Maltese veteran singer Joseph ‘Joe’ Grech was born 89 years ago in Cospicua, is married and has a daughter.
As a youngster, Joe played the trumpet with a local band club but soon pursued a singing career. In 1960, the very first Malta Song Festival was organised. Twenty songs participated in this competition, with ten of them making it to the final. Interesting to note is that just one song was sung in Maltese, with the rest all sung in Italian except one which was interpreted in the English language. Joe was the winner of this contest with the song ‘Vola uccellino’ which he himself wrote.
Two years later, Joe once again won the festival, this time with a Maltese song named ‘Zghazagh Rebbieha’. In 1965, Grech participated in an Italian festival along with another Maltese singer and was even awarded an trophy for Best Foreign Singer. Meanwhile, Joe had become a successful singer and his record ‘Il-Kaccatur’ (The Hunter) was selling fast and was extremely successful not only in Malta but also in other countries, particularly Australia.
More popular songs followed like ‘L-Ghanja tal-Emigranti’, ‘Il-Festa Taghna’, ‘Ku Klu Ku Klu’, ‘Il-Lejl tal-Vitorja’ and ‘Nhar San Girgor’, amongst others. In 1971, Malta participated for the first time in the Eurovision Song Contest and it was Joe who represented Malta with the song ‘Marija il-Maltija’.
During that decade Joe embarked on a world tour and gave concerts in the UK, Italy, USA, Canada and Australia which all proved very successful. In particular, he gave spectacular performances at the Royal Ballroom of Melbourne aswell as at the Sydney Opera House in Australia.
In 2000, Joe released a CD containing 15 Maltese songs. Two years later, he was awarded the Cross of Merit and in 2019 was honoured with the prestigious Medal for Service to the Republic.