Gabriel Briffa ż-Żeżin
Gabriel Briffa ż-Żeżin
is a folk singer from Qormi. Born in on the 16th June 1996, he is one of a crop of young folksingers coming through to maintain the musical tradition.
He was attracted to traditional Maltese folk singing, rather than other modern foreign musical genres, due to the challenges poised by improvised verse, where the performer has to think and construct fast rhyming sentences constant to the given subject being sung.
Briffa doesn't see this challenge manifested in song festivals, where the lyrics are all pre-written, rehearsed and manipulated in recording studios. The first time that he folk sung was at Id-Dura Bar in Rabat, together with Joe Grech ta' Raħal Ġdid.
Briffa claims that his favourite folksinger is Fredu Abela Iż-Żejtuni, since the latter is able to keep to the subject in improvised verse sessions and has exceptional skills in long cadences. Other folksingers he admires are Salvu Darmanin Ir-Ruġel, Żeppi Meli ta' Sika, Ninu Galea l-Kalora, Ċikku Degiorgio tal-Fjuri and Leli Sultana l-Moni.
His mother is the cousin of the high-pitched folk singer Frans Azzopardi ż-Żott. Briffa is also a horse jockey and takes part in competitive racing in Malta.
He is becoming a regular in the line-ups presented by folk singer and event organizer Mikiel Cutajar Is-Superstar.