people, My motto is: Believe and achieve! I lived by that these last couple of years. Believe in your dreams. We live in a world where our friends, for reasons to protect you, say that certain plans are very unlikely to be achieved. The truth is yes, it's very unlikely that I will be the next Bruno Mars but in my mind, I want to be there. I want to reach for the stars and might hit the moon. Participating in Eurovision was already very unlikely a few years ago and look where I am now!


Blogilkar thanks Kurt and Robert for this interview and wishes May 26th will be Kurt's night.

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