Barbara Haščáková (11 December 1979 – 22 November 2023) was a Slovak singer of pop music. She won the Best Female Singer prize at the

Slávik Awards Slávik () was a Slovak music poll and award established by the company Forza—which organizes the Miss Slovakia beauty pageant—in 1998, as a successor to Czechoslovakia's Zlatý slavík, which ran from 1962 until 1991. The annual event was ...

in 1998.

Early life

Barbara Haščáková was born on 11 December 1979 in

Košice Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...

. Her father was the illustrator Jozef Haščák.

Music career

Haščáková started her career as a 14-year-old in the band Maduar after the manager of the group Ladislav Matyinko convinced her parents that Maduar would be a successful band and they consented to her becoming a member. Nonetheless, she did not remain a Maduar member for long. After the very successful first album of Maduar—''I Feel Good'' with platinum record status and Song of the Year and Album of the Year prizes—she continued as a part of the duo act MC Erik & Barbara with fellow former Maduar member Erik Aresta. In the late 1990s, Haščáková reached the height of her popularity. Following her 1998 win at the

, she received nominations also for 1999 and 2000 when the award went to Jana Kirschner. Nonetheless, in 1999 she moved to the United States in order to escape from the pressures of fame. In the US she got married and lived first in the state of

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

and later in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. In spite of recording several albums in Slovak and in English, she failed to reach any success. Her only notable production after emigration is the 2016 duet ''Nepozerám'' with Miroslav Jaroš.

Death

Haščáková died from a stroke in

Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers, Florida, Fort Myers and Punta Gorda, Florida, Punta Gord ...

, on 22 November 2023, at the age of 43. Following a funeral in Sarasota her body was transported to Slovakia for burial in her native town of Košice.

Discography

Studio albums

*1997: ''Barbara'' *1999: ''Ver, Že Ja'' *2003: ''Secrets of Happiness'' *2006: ''Me & My Music''

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hascakova, Barbara Slovak pop singers Slovak women pop singers 1979 births 2023 deaths 21st-century Slovak women singers Musicians from Košice 20th-century Slovak women singers Slovak expatriates in the United States English-language singers from Slovakia