In 1965, the present Bishop of Gibraltar, the Reverend Monsignor Caruana, a young priest at the time, decided that Gibraltar lacked a Community Centre and set about raising funds for such an ambitious project. Undaunted, his idea was to hold a Song Festival in Gibraltar as his main thrust. The Song Festival was totally comprised of local talent and became so popular that it became an annual event. Some years later, the then Father Caruana, had to relinquish control of the event due to his parochial duties and the Festival died a natural death.

Upon his retirement, Joe Carseni, winner of 3 Gibraltar Festivals, took it upon himself to revive this event. Such was his enthusiasm and determination that a Board of Directors was formed and plans set in motion to hold the first International Gibraltar Song Festival.

The revived Song Festival was held at the new Tercentenay Sports Hall on Saturday 29 September, 2007, and attracted singers and song writers from a large number of countries. Entries came from the UK, Spain, Australia, Portugal and as far away as Chile, Brazil, Colombia, the US and Australia, among others, and played to an audience capacity of 1,000. All monies collected were distributed in total to local charities, since donating to charity is one of the aims of the Festival. The Festival is a window of opportunity for local, as well as international, talent and will not only help to promote tourism, but will also launch Gibraltar into the world of music.

The British Academy of Music, Sociedad General de Autores y Editores from Spain, the International Songwriters’ Association, Portal Latino and the Association of Song Festivals of the Canary Islands, are enthusiastically supporting our event and have notified their membership accordingly. Through our website, www.gibraltarsongfestival.com, we are receiving a constant stream of enquiries. The last show, held in 2008, was broadcast live, both in audio and visual formats, on the Internet by the German radio station, Radio 700, to an audience of over 10,000,000.

The Festival is going from strength to strength and steadily acquiring recognition and popularity internationally, which augurs well for the future. This is the 3rd year in which the Gibraltar International Song Festival will be held and we look forward to another very successful show.