Forza Valletta City
‘Forza Valletta City’ – the official Valletta Football Club anthem is said to be one of its kind in Europe. Composed and written by two of Valletta F.C. staunchest supporters Carmelo Xerri and William Arena.
The original version of “Forza Valletta City” was recorded by Andrew Sapiano in 1959 but was never converted into a disc.
The newer version of ‘Forza Valletta City’ was then performed by the brilliant orchestra composed of some of the topmost musicians and sung by a new choir – the City Minstrels. The sound effect of cheering crowd was added on to give it a more ‘Stadium’ feeling.
The new arrangement by Carmelo Xerri was made at MTV Studios on July 6, 1974.
The ‘Forza Valletta City’ was released in 1974, on the ‘Carabott – Diski Maltin’ label, the disc also had a leaflet with lyrics to both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ sides. The latter is also from the ‘Xercarm’/ Arena pens and is called ‘Dis-sena tal-Valletta’. It is a musical record of the club’s football successes which landed them at the top of the league table.
This medium paced song is bright and breezy, with a get-together type of male chorus, also provided by the City Minstrels, comprising: Orchestra – Xercarm and his friends; Trumpets – Paul Bonnici, Joseph Azzopardi and Carmel Busuttil; Saxophones – Vinny Vella, Turu Pace, Oscar Lucas, Freddie Mizzi and Saviour Mugro; Rhythm – Spiro Zammit (piano), Dominic Vella (bass) and Sunny Vella (drums); Trombones – Clement Sciberras and Tony Zammit.
From where did ‘Forza Valletta City’ originate?
It all started in 1959, when during a normal working day at the Department of Information, William Arena received a call from Mr. Carmelo Xerri.
William Arena already knew Carmelo Xerri, but Xerri only knew Arena through some poems he had written earlier for newspapers and songs he had written in the past.
Xerri informed Arena that he had written the original music for the Valletta FC anthem. This was the first anthem of it’s kind and the Valletta F.C. committee had already listened to the anthem, they liked it and also approved it to be the official anthem of the club.
Xerri then went on to ask Arena to write the lyrics for the anthem because he had already read some verses of Arena’s songs and liked them. After all, the lyrics matched the music perfectly.
Arena was delighted but was a bit overwhelmed with such a big responsibility as to write an official anthem. Arena immediately asked Xerri to listen to the music, and Xerri suggested he go straight away to a place in St. Paul’s street.
Arena went and listened to the anthem and he liked it and learnt it instantly. Three days later, Arena produced the lyrics for the ‘Forza Valetta City’ anthem. Arena describes that it was not an easy job to write the lyrics in three days, he even woke up late at night to change some words from the lyrics that he did not like. Arena added that Xerri had personally paid for the production of the first ‘Forza Valletta City’ disc.
Download Forza Valletta City in MP3 Format
Download Dis-Sena tal-Valletta in MP3 Format
Download Forza Valletta City Ringtone in MP3 Format
Tracks (c) Valletta F.C. 1974
“Forza Valletta City, min qalbna dan l’Innu nkantaw”
