Gabriella Cilmi was a surprise ten years ago when she reached number two in the Top 40 with Sweet About Me.

Years before her breakthrough, as a teenager, she was pursued by record companies wanting to collaborate with the Australian singer. She landed her first record deal when she was 13, while singing in a covers band. In the following period, she flew back and forth between Australia and the UK during school holidays and worked on writing songs. At 16, this finally resulted in the release of Sweet About Me. Of course, it didn’t work out as well as the single, as it was released several times before becoming a worldwide hit. At the time, Cilmi’s voice was often compared to singers like Anastacia and Amy Winehouse who had similar deep characters. When she did make it, it was crazy times for Gabriella, where she went on to win six ARIA awards in her home country.

During her success she met a Scottish boy and love took her to London where she has lived for many years now.

From her debut album Lessons To Be Learned, only Sweet About Me became a hit, with the number 2 ranking being the best result. Its successor, Sanctuary, was stuck on Tipparade in 2008. She worked with Greg Kurstin on her second album, Ten, which was released in the spring of 2010. It was not the commercial success she had hoped for and the singer herself regretted afterwards that she had let herself get carried away by the hype surrounding her. For example, she was seen topless in FHM magazine. Her dissatisfaction eventually led her to leave her record label and management. She released her third album, The Sting, independently in November 2013 with music that she wanted to write and release herself without commercial pressure.

Meanwhile, her brother Joseph is also active in music and with him she released the song Voodoo in 2015 under the name All Kings And Queens. In August this year, Joseph released the EP Preserved Candy. Gabriella is also busy writing songs for him.

He looks set to make a comeback next year. He is currently writing new music to be released in early 2019. He also hopes to perform in Australia again.

(Photo: BSR Agency)

(09-22-2018)