Freddie Portelli (born 5 May 1944 at

St. Paul's Bay Saint Paul's Bay () is a town located on the northeast coast of Malta in the Northern Region. It is a major residential and commercial area and a centre for shopping, bars, dining, and café life. As per the 2021 population census, it has also ...

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

) is a

Maltese Maltese may refer to: * Someone or something of, from, or related to Malta * Maltese alphabet * Maltese cuisine * Maltese culture * Maltese language, the Semitic language spoken by Maltese people * Maltese people, people from Malta or of Maltese ...

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

. Portelli's

career A career is an individual's metaphorical "journey" through learning, work (human activity), work and other aspects of personal life, life. There are a number of ways to define career and the term is used in a variety of ways. Definitions The ...

has spanned over 40 years, beginning as a member and chief songwriter of the group The Malta Bums. He toured

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

with the group for 5 months, and after returning to Malta in 1966, wrote the

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

"Viva Malta", and later, "Mur Hallini". His recordings have been released in

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, Canada, America and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Freddie was also the leader of the band "Black Train", with whom he released self penned hit records. Portelli was a national

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

player, having been involved with his hometown's Sirens A.S.C., along with Neptunes WPSC and Valletta United W.P.C., winning the premier

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

s with every new team he joined. He was a player for Malta's

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

, winning the International Independence Tournament cup in 1964; the same year he won the premier championship with Neptunes. Freddie Portelli was awarded Ġieħ ir-Repubblika by the then

President of Malta The president of Malta () is the constitutional head of state of Malta. The president is indirect election, indirectly elected by the House of Representatives of Malta, which appoints the president for a five-year term and requires them to sw ...

Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, (born 7 December 1958) is a Maltese politician who served as President of Malta from 2014 to 2019. She has been president of Eurochild since 2019. Previously, as a member of the Labour Party, Coleiro Preca was a M ...

, and also received the golden medal and Ġieħ

San Pawl il-Baħar Saint Paul's Bay () is a town located on the northeast coast of Malta in the Northern Region. It is a major residential and commercial area and a centre for shopping, bars, dining, and café life. As per the 2021 population census, it has also ...

. He was additionally awarded for being the best Maltese record seller, and was given a lifetime achievement award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Portelli, Freddie 1944 births Living people Maltese musicians Maltese singer-songwriters