Amletu Spiteri
Ġanmarì “Amletu” Spiteri, magħruf ukoll bħala Gammarì, kien għannej magħruf mill-Qormi u l-bużnannu tiegħi. Hawn issib l-istorja tiegħu bil-Malti u bl-Ingliż, flimkien ma’ xi wħud mill-versi li kien iħobb jgħanni.
Ġanmarì “Amletu” Spiteri, also known as Gammarì, was a well-known Maltese għana singer from Qormi, and my great-grandfather. This page tells his story in Maltese and English, together with some of the verses he loved to sing.
Il-ħajja ta’ Amletu / Amletu’s life
One of the great voices of Maltese għana
My great-grandparents, Ġanmarì Spiteri and Maria Carmela (née Mamo), were both from Qormi. Maria Carmela died at just 23, giving birth to twins. Their son, my grandfather Joseph (Joe) Spiteri, later moved to Sydney and led the Greystanes Maltese festa for more than 50 years.
Ġanmarì, nicknamed Amletu, was a stonemason by trade and worked on the foundations of St Sebastian’s Church in Qormi. He was also a renowned singer of għana, Malta’s traditional folk singing, and loved working proverbs and idioms into his songs. His nephew was Lino Spiteri, later Malta’s Minister of Finance, and Amletu sang around Malta for the Labour movement and to promote the young Lino.
Amletu’s voice also lives on through another branch of the family. His sister was the paternal grandmother of Kevin Borg, the Maltese singer from Floriana who won Swedish Idol in 2008 and went on to write and produce for some of Japan’s best-selling artists, including Arashi, with platinum records in Japan and Sweden. At the first Festgħana in Floriana in May 2026, Kevin sang a selection of Amletu’s songs, chosen from the surviving reel recordings with guitarists Karol and Jorge Aquilina of Nofsillejl, in a show called Il-Legat ta’ Ġanmarì Spiteri Amletu (The legacy of Ġanmarì Spiteri Amletu).
Triq Amleto Spiteri
Qormi named a street after him, so he is remembered both as a folk singer and as a worker who lost his life on the job. Festivals Malta has also paid tribute to his legacy.
A workplace accident and the interdiction
Amletu died on 3 June 1962, when a ceiling collapsed on him while he was repairing a building. He was given extreme unction, but once it was known who he was, his family was told the sacrament did not count because Amletu was a Labour activist.
During the interdiction, those ‘interdicted’ could not receive the sacraments and, when they died, were buried in unconsecrated ground, in a part of the Addolorata cemetery popularly called by the pejorative term Il-Miżbla, the dump. Several Labour Party activists were buried there with Amletu. In 2011 he was one of the seven people named and remembered when a monument to the Labour members who suffered during the dispute was unveiled, as The Malta Independent reported.
He was even denied burial in the Spiteri family grave, as MaltaToday recorded when it named “Amleto Spiteri, uncle of the late Labour minister Lino Spiteri” among those buried in the Miżbla. The wall separating the Miżbla from the rest of the cemetery was only removed in 1969.
On 2 November 2019, Archbishop Charles Scicluna blessed the graves of the Miżbla and asked forgiveness for the wall that had been built between them and the rest of the cemetery, a gesture the Times of Malta called the boldest step ever.
In 2012 I took my grandfather Joe, Amletu’s son, to visit Amletu’s tombstone for the first time in his life.
Carmelo Spiteri, Joseph’s brother and a founder of the Anici band club
Amletu’s son Carmelo Spiteri was the full brother of my grandfather Joseph. The two of them were the only full siblings from Amletu’s first marriage, to Maria Carmela Mamo.
Carmelo was one of the four founders of the Anici Socio-Musical Society in Qormi, set up in 1988, and served as its first secretary and its first musician. He was also a member of the Armed Forces of Malta.
He died on 30 April 1991. On 4 May 1991 the society organised its first ever funeral for him: a procession from its premises to the Church of St George the Martyr in Qormi, led by the Anici Civic and St George’s Band playing funeral marches. Qormi’s other two bands, musical societies from across Malta and Gozo, parish groups and a contingent from the Armed Forces of Malta all took part. At the parish cemetery, soldiers fired a 21-gun salute and Sergeant Raymond Cremona played the Last Post.
