MORE than 500 family, friends and fellow musicians gathered in Lautoka for a memorial service for the late Daniel Rae Costello yesterday.
The service, held at the Christian Mission Fellowship church, Waiyavi, was a simple but heartfelt affair filled with praise, worship and recollections of a life well lived.
“The last thing he told us was that he wanted there to be ‘no fuss’ and that’s exactly what happened,” said his brother, Vincent Costello.
“Everything that Danny wanted was there — beautiful prayers and songs and the stories that were shared about his quick wit and the way he used to laugh at anything and everything that life threw at him.”
Danny’s daughter, Alexia, paid tribute to her dad with a couple of his gospel tunes and her rendition of Lauryn Hill’s Tell Him.
“We were at our farm one day and I sang it to him and he just jumped up and said we have got to record this.
“It was a really special father-daughter moment and I thought it was a great way to pay tribute to dad.”
Danny’s wife, Corinna, thanked those who turned up for the memorial and said it had been an honour to share him with Fiji and the Pacific.
Daniel Rae Costello died on July 22 aged 58.
He remains Fiji’s most prolific songwriter, a successful producer and an award-winning artist who knew no equal with more than 30 albums in a career that spanned more than 40 years.
