Welcome at the official site of Pierre Kartner / Father Abraham
Composer of 'The
Smurfsong' and 'The Red Rose Cafe'
Pierre
Kartner alias Vader Abraham
Contact
us:
You are welcome contact us for all publishing
and licensing matters, and of course all your other questions.
E-mail: info@vader-abraham.com
/ Phone..:
+31 (0)76-5652120 (Dutch office hours)
Postal
address:
Vader Abraham Producten / Uitgeverij bv
P.O. Box 4758
4803 ET Breda, Netherlands
Short Biography Pierre Kartner alias Father Abraham
Pierre Kartner was Born 11 April 1935 Elst, Netherlands and Died 8 November
2022 (aged 87) at his home Breda, Netherlands.
Pierre Kartner alias Father Abraham, the performer, composer,
lyricist, producer and talentscout was born in a small town in the Netherlands
by the name of Elst. The first sign of his artistic ambitions showed at the
age of eight, when he was chosen no. 1 in a radio-songcontest. His first instrument
was the guitar. Soon he played also fluently the piano and bassfidle. His
favorite is however still the guitar.
As a composer and lyricist Pierre has created numerous golden hitrecords for
many Dutch and internationally known top artists such as Peter Alexander
(Germany) and Nana Mouskouri, Joe Dassin, Mireille Mathieu
(France), The Fureys (Ireland), Engelbert Humper-Dinck (UK),
Audrey Landers (USA), Andre Rieu (Netherlands), Ireen Sheer
(Germany), Demis
Roussos (Greece)
and many others. He has the ability to link up catching melodies with subjects
in lyrics, liked by everyone of any age.
Red
rose cafe
However the masterpiece he wrote and composed back in the 70’s is the song
called “Het kleine cafe aan de haven” (in English: The
red rose cafe, in French: Le café des trois colombes,
in the German language: Die Kleine Kneipe). Meanwhile this song
has been covered by many top artists around the globe. Currently more then
250 covers and counting.
Performer,
talent scout
On stage, citizen Pierre Kartner changes into a performing artist of certain
age, called Father Abraham. Wearing owl-like spectacles and a bowler, singing
songs about daily life with a warm and tender voice. Working as talentscout
in his home country, he discovered and trained many young promising artists
to become top stars and all of them had their records rewarded in gold.
Eurovision Song Contest
Pierre wrote and composed the Dutch entry for the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest.
Title: De oude muzikant
Pierre wrote and composed the Dutch entry for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest.
Title: Sha-la-lie
Smurfsong
The success of the "Smurfsong", written, composed and performed
by himself and seven weeks a number one hit in the Dutch charts, was the beginning
of a Smurf-record craze that soon was to sweep the entire world (more then
25 million copies sold worldwide) reaching number one positions in
many countries around
the globe.
A small selection of CD album covers.
This shows the true evidence of his capacity to reach people worldwide,
regardless of their age, tongue or social background. In the role as composer/author/producer
Pierre received over 128 gold and platinum records.
The
Smurfsong in the Top 200 Best Selling
Singles Of All Time (the UK)
Many weeks number two in the Billboard Charts (UK).
845.000 sold
Sales to 29/10/11
Position: 171
Film
music (Moomins)
Pierre is also involved in writing film music (underscore). Apart from being
responsible for all the Moomin songs worldwide (The Moomins is a stop motion
animated children's television series based on the Tove Jansson's Moomin series
of books and amongst others very populair in the scandinavian countries),
he also wrote the underscore for the featurefilm. In Finland they are called
“Muumi”, in Sweden “Mumin”, and in Holland “De Moomins”, to name a few. More
then two million copies sold of the Moomin DVD series in
Scandinavia with
music written by Pierre!