Source: the history of the Anici Socio-Musical Society.
Għannej magħruf / A well-known singer
Gammarì kien għannej magħruf u kien imur jgħanni kullimkien. Kien jgħanni f’ħafna ħwienet Qriema kif ukoll għand Karmni ta’ Wistin fil-Marsa kif ukoll għand Karmnu Darmanin f’Ħaż-Żabbar, ħu Salvu Darmanin ir-Raġel, għannej ieħor li kien ħabib tal-qalb ta’ Gammarì u kienu jinġiebu ħafna. Kien jgħanni wkoll fuq ir-Rediffusion u l-biċċa l-kbira meta kienu jgħidulu biex jagħmel prova, biex jippruvaw is-sound, kien iħobb jgħanni din li ġejja:
L-ajru frisk u l-art miblula.
Ħafja ma rridekx timxili,
Irridek biż-żarbun bħali
Biex tagħti gost u pjaċir lili.
Gammarì was a well-known singer who sang all over Malta. He sang in many of Qormi’s bars and shops, at Karmni ta’ Wistin’s in Marsa and at Karmnu Darmanin’s in Żabbar, often alongside Salvu Darmanin ir-Raġel, another singer and one of his closest friends. The two got on extremely well. He also sang on Rediffusion, the cable radio service, and whenever he was asked to do a sound check before going on air, he liked to sing this verse:
The air is fresh and the ground is wet.
I don’t want you walking barefoot,
I want you wearing shoes like me,
so you’ll bring me joy and pleasure.
Spirtu pront u proverbji / Improvisation and proverbs
Amletu kien jgħanni ħafna speċjalment spirtu pront, għalkemm ma tantx kien għannej tal-botta u risposta. Kien jgħanni b’mod pulit u kien iħobb iqabbel billi juża ħafna idjomi u proverbji tradizzjonali Maltin.
Il-bidwi jibda jipprepara
Qabel l-għalqa tiegħu jaħrat.
Sew jgħidilna il-proverbju:
Iżra’ tajjeb ħalli ssib x’taħsad.
Amletu mostly sang spirtu pront, the improvised form of għana, although he was not really a botta u risposta singer, the quick-fire sung debate between two singers. He sang with courtesy, and liked to make his point by comparison, drawing on many traditional Maltese idioms and proverbs.
The farmer starts preparing
before he ploughs his field.
As the proverb rightly tells us:
sow well, and you’ll have something to reap.
Leħen bħal sirena / A voice like a siren
Gammarì kellu vuċi partikolari ħafna. Kellu leħnu sabiħ u kien jgħanni f’nota għolja. Leħnu tant kien bellezza li ġieli kienu jqabbluhulu ma’ dak ta’ sirena. Kien iħobb jgħanni b’kisra f’leħnu f’nofs il-versi u t-taqbila kien ikaxkarha, xi ħaġa li kien magħruf sew għaliha.
Jien lilek fhimtek mill-ewwel
U bla ma qgħadt lejk inħares.
Sejjer jiġrilek bħal-lupu.
Ma lħaqtx l-għeneb u għidtlu qares.
Gammarì had a very distinctive voice. It was beautiful and high-pitched, so much so that people sometimes compared it to a siren. He liked to put a break in his voice in the middle of a verse and to draw out the closing line, the taqbila, something he was well known for.
I understood you straight away,
without even needing to look at you.
It will go for you as it did for the wolf:
he couldn’t reach the grapes, so he called them sour.
Ix-xalati tal-għana / The għana feasts and outings
Bħal ħafna għannejja, kien jieħu sehem ukoll fix-xalati magħrufin għall-għana bħalma huma l-Imnarja fil-Buskett, San Girgor f’Marsaxlokk, il-Vitorja fil-Mellieħa, Ħadd in-Nies f’Ħaż-Żabbar u x-Xgħajra nhar Lapsi. Dan naturalment minbarra l-Qajjenza kull nhar ta’ Ħadd wara nofsinhar fil-jiem tas-sajf.
Fuq li tgħidli inħobb noqgħod
għalkemm ġieli qatt ma bsartha.
