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Starring Helena Majdaniec

This coming Saturday (the 25th of January) at 5 p.m., we would like to invite you to the Czuły Barbarzyńca in Krakow bookstore-cum-cafe to a meeting with writer Rafał Podraza, author of Helena Majdaniec. Jutro będzie dobry dzień. The programme will include the artist’s music, featuring her unknown French songs, among others. Admission is free!

Helena Majdaniec was a great Polish big beat music star. She is often compared to Ada Rusowicz, Kasia Sobczyk, and Karin Stanek. Called “the queen of twist”, her oeuvre includes hits such as: Rudy rydz, Zakochani są wśród nas, Jutro będzie dobry dzień, and Czarny Ali Baba. She was the first to perform the legendary song Tańczące Eurydyki. What was she like? Why did she move to France at the height of her popularity? Rafał Podraza tries to answer these and some other questions in his book Helena Majdaniec. Jutro będzie dobry dzień.

Helena Majdaniec. Jutro będzie dobry dzień is the first publication in Poland dedicated entirely to Helena Majdaniec. The publication was financed by the Department of Culture of the Office of the City of Szczecin. The book comprises fifty lavishly illustrated stories filled with memories of her family, friends, and collaborators. All of them were collected by Rafał Podraza, a Szczecin journalist, writer, and poet, who was bewitched by the artist’s ambivalence. “I wanted to save one of the most important artists of Polish big beat music from oblivion. The book is supposed to bring the singer back to her beloved city, so to speak, which she always missed dearly, which she often talked about in interviews,” says the author.

Musicians from Szczecin, such as: Grażyna Rudecka, Zbigniew Włodarczyk, and Wojciech Rapa talk about Majdaniec. The book also includes memories of: Katarzyna Gaertner, Halina Kunicka, Irena Jarocka, Czesław Niemen, Karin Stanek, Maria Szabłowska, and Marian Lichtman, the drummer for Trubadurzy. A huge archive of previously unpublished photos was also made available for the book by Małgorzata Majdaniec, the singer’s niece.

The publication is unique also because it is accompanied by an album featuring songs recorded by Helena Majdaniec in France. Melodies to which the artist sings in French have never appeared in official circulation in Poland before.

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