Ewa Demarczyk

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Ewa Demarczyk (born January 16, 1941 in Kraków, Poland) is a Polish singer and actress. Her songs convey strong emotions of the counter-culture movement in Poland during the 1970's and 1980's. At the time, Poland was ruled by socialist government under the influence of Soviet government. The Polish citizens not only detested foreign rule over their country, but they were also tormented by the communist system of economy, justice and censorship. Because of censorship, her songs are not ostentatiously anti-communist; however, through subtle means of imagery, symbolism and metaphors that implicitly refers to the Western concepts of freedom, she expresses the public discontent of the government. This is one of the outstanding features of her music. Apart from her great musical talent, she also expressed a censorship worthy political concept, without the knowing of its censors. While her songs are often based on poems of greatly appreciated "classical" poets (Julian Tuwim, Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński), as well as those of avant-garde writers like Miron Białoszewski and sings a genera called sung poetry, it is the counter-cultural nature and its political content that is the most noteworthy feature of her music.

Demarczyk has influenced many artists, including Faun Fables who has recorded covers of her songs "Carousel With Madonnas" and "Taki Pejzaż".

Ewa Demarczyk is an outstanding artist. Her uniting of mastery in both dramatic theatrical expression and vocal art is virtually unparalleled in the world (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. This kind of performing is extremely exhausting for the artist, and Demarczyk has produced relatively few songs, but every one of them is a masterpiece. The artist has never had a commercial bent. In fact she dislikes all that tastes of marketing and popularity.

Signed: Ewa Demarczyk

Her 1969 album Spiewa Piosenki Zygmunta Koniecznego is the only CD re-release currently available, however a CD of her live performances has come out recently.