Nagħmlu kif in-nies jgħidulna.
Dum ifrex siegħa w orqod kwarta.
Like many singers, he took part in the outings and feasts famous for għana: L-Imnarja at Buskett, San Girgor in Marsaxlokk, Il-Vitorja in Mellieħa, Ħadd in-Nies in Żabbar, and Xgħajra on Lapsi (Ascension Day). And, of course, Il-Qajjenza every Sunday afternoon through the summer.
I like to go by what you tell me,
even if I never saw it coming.
We do as people tell us:
spend an hour making the bed, and sleep a quarter of an hour.
Il-gaxin ta’ Gammarì / Gammarì’s gaxin
Gammarì kien bniedem li jħobb isajjar ħafna, speċjalment ikel li jaħraq, bil-bżar aħmar. Kien isajjar id-dar għall-familja jew anke f’xi ħanut fejn kien imur jgħanni. L-aktar li kien isajjar kien il-gaxin. Din il-kelma hija użata s-soltu meta nirreferu għall-ikel li kien jifdal minn abbord il-vapuri Ingliżi, iżda meta kienu jgħidu li se jsajru l-gaxin, kienu jsajjru ħafna tipi ta’ laħam u jħalltuhom f’daqqa, b’xi zalza pikkanti.
Hawn ġejna bit-trallallila
U mmorru bit-trallalle
Daħlna hawnhekk għal naqra zokkor
Biex ma nieħduhx morr il-kafè.
Gammarì loved to cook, especially fiery food made with red chilli. He cooked at home for the family, and sometimes at the bars where he went to sing. His favourite dish was gaxin. The word usually refers to the leftover food that came off British ships, but when Gammarì said he was cooking gaxin, it meant many kinds of meat cooked together in a hot, spicy sauce.
We arrived with a tra-la-la-li-la
and we’ll leave with a tra-la-la-le.
We came in here for a little sugar,
so we won’t drink our coffee bitter.
Isma’ lil Amletu jkanta / Hear Amletu sing
Ħames reġistrazzjonijiet oriġinali ta’ għana spirtu pront, fejn l-għannejja jimprovizzaw il-versi u jwieġbu lil xulxin. L-ismijiet huma mniżżla skont l-ordni li jkantaw fiha.
Five original recordings of spirtu pront għana, where the singers improvise their verses and answer one another in turn. The singers are listed in the order they sing.
Bies → Pawlu Seychell l-Għannejja → Salvu Darmanin ir-Raġel → Amletu Spiteri → Bambino
L-għannejja skont l-ordni li jkantaw / Singers in order of singing: 1. Bies, 2. Pawlu Seychell l-Għannejja, 3. Salvu Darmanin ir-Raġel, 4. Amletu Spiteri, 5. Bambino
Nice → Salvu Darmanin ir-Raġel → Amletu Spiteri → Pawlu Seychell l-Għannejja
L-għannejja skont l-ordni li jkantaw / Singers in order of singing: 1. Nice, 2. Salvu Darmanin ir-Raġel, 3. Amletu Spiteri, 4. Pawlu Seychell l-Għannejja
Pawlu Seychell l-Għannejja → Salvu Darmanin ir-Raġel → Amletu Spiteri
L-għannejja skont l-ordni li jkantaw / Singers in order of singing: 1. Pawlu Seychell l-Għannejja, 2. Salvu Darmanin ir-Raġel, 3. Amletu Spiteri
Salvu Darmanin ir-Raġel → Singla → Amletu Spiteri
L-għannejja skont l-ordni li jkantaw / Singers in order of singing: 1. Salvu Darmanin ir-Raġel, 2. Singla, 3. Amletu Spiteri
Zinzla → Amletu Spiteri
L-għannejja skont l-ordni li jkantaw / Singers in order of singing: 1. Zinzla, 2. Amletu Spiteri
Stonemason, singer and Labour activist
Amletu was also a stonemason who worked on the foundations of St Sebastian’s Church in Qormi, the uncle of Lino Spiteri, and a Labour activist during the years of the interdiction. Read more about his life, Triq Amleto Spiteri and the rest of the family on the family history page.