Bad luck struck twice for a cruise ship pianist, although he managed to escape unscathed in both of them.

Three years ago, Antonello Tonna scrambled to safety from the sinking Costa Concordia. Then, earlier this month he was on the Costa Fascinosa as gunmen opened fire on cruise ship passengers in a Tunis museum.

“I wasn’t at the museum but at a bar at the terminal during the shooting. My wife sent me a text message telling me about the tragedy, which she had just heard about on the news.

“I boarded the ship immediately,” said the Sicilianwhose father is Maltese. He sat at his piano two days after the terrorist attack. But it was only on the third day that he actually started singing again.

“I sang Lucio Dalla’s Henna, which speaks of war, and Vita by Gianni Morandi and Lucio Dalla. I felt quite emotional. We all were emotional.

“However, life goes on, and things are now back on track. What I went through – during the Concordia’s sinking and as an observer during the Tunis attack – has taught me to love life much more." 

Recalling the Concordia disaster he said: “We heard a loud bang but initially didn’t understand what was going on. I thought it was engine failure. After about 10 minutes there was a blackout and people started getting a bit scared. After about three blackouts, the ship started listing. We still didn’t know what was going on but I remained calm... We then heard the general emergency alarm.”

He eventually jumped five metres into the freezing sea, not knowing if there were any reefs down there but managed to reach the shore safely. 

He took a break from cruise ships but returned to playing music and singing three months before the Tunis tragedy – and he has kept faith with cruise liners, saying they are a “magical” place to work.

See video in Italian above. More in Times of Malta and the e-paper on timesofmalta.com Premium.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.