Maltese singer and musician William Mangion was born on 24th August 1958.
When he was just 8 years old, he began to show interest in music and 6 years later pursued a musical career. He created the band Syn in which he played the keyboards, and then went on to join other groups named ‘Sagittarius’, ‘Slug’ and ‘Split’ with whom he performed in night clubs and other places.
His solo career took off in 1978 when he was contracted with a Spanish cruise liner. Two years later, he travelled to the UK where he performed in several prime night clubs. In 1981, he returned to Malta and created the band ‘The Ashes’ and later on also played with the group ‘The Exit’.
‘The Exit’ became very popular and in 1985 started to play frequently at ‘Styx II’, which at that time was Malta’s top international discotheque. The band’s name was eventually changed to ‘Getting Closer’ and they even performed with several international artists like Imagination, Samantha Fox, Go West and Sinitta, amongst others.
The band continued to gain more popularity and travelled to various European countries and gave several performances. In 1991, their first album ‘Ever Changing Moods’ was launched and was received very well, particularly in Germany, Sweden and Holland and helped the band achieve an international profile. Albeit, the group disbanded a year later.
Now performing as a solo artist, William won the 1993 Song for Europe contest Malta edition and represented his country in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song composed by himself ‘This Time’, placing 8th.
During the rest of the 90s, William joined a couple of bands and continued singing in many clubs and hotels, both in Malta and in the UK, where he resided for a couple of years. He also collaborated with numerous big artists like Demis Roussos and LaToya Jackson.
In 2001, Mangion gave 2 performances in 2 nightclubs in Thailand. On his return to Malta, William was appointed to prepare and produce a singing and dancing programme named ‘The Tuesday Nite Show’ intended to entertain tourists during winter. It aired weekly and was a huge and immediate success.
Afterwards, William resumed with his performances as a solo artist and then joined his band again to play in various important summer events. Another season of ‘The Tuesday Nite Show’ took off the following winter. In the years that followed, Mangion released a couple of other songs.
William is considered as one of Malta’s lead singers and musicians.