Ewa Demarczyk

Ewa Demarczyk
Ewa Demarczyk in 1966.
Background information
Born	(1941-01-16) January 16, 1941 (age 71)
Origin	Kraków, Poland
Genres	sung poetry
Occupations	singer
Instruments	vocals
Years active	1961–2000
Labels	Polskie Nagrania Muza, Wifon, Decca Records, Melodiya
Associated acts	Piwnica pod Baranami
Website	www.demarczyk.pl

Ewa Demarczyk (born January 16, 1941 in Kraków, Poland^[1]) is a Polish singer. She is generally associated with the Piwnica pod Baranami cabaret.

Demarczyk is recognized as one of the most talented and charismatic singers in the history of Polish music.^[2] She is praised for her unique interpretations, expression and unusual stage personality. Back in the 1960s she drew comparisons with Édith Piaf. In Poland, Ewa would be often referred to as "the dark angel".

1 Biography
2 Style
3 Discography
4 References

Biography [link]

She started career in 1961, when she joined Jagiellonian University Medical College's student cabaret Cyrulik. After one year she left Cyrulik for Piwnica pod Baranami, where she met Zygmunt Konieczny, with whom she would work for the next four years.

Her first big success was a performance at 1963 National Festival of Polish Song in Opole where she got an award for the songs "Karuzela z madonnami", "Taki pejzaż" and "Czarne anioły". Later the same year Ewa sang also at Sopot International Song Festival and was named the best artist of 1963 by Polish journalists. In 1964 she took the second place in Sopot for "Grande Valse Brillante". The artist went on to perform at Olympia in Paris, after Bruno Coquatrix's invitation,^[3] as well as at the ceremony celebrating 20th anniversary of United Nations.

In 1966 graduated from Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts (however, later she never played any part in a movie). The same year the artist teamed up with another composer, Andrzej Zarycki. 1967 saw the release of her first full-length album, Ewa Demarczyk śpiewa piosenki Zygmunta Koniecznego, which proved to be a major success and was later certified Platinum.^[4]

Demarczyk departed from Piwnica pod Baranami in 1972. Two years later her next album was issued, including some new Polish songs plus four Russian-language versions of her previously known hits. It was released in Russia by the state-owned label Melodiya and sold in excess of several million copies. Later in the 1970s Ewa Demarczyk was awarded with an honorary award at Opole Festival and Order of Polonia Restituta.

Her 1982 live album, simply titled Live, turned out to be a big success, achieving Gold certification in Poland.^[4] In the mid-1980s the singer founded her own theatre in Kraków. In spite of formal difficulties, it was soon shut down, although enjoyed interest.^[5] In the 1990s her albums were re-releases in CD format and the artist got a number of awards in recognition of her input to Polish culture. Ewa Demarczyk continued to perform live until the late 1990s. In 2001, a foundation Teatr Ewy Demarczyk was created.

Style [link]

Her repertoire consists of difficult, not easily-accessible interpretations of poem texts. Since her songs are often based on poems of greatly appreciated "classical" poets like Polish writers Julian Tuwim and Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński or non-Polish, like Goethe, Mandelstam, Rainer Maria Rilke or those of avant-garde writers like Miron Białoszewski, the genre that Demarczyk is associated with is sometimes called sung poetry.

Her songs convey strong emotions, partly associated with the counter-culture movement in Poland during the 1970s and 1980s, when the country was under communist rule. Because of censorship, her songs are not ostentatiously anti-communist or political. Nevertheless, through subtle means of imagery, symbolism and metaphors that implicitly refer to concepts of freedom, in some of the songs she has expressed the general discontent with the authoritarian rule of the period. Many other of her songs deal with existential topics.

In her performances, she unites both dramatic theatrical expression and vocal art (she is a graduate of both a drama school and conservatory, where she studied piano). Every song she performs is in fact a short musical drama of enormous intensity.