Gabriella Cilmi is 17. She doesn't look, sound or have the demeanor of a 17-year-old; nevertheless, she is 17. Now that this minor, but often mentioned, fact is out of the way, we can move onto who Gabriella Cilmi really is.

Gabriella loves classic rock! Often noting Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin and The Rolling Stones as her early inspirations, she has more than her age to separate her from other singer-songwriters. She is too often lumped in with Duffy, Adele and Amy Winehouse.

"When I got signed, you know I was just used to jamming with my mates in the garage after school. We would play Led Zeppelin covers, and I would think I was the female version of Robert Plant," she explains.

It was her jaw-dropping cover of a Rolling Stones classic "Jumpin Jack Flash" at a festival in her home town of Melbourne that got her signed to Island Records in the UK.

She notes, "Well my parents are Italian so they go to this festival every year. You go to church then after church you go to this festival like thing. There is a house band playing, you know like a boring cover house band. And everyone is there selling their homemade cheeses and salami for charity. So I usually don't want to go because it's boring, but that night I got up to sing. There was a guy from Mushroomhead Records there and like 2 months later he called me."

Added all together, it was the phone call, the festival and the song that brought Gabriella to Los Angeles's Hotel Café for the first time, where on January 26 she performed to a crowd of music industry insiders.

Gabriella Cilmi (pronounced chill-me) is a professional. She has achieved a great deal of success in her home country of Australia as well as the U.K. where she recorded her debut album, "Lesson To Be Learned," and is now working on gaining U.S. fans with her top 40 Hit "Sweet About Me." She has experienced quite a bit in the 3 years she has been signed to Island Records in the UK. Gabriella and her jam band have seen the world, recorded in the house the "Alice in Wonderland" story was based on and were even kicked off stage at one of her early gigs. It was V Festival in the UK and the offense was pushing the time limit - how jam band of them.

"We were about to play a Zeppelin cover, 'Whole Lotta Love' and yeah they were like, 'Off!' 'Time up!' We couldn't finish it! But we went back out and asked the crowd 'do you want to hear more!?' and got in even more trouble," she says.

Gabriella knows how to handle a crowd as well as the limelight. Even when it gets harsh, "they're just people" is her relaxed take on the brutal world of online reviews, blogs and critics. It is not surprising when you realize Gabriella has been recording and performing since she was 13. She has grown a lot and had the time to try new things and fine tune a sound and style that represents her the best.

"I am open to try new things now," she explains. "At first everything was just loud but now I can slow it down." She still keeps a healthy does of loud on the forth-coming release set to hit stores this March in the states, while tracks like "Sanctuary" are more sultry and smooth.




What is most important to know about Gabriella Cilmi is that she loves what she does. It is very obvious from the first note of her set, to the very mention of "Jumpin Jack Flash," and to the way her youthful excitement comes glowing from behind her eyeliner, that she is head over heels in love with music. Gabriella is well rehearsed and clean, never missing a note throughout her 30-minute set, as if she sings these songs in her sleep. Her band is spot on, tighter than many that have played the Hotel Café stage before them.

The crowd that made it out to see Gabriella were given a rare treat of unbridled talent and two rarely scene covers. First Gabriella and her band mates rocked out "Cry Me a River." The Justin Timberlake rendition easily won over the crowd. To end the night, Gabriella played the cover she couldn't finish at V Festival.

"After I heard this song, I knew I wanted to make music! This is the song that I first fell in love with," she told the crowd. As she belted out "Whole Lotta Love" some grumbled that a Zeppelin cover is off limits, especially for someone so young.




However, others saw it for something purer, a music lover singing the song she loves the most in an attempt to share it with others. This is Gabriella Cilmi - professional rock star all at the age of 17.



Story by Iyana Gregory

Starpulse contributing writer