SMURF STAR DEAD
Pierre Kartner dead – Musician who was Father Abraham on The Smurf Song dies aged 87
PIERRE Kartner, who was Father Abraham on The Smurf Song has died at the age of 87.
The Dutch singer-songwriter worked on the much-loved cartoon series from 1977 until 2005.
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His debut hit The Smurf Song reached No 2 in the UK charts in June 1978.
Kartner’s songs for The Smurfs went on to sell 17million copies worldwide.
He wrote more than 1,600 songs throughout his career, including tunes for the popular cartoon series Moomin and the Dutch entry for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest.
Kartner eventually parted ways with The Smurfs series over artistic differences with his record company Dureco.
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Kartner, who was born in Amsterdam in 1935, began singing when he was just eight having won a local festival contest, but went on to work in a local chocolate factory.
His music career hit the big time though when he debuted his alter-ego Vater Abraham (aka Father Abraham) in 1971 and released Father Abraham Had Seven Sons in 1971.
Developing his on-stage character he grew out his beard and wore a bowler hat to create his famous signature look.
He was approached in 1977 to compose The Smurf Song.
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The record label only initially produced 1,000 promo copies of the single but had to quickly order up 400,000 more when the song took off.
It reached No 2 in the UK charts in June 1978.
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Due to the huge popularity Kartner was asked to create a full album for the series, which sold more than 500,00 copies worldwide.
His last song for the series came in 2005, when he sang The Smurf Song with a band called Dynamite.
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