Patricia Kelly
A small biographic insight

Literally with body and soul Patricia Kelly has been living for music for more than 30 years.
As a singer, songwriter and manager in the legendary „Kelly Family“ she achieved all the success one can wish for in this business: 48 golden and platinum records, stadiums with up to 280.000 enthusiastic fans, worldwide TV appearances and almost all the prizes and awards there are for musicians.
But her live was also determined by hard times and strokes of fate. Both sides define her work and turn her music into an authentic and personal experience. As a solo artist Patricia concentrates more than ever exclusively on following her musical instincts rather than commercial considerations. On the one hand this allows her to return to her roots in folk mu-sic, on the other hand she finds a new home in Jazz. But even these are but stations on a long musical journey which is still far from being complete.


Andalusia: How it all began

Patricia Kelly was born in 1969 in the south of Spain and from the first day music was part of her life. Radio and TV were just as absent as running water, but her parents, both immigrants from the US, took to the folkloristic traditions of their new home country and enjoyed singing and dancing with their children. However, their domestic environment soon didn’t suffice the music loving family anymore. Weddings, birthdays and other festivities offered welcome opportunities to let others share in the musical talent of the Kellys.
At the age of barely five also little Patricia was gripped by this longing. By then the elder brothers and sisters regularly sang in front of an audience, performed at village fairs and par-ticipated in singing competitions. From time to time, accompanied by her mother, Patricia was allowed to come along and watch how the other family members fired the audience. Fascinated and excited she stood behind the stage and wished for nothing more than to be allowed to take part one day. The beautiful voices, the colourful costumes and the feeling of companionship aroused so much joy in her that henceforth she carried but one wish in her heart: to be allowed to sing with her brothers and sisters.
For her parents that wish came way too early, but Patricia refused to let go of her big dream. Finally her father Dan agreed to make a deal with her: should she succeed in not only learning to sing all the songs her brothers and sisters sang, but also to accompany them on the guitar within two weeks she would be allowed to appear with them.

Secretly he was convinced that the issue was now closed, but the contrary was the case. Patricia who didn’t yet master an instrument asked her older sister Caroline to teach her to play the guitar.
Focusing on her big goal she learned with enormous determination how to elicit the right tunes out of the tightly stretched strings. And indeed: after the two weeks had expired she could present the repertoire of her brothers and sisters to her amazed parents.
„It surely wasn’t perfect, but my father could see the effort I had put into it.“ she says looking back. Impressed and touched father Dan met his part of the deal and Patricia got what she so had wished for.
The first joined appearance was so overwhelming, exciting, and full of emotions for Patricia, that she simply couldn’t stop singing on the way home. And while car rides usually made her sick, this time she was so full of the music that kept lingering inside her that even physical discomfort could not temper her enthusiasm. Patricia had found her destiny to appear on stage with her brothers and sisters, and to sing for an audience was from now on her greatest happiness

From Spain into the World: First Successes

After the first successes in Spain the family is drawn first to Italy, then to Austria, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands. No day passes without joint singing and Patricia lives her childhood-dream. The “Kelly Kids“, as they are still called at their first appearance on TV, earn their living singing in the streets, and sign their first record contract already in 1977. Three years later they have their first Number One hit in Belgium and the Netherlands. Almost overnight the “Kelly Family“ becomes a phenomenon and in the following years they travel all over Europe, and later on to the US and back.
„We never attended conventional schools. We learned in the school of life.“ Patricia describes the unusual circumstances in which she grew up.
„We were influenced by the people we met in the streets, simple people who gave us money and food when times were hard. Clochards and prostitutes, princes and kings, priests and philosophers, artists and the old woman from next door- we learned from every single one of them.“


On Their Own Feet: Song Writing

The closeness to people from all walks of life, irrespective of wealth or standing, again and again leaves its mark in the music of the family. In the beginning all the songs are written by the father, but Dan Kelly soon playfully stimulates his children to experience joy in composing and writing songs themselves. „One day our father said: everyone of you will compose a song today and tonight we will perform it.“ Patricia remembers. Later this turned into nine pieces a day and no matter how good or bad they were, every single title became a part of the pro-gram. Soon play turned into passion and in the early 90s Patricia changed from being a mere singer into a singer songwriter.
With „First Time“ she not only wrote the first title that she thoroughly identified with, it also became one of the most formative ones for the career of the family itself.
Patricia still remembers it as if it had been yesterday: „ When I presented the song for the first time, everyone was convinced that we had a hit there.“ The judgement of the other Kellys should prove true. For two full years „First time“ stayed in the Bravo Charts and up to this day the song is stored in the collective memory.
The elaborate video clip which MTV kept playing for weeks on end, was at half a million DM one of the most expensive clips that had been produced in Germany until then. Its touching story endowed the song with an additional level that reinforced its emotional impact- a concept that other artists soon picked up. This too was an idea of Patricia, who moreover played the leading part.
Patricia soon turned out to be one of the songwriters in the family and contributed with titles such as „No Lies“, „Please don’t go“ „You belong to me“ Walks like a queen“ or „You’re loosing me“ decisively to the Family’s distinctive style. Her talent and popularity with the public prompted two big enterprises to submit an immoral proposal: upon payment of a huge sum Patricia was to leave the family and be marketed with a new image as a solo artist.
„They organized a secret meeting between me and the company director from the USA“ Patricia tells, even now still shaking her head. „The contract was already drawn up. I told them that I could not be bought and walked out. They couldn’t understand that.“


Media and Management: Her Father‘s Right Hand

Already for some time Patricia had been the right hand of her father in the field of management. In 1992 she took over all international negotiations, was the contact person for the press and the media, and was in charge of marketing and the majority of the remaining management tasks.
In the years of their greatest success about 200 people worked for the Kellys and there was a lot to be done: all singles and albums were published by their own label Kel-Life.
„Our father never wanted to commit to the majors and predicted already back then that the structures of t he music industry would not survive forever.“ Dan Kelly thus ensured that the family to this day owns the copyrights of all titles and at the same time created a model that was later on implemented by many musicians. „One can actually put it this way: we were the first artists in Germany who owned an Independent-label .“ Patricia remarks with justified pride.


Solo-Project 1: Jazz

Currently all Kelly Family members go their own ways. An official break-up never happened though and new joint projects are not categorically ruled out. But already long before their last concerts together at the beginning of 2008, Patricia had thought about musical ways which she conceived as independent from any joint projects with her brothers and sisters. Her encounter with saxophonist Peter Materna laid the foundations for an initially open Jazz-project. However, it was less the genre itself which helped the idea to gather momentum, but most of all „the passion of the musicians for their music“.
Already in January 2008 Patricia started working on her Jazz-project. „The first thing I said to Peter (Materna) was: let’s not think commercially. It should only be about art.“, Patricia describes her approach back then- a risk with regard to the potential reaction of her fans of many years standing. The more astonishing was the fast acceptance of the unfamiliar tunes even by long-standing Kelly-fans. Patricia was amazed herself:“ At the first concerts only about one third of the audience found the music strange, the rest were immediately taken by it.“
Even if this was not the style Patricia was known for among the Kellys, soon a feeling of absolute authenticity set in. This wasn’t a cleverly devised marketing-stunt, but the individual, honestly felt expression of somebody for whom making music is an inseparable part of life.
„When I compose, it’s always either a feeling that gives the impulse, or a thought that keeps me occupied. I just listen to my inner voice.“ To start with a ready-made plan however is alien to Patricia. „When my daily tasks are done and the children are cared for, I sit down at the piano and just sing to myself. The music then comes in very naturally.“


Solo-Project 2: „Essential“

Since the time with her family was so significant, Patricia sometimes misses the joint work nowadays. „I’ve thought a lot about what life has given me in all those years and what a huge gift I received in the music I was privileged to make.“
A bit of sentimentality, but also great gratitude for the numerous memories that she still can draw from, lead to a second musical idea. Wouldn’t it be nice to travel together with her audi-ence into the past and visit all the many stations of her life with the music?
However this project seemed to be too personal for a big ensemble. „I wanted to return to where we all come from, back to the bonfire at which we sang after a long day songs until far into the night with my family, friends and neighbours.“ Patricia remembers. „I come from Folk, and I am proud of it. I love folk music.“ And so the musical journey through the old times should become as immediate and intimate as possible with just one accompanist on the gui-tar.
In „Essential“ Patricia sings in 6 languages traditionals from all countries that she travelled through with her family, Chansons, Belcanto, Flamenco and Country and of course here and there one or another Kelly-hit- all linked by stories and anecdotes from over 30 years of her musical journey. Singing along is explicitly permitted.
„In these concerts I am not the star, but one among many who share delight in singing with others.“- And by that she indeed returns to her roots.