FriendsForLifeFrontIntroduction

Montserrat Caballé (1933-2018) was a renowned Spanish soprano, often considered one of the best sopranos of the 20th century. Apart from her classical work she is widely known for singing the song ‘Barcelona’ together with Freddie Mercury. Although the song was originally released in 1987, ‘Barcelona’ was adopted as one of the official songs of the 1992 Olympic Games held in Caballé’s birthplace, Barcelona.

In 1995 Montserrat Caballé and Vangelis worked together for the first time, when the soprano contributed her voice to one track on “Foros Timis Ston Greko”, a limited album release by Vangelis to raise funds for the purchase of paintings by Domenikos Theotokopoulos (also known as ‘El Greco’).

Released on the 3rd of April 1997, Caballé’s album “Friends For Life” is a collection of duets of the soprano with selected pop and rock artists such as Johnny Logan, Johnny Hallyday, Gino Vanelli and René Froger. The album features two songs written by Vangelis: ‘March With Me’ and ‘Like A Dream’, and concludes with the famous duet ‘Barcelona’ with Freddie Mercury. To promote the album ‘March With Me’ and ‘Like A Dream’ were released on a CD single in Europe, together with a third (non-Vangelis) song. And Spain even saw two single releases of ‘March With Me’, there paired with ‘One Life, One Soul’.

During the opening ceremony of the IAAF World Athletics Championship ‘97 in Athens on the 1st of August 1997 Montserrat Caballé and her daughter Montserrat Martí appeared on stage together with Vangelis. There they premiered Vangelis’ composition ‘The Prayer’, and as an encore Montserrat Caballé sang ‘March With Me’. The next year Caballé released “With All My Heart”, a classical oriented album that also includes ‘The Prayer’.

Around this time Montserrat Caballé stated in several interviews that she was working with Vangelis on a new orchestral album with choirs, but unfortunately this album was never released. However, in 2013 Vangelis and Montserrat Caballé recorded yet another song titled  ‘Habanera’, which was ultimately released in 2020 on the album "Armenia and Artsakh - An Isle of Christianity".

Montserrat Caballé passed away on the 6th of October 2018 in Barcelona.

 

FriendsForLifePhotoTracklist and credits

  1. March With Me
  2. Like A Dream

 

  • Composed, arranged, produced and performed by Vangelis:
  • Lyrics by Montserrat Caballé.
  • Recorded and mixed by Frederick Rousseau and Philippe Colonna.
  • Choir conducted by Yvan Cassar.
  • Special thanks to Andrew Hoy.

 

Discography

CD

  • 1997 BMG, released worldwide (except for North America)

MarchWithMeFrontCD single

 

Recording studio

The album notes do not specify where the songs with Vangelis were recorded, but considering the timing they were probably recorded in one of Vangelis’ home studios in Athens.

 

Links

 VangelisAndMontserratCaballeMontserrat Caballé and Vangelis in 1997 in Athens