Kathleen Ann Kelly (born 6 March 1961) is a singer, songwriter, and producer. Born in Leominster,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, she is the third child of the musical family group

The Kelly Family The Kelly Family is an Irish-American music group consisting of a multi-generational family, usually nine siblings who were joined occasionally on stage in their earlier years by their parents. They play a repertoire of rock, pop, and folk music ...

, a multi-generational pop group that achieved success in Europe in the 1990s. In 1999, Kathy released her first solo album titled ''The Best Of Kathy Kelly'' which, in addition to her best songs from the albums of The Kelly Family (''see''

The Kelly Family discography The discography of The Kelly Family, a European pop music group of Irish, American, Spanish and German heritage, consists of 22 studio albums, four of them being holiday albums, five live albums, seven compilation albums, two extended plays a ...

), contained five new songs. While still recording and touring with the group throughout the 2000s, Kathy worked on her solo projects, which resulted in three more LPs up to date and a number of singles. Some of the songs included were new versions of the traditional songs from all over the world previously sung by the group from as early as the 1970s; notably " Amazing Grace", "

Motherless child "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child", also "Motherless Child", is a traditional Spiritual. It dates back to the era of slavery in the United States. An early performance of the song was in the 1870s by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. "Blue Ge ...

", "

Old Black Joe "Old Black Joe" is a parlor song by Stephen Foster (1826–1864). It was published by Firth, Pond & Co. of New York in 1860. Ken Emerson, author of the book ''Doo-Dah!'' (1998), indicates that Foster's fictional Joe was inspired by a servant in th ...

", " The Rose of Tralee".

Biography

Early Years

Kathy was born in the US, on 1961. She is the third of five children born from the marriage of Daniel Kelly, Sr. and Joanne. In 1965, her father and sister Caroline left the US to find a home in Europe. Papa Dan bought a home in Spain, close the city of Gamonal. Joanne and the other three children reunited with Dan and Caroline after some months. In 1969, Dan divorced Joanne and married Barbara-Ann Suokko in 1970 in New York. Joanne returned to the US and apparently lost contact with Kathy. Barbara and Dan gave birth to eight other children. Kathy was homeschooled, just like her elder and younger siblings, by Dan, Barbara and uncle Jim. She also learned

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

and to play the

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

. Later, she was also the teacher of her younger siblings. Kathleen can also play the

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

among others.

The Kelly Family

For more information, see:

In 1974, Kathy, Caroline, Paul, John and Patricia formed ''The Kelly Kids'', to play at children's parties or in the streets. The band was later called ''The Kelly Family'', as Dan and Barbara also joined, later followed by Kathy's siblings. The Kelly Family became very popular in their early years as a street band. Kathy usually played the violin along with Paul, but when Caroline left, she started to play the accordion more frequently. Kathy was also the one who arranged most of the songs and she was the first of the siblings to write a song, as she is credited as the writer of ''Lonely'', a song recorded in 1981 which features lead vocals from then-main vocalist John, and Papa Dan. She was also one of the main producers and has recorded most of the albums from the '80s until the late '90s. As Danny, Caroline and Paul left after Barbara's death, in the early-to-mid '80s, Kathy remained with the family helping her father to raise the younger children. In 1983, the family moved to France. There Kathy met her future husband Vincent van Hille. They married in 1990, and gave birth to Sean Jerome van Hille in 1992, but eventually divorced in 2001. Sean is named after Sean O'Kelley, the Kellys' ancestor. In 1990 Daniel Kelly suffered a stroke which partially paralyzed him and left him bedridden. Though Dan remained fairly active in the 1990s, Kathy became the head of the group. 1994 was the year of the breakout for the Kelly Family, after the Kellys started to sell CDs on shops. Their CD ''

Over the Hump ''Over the Hump'' is the eighth regular studio album by European-American pop group The Kelly Family. Co-produced by Hartmut Müller and Kathy Kelly and recorded at the Sound Studio N in Cologne, it was released on 26 August 1994 throughout most ...

'' sold 5 million copies. This was followed up by '' Christmas for All'', '' Almost Heaven'', '' Growin' Up'', and ''

From Their Hearts ''From Their Hearts'' is the twelfth regular studio album by European-American pop group The Kelly Family. Based on concept by Dan Kelly, it was co-produced by Kathy and Paddy Kelly and released in 1998 (see 1998 in music) throughout most of Euro ...

''. In the last, Kathy's son, Sean, is also present doing vocals on "Dance to the Rock 'n Roll". In 2000, Kathy Kelly officially left the band to pursue a solo career. Her last song sung for the band was ''By Myself but Not Alone'' with her brother John in 1999. She is part of some of the band's most famous songs, for example: ''Peces en el Rio'' (1977, 1979, 1994), Amazing Grace (1981, 1990), ''Hiroshima, I'm Sorry'' (1985, 1988), ''When the Last Tree...'' (1993), ''Ares Qui'' (1994), ''Quisiera ser un Ángel'' (1995), ''Come Back to Me'' (1996), ''You're Losing Me'' (1998) and ''Children of Kosovo'' (1999). She later returned to tour with the band from 2007 to 2008. She also participated at Paddy Kelly's Stille Nacht Tour, along with Paul,

Patricia Patricia is a female given name of Latin language, Latin origin. Derived from the Latin word ''Patrician (ancient Rome), patrician'', meaning "noble"; it is the feminine form of the masculine given name Patrick (given name), Patrick. The name Patr ...

Joey Kelly Joseph Maria Kelly (born 20 December 1972) is a musician, songwriter, and athlete of Irish-American descent. Kelly became known as a member of the Kelly Family, however, during the band's hiatus, he appeared primarily as an amateur athlete and ...

, Michael Patrick Kelly and guest Caroline Kelly in 2011. Recordings of the concerts were taken and released in a live CD called ''Stille Nacht Live-CD 2011''. She also took part in the 2012 tour, called ''Stille Nacht 2012'', and another live CD was released from the tour in September 2013. In 2017, the Kelly Family reunited with seven members, and once again Kathy was part of the band. The Kelly Family released an album called We Got Love, on which Kathy sings six songs. Overall, Kathy contributed to 32 out of 35 Kelly Family's albums and she provided vocals for 106 songs (including live CDs), only surpassed by Paddy and John.

Solo career

Kathy Kelly started her solo career by releasing a single called ''You're Losing Me'' that reached number 94 in the German charts. Soon, a compilation album called ''The Best of Kathy Kelly'', which included some of the best Kelly Family songs and five new songs followed. It peaked at number 32 on the German chart and number 44 on the Dutch chart. After leaving the Kelly Family in 2000, Kathy released another album, ''Morning of My Life'', this time with whole new material. It peaked at number 22 of the German charts. In 2002, Kathy released her third studio album, ''Straight From my Heart''. In 2005, Kathy released her fourth album, called ''Godspel'', which also features some songs with Jimmy Kelly. Kathy also started a tour called Godspel Tour from 2009 to mid 2012 mainly in Germany, but also in Romania, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland. In September 2012, Kelly started a European tour through Germany and Romania. In 2014, Kathy released a holiday album called ''My Christmas Songs'' and in 2015 an album called ''The First''. Through this time she performed mainly at festivals and sporadic concerts. That year she did a tour with her siblings Paul and Patricia. On 31 December 2015 and 2 January 2016, Kathy performed her first concerts in Bethlehem, Israel. At the end of 2016, Kathy started a tour called ''Celtic Scottish Christmas Tour'' with her younger brother Paul. In 2017, besides the Kelly Family comeback, Kathy continued her European Tour through the year, with one show also including her brother John Kelly.

Discography

For the recordings together with

see

Albums

* ''The Best Of Kathy Kelly'' (1999) * ''Morning of My Life'' (2000) * ''Straight From My Heart'' (2002) * ''Godspel'' (2005) * ''My Christmas Songs'' (2014) * ''The First'' (2015) * ''Wer lacht überlebt'' (2019) - German album

Singles

* "You're Losing Me" (1999) * "Save Me in the Morning" (2001) * "Nay No Nay" (2001) * "My Last Goodbye" (2009) * "Engelsmensch (Angel Love)" featuring Michael Kraft (2010) * "You Sleep with Angels" (2012)

References

External links

Official website of Kathy Kelly
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Kathy Ann 1961 births Living people 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers People from Leominster, Massachusetts 20th-century American women singers 21st-century American women singers