The Kelly Family

I was ten years, when I first heard them on the radio, they sang,”An Angel”. A beautiful song, they made for their mama, who died in 1981 of cancer, when the youngest child was half a year old. They are twelve brothers and sisters. The four oldest have a different mum, than the nine youngest. They lived on singing in the street, and when their group started in 1972, they were called ”Street/Kelly Kids”. They had a double-decker bus that they lived in, and drove around in. They were touring all over the world, so some of them were born in other countries, than the others. The youngest brothers and sisters were actually born into this group. Now there are only six of them left, actually there are only five left of the nine who really were “The Kelly Family”, but one of the older brothers is back in the group. So they can be the six members that they want it to be. Some of them have a solo career besides, and one of them chose to become a monk. Studying French theology in a monastery in France, and after that, he will become a priest. He had always believed in God, and been a very faithful boy, ever since he was a little child. I am sad about his choice, because I will miss to hear new songs from him. But I respect him for what he does, I just hope he has found the truth, and the meaning of his life, that he was searching for. I do not care what he does. I just want to thank him, for his music. Paddy Kelly (Patrick Michael Kelly) will always have a piece of my heart.

Barbara Ann was the four oldest brothers and sisters’ nanny in the beginning. 6 November 1970, she married Daniel. Then she changed her last name from Suokko to Kelly.
8 March 1967 she gave birth to their first child, it was a boy, and he was named after their grandpa.
In 1978 they got their first record contract.
Their great-grandfather was named O´Kelley, but when he emigrated to U.S.A he changed it to Kelly, just to sound more American.
And when they released their CD “wow” in 1993, they stopped being “The Kelly Kids”
that they have been since they started in 1972.
And their new band name was born. In 1994, seventeen year-old Paddy wrote the song “An Angel” to their mother. Now he had opened the way to fame.

Lowenti