Maria Antonina Rodowicz, known professionally as Maryla Rodowicz, (Polish pronunciation: born 8 December 1945 in Zielona Góra), is a Polish

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

and

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

. Throughout over 50 years of her career, she released twenty Polish and four foreign-language studio albums including five with

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

and three with

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

certifications and selling over 15 million records. Known for her close collaboration with Agnieszka Osiecka and

Seweryn Krajewski Seweryn Krajewski (born 3 January 1947, Nowa Sól, Poland) is a Polish singer and songwriter who rose to fame in the 1960s and 70s with the popular Polish band Czerwone Gitary. After leaving the group in 1997, he recorded several solo albums. ...

, her most popular songs include "Małgośka" (1974), "Futbol" (1974), "Remedium" (1978), "Niech żyje bal" (1984), "Łatwopalni" (1997) and "Wszyscy chcą kochać" (2005). She remains one of the most prominent and successful artists in the history of popular music in Poland. Among the numerous awards and decorations she received are Gold Cross of Merit, Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta and Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis.

Early life

Originally the Rodowicz family came from

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional u ...

. Her father worked at the

Stefan Batory University Vilnius University ( lt, Vilniaus universitetas) is a public research university, oldest in the Baltic states and in Northern Europe outside the United Kingdom (or 6th overall following foundations of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Glasgow and ...

in Vilnius before the war and her grandparents were the owners of a pharmacy near the famous Gate of Dawn, the

city gate A city gate is a gate which is, or was, set within a city wall. It is a type of fortified gateway. Uses City gates were traditionally built to provide a point of controlled access to and departure from a walled city for people, vehicles, goo ...

of Vilnius. Rodowicz studied at ''Liceum Ziemi Kujawskiej'' (Cuiavian Land High School) in

Włocławek Włocławek (Polish pronunciation: ; german: Leslau) is a city located in central Poland along the Vistula (Wisła) River and is bordered by the Gostynin-Włocławek Landscape Park. As of December 2021, the population of the city is 106,928. Loc ...

and graduated from the ''Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego'' (Academy of Physical Education) in Rumpe. In her youth, she was a keen participant in athletics among other things at Kujawiak Włocławek.

Career

Her career began in 1967, after winning first prize at the ''Festiwal Piosenki i Piosenkarzy Studenckich'' (Student Songs and Singers' Festival) in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 159 ...

. Two years later she recorded her first well-known song, "Mówiły mu" ("The girls told him", English version known as "Love Doesn't Grow On Trees"), and in 1970 - her first

longplay The LP (from "long playing" or "long play") is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and a ...

. In 1973, she gained popularity with the song "Małgośka" with lyrics by Agnieszka Osiecka. A year later, during the World Cup Opening Ceremony in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, 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 "Małgośka", the artist's most famous songs are "Niech żyje bal" ("Long live the ball"), "To już było" ("Done that"), "Wielka Woda" ("Great water"), "Rozmowa przