Watch: Legendary Freddie Portelli spins again: ‘My songs are like my children’

D’Amato Records in Valletta is reviving its in-house record label after 40 years with a new vinyl compilation of songs by Maltese singing legend Freddie Portelli.

The album, called L-Aqwa Suċċessi, is set for release later this year and features a selection of Portelli’s best-known hits including Viva Malta and Mur Ħallini.

The album will mark the record store’s first album since the early 1980s and will “close the circle” on the work of the shop’s predecessors, co-owner Anthony D’Amato told Times of Malta.

“We, the fifth generation, were the only generation that never produced records, and now finally we managed to start producing records again with our label,” said D’Amato.

“We’re going to start with Freddie, and hopefully it will have a rolling effect with other artists coming in and immortalising their music... Records will never be thrown away again; they are here to stay.”

The record store, which claims to be the oldest in the world, started releasing vinyl records bearing the Maltese cross in collaboration with music giant HMV in the late 1920s. It put out more than 50 records over the following six decades.

During its visit to the historic music store, Times of Malta was shown royalty agreements and recording contracts stretching back more than 80 years.

D’Amato explained it had been “much more complicated” back then, involving recording Maltese musicians in Milan and pressing vinyls at HMV’s London headquarters before the completed records were finally sent to Malta.

“With today’s technology it’s much easier to do the project from beginning to end – it will take a couple of months, maybe three. [But] before, the production used to take a year, sometimes even more,” he said.

Explaining the process of preparing Portelli’s music for vinyl release, D’Amato said the tracks had been converted from digital to analogue by David Vella at Temple Studios in St Paul’s Bay.

“The clarity is super because we are under 20 minutes on every side of the record... so, you’re going to get the best sound possible.”

D’Amato added the test press of the label’s upcoming release, autographed by Portelli, would be sold at auction in aid of charity Puttinu Cares.

‘Something special’

Portelli said he was “very happy” the store was reviving the ‘Anthony D’Amato’ label with a vinyl record of his music, adding his songs were still “very popular”, even with younger audiences.

“Sometimes I say, ‘I’m 81; I’d better retire’... but when I see young people singing, for example, [Mur] Ħallini, my God it’s an explosion. That’s the way it is.”

Reminiscing about his music featured on the upcoming record, Portelli said, “my songs are like my children, but Viva Malta did something special”.

Attributing the song’s success to it being sung in Maltese, he said the song was “played all over the world,” and played abroad more than in Malta “because there are so many Maltese spread over the world”.

He added there were “so many stories” about the well-known hit, including it being played by a Russian state orchestra and even in London strip clubs, with other releases in South Korea and Tunisia.

Portelli said the song had been “bootlegged [distributed illegally] a lot... in almost every country,” including recently in Iran, adding it would soon feature in popular BBC TV series Here We Go.

Singer Freddie Portelli said he was ‘very happy’ the store was relaunching the label with an album of his music.