Roberto "Bobby" Alfonso Farrell died in the morning of 30 December in a hotel in Saint Petersburg, Russia, after performing with his band the evening before. He was 61. He was a dancer and performer, best known as the the deep voiced male member of the successful 1970s pop and disco group Boney M.

 

Farrell left Aruba at age 15 to become a sailor. He lived in Norway and the Netherlands before moving to Germany. There, he worked mostly as a DJ until producer Frank Farian spotted him for his new Boney M. group. He became the sole male singer in the group, although Farian later revealed that Bobby made almost no vocal contributions to the group's records, with Farian himself performing the male parts on the songs in the studio. Liz Mitchell claimed that only she and Farian had sung on the hit recordings. Farrell did, however, perform live in some of the various incarnations of 'Boney M'.

 

He appeared as a dancer in late 2005 in the Roger Sanchez videoclip of Turn on the Music.

 

Farrell lived in Amsterdam Zuidoost, in the neighbourhood Gaasperdam. The cause of death is still unknown.

 

The band achieved 14 UK hits between 1977 & 1981 plus 2 megamixes but had even more hits in mainland Europe.

Their biggest hit was historic chartwise. Rivers Of Babylon peaked at #1 and when it finally dropped to #21 the single was flipped and Brown Girl In The Ring started to climb again peaking at #2.

It was also the UKs 5th biggest selling single in history selling 1.9 million.

 

RIP Bobby

http://www.worldcharts.co.uk/images/boney.jpg

Edited December 30, 201014 yr by euro music

 

The only male member of the group. They have so many great songs including Mary's Boy Child. RIP Bobby :(

Rasputin also died on 29 December (1916) although it was 16 December in Russia as they still hadn't joined most of the rest of the world in using the Gregorian calendar.

Rasputin is a work of genius. Quite like Ma Baker.

Hated all the rest

 

R.I.P. Bobby

Rasputin also died on 29 December (1916) although it was 16 December in Russia as they still hadn't joined most of the rest of the world in using the Gregorian calendar.

 

What a weird coincidence... Oh, those Russians. RIP Bobby, I loved Boney M's music ever since I was a kid and his energy played a big part in it... :(

Only 61 years old? RIP Bobby. Did he sing on the hit tracks?

no some1 from germany was the voice all he did was mine the songs

Only 61 years old? RIP Bobby. Did he sing on the hit tracks?

No, Frank Farian did. Bobby only sung live

He did sing on some later songs though, like Happy Song from 1984, and the reformed (and actually unathorised) incarnation's Everybody Wants To Dance Like Josephine Baker from 1990.