Maryla Rodowicz

Early life

She studied at Liceum Ziemi Kujawskiej (Cuiavian Soil High School) in Wloclawek and graduated from the Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego (Academy of Physical Education) in Warsaw. In her youth she participated in athletics among other things at Kujawiak Wloclawek.

Personal life

She has three children, Jan Jasinski (born in 1979) and Katarzyna Jasinska (born in 1982) with her first husband, Krzysztof Jasinski. She also has a son Andrzej Dluzynski (born in 1987) with her second (and present) husband Andrzej Dluzynski.

Career

Her career began in 1967, after winning first prize at the Festiwal Piosenki i Piosenkarzy Studenckich (Student Songs and Singers' Festival) in Krakow. Two years later she recorded her first well-known song, "Mowily mu" ("The girls told him", English version known as "Love Doesn't Grow On Trees"), and in 1970 - her first longplay. In 1973, she gained popularity with the song "Malgoska" with lyrics by Agnieszka Osiecka. A year later, during the World Cup Opening Ceremony in Munich, she performed a song "Futbol" ("Football").

The singer's body of work comprises over 600 recorded songs, with over 20 Polish albums as well as albums in English, Czech, German and Russian. Apart from "Malgoska", the artist's most famous songs are "Niech zyje bal" ("Long live the ball"), "To juz bylo" ("Done that"), "Wielka Woda" ("Great water"), "Rozmowa przez ocean" ("Talk over the ocean"), "Bossanova do poduszki" ("Bedside bossa nova"), "Latwopalni" ("Inflammables") and her latest album's hits such as "Wszyscy chca kochac" ("Everybody wants to love") and "Bedzie co ma byc" ("What is to be, will be"). In 2005 she recorded an album Kochac (To love) with lyrics by Katarzyna Nosowska. On the occasion of World Cup 2006, she recorded a song "Za Janasa" ("For Janas") with Nosowska's lyrics.

Rodowicz has performed in concert worldwide: in Europe, America, Australia, and Asia. She has won awards for her singing. She has also participated in various festivals including outside the borders of Poland, for example in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Los Angeles, as well as in Poland including the Festiwal Piosenki i Piosenkarzy Studenckich (Student Songs and Singers' Festival) in Krakow and the Krajowy Festiwal Piosenki Polskiej (National Polish Song Festival) in Opole.

Rodowicz is also an actress who has performed in several movies and in musical entertainment. She regularly performs in a Polsat TV channel series Rodzina zastepcza (Foster Family).

In 1992 she released her autobiography under the title of Niech zyje bal.

She was featured in a 2012 episode of the Polish Name That Tune, known as Jaka to Melodia, in which she sang her rendition of the popular Chor Czejanda number Czerwony Autobus ("The Red Bus") after a celebrity contestant guessed the song.

Songs

The notable Polish Madonna written by Agnieszka Osiecka (an emotional portrait of an average Polish woman trying to make ends meet) contains clear Catholic symbolism and references to the social circumstances characteristic to Poland in the late eighties that marked the end of the communist era in Poland. In this song, the author questions whether the "Polish Madonna" (or, in other words, the Catholic Saint Mary, usually portrayed as holding baby Jesus in her arms) has enough money to pay for rent, promising her that the child will get a welcome allowance to the public kindergarten. The old communist promises are never fulfilled for her, and her dreams of having a lipstick "made in France" can only come true in her dreams. The song won the journalists' prize at the Opole festival in 1987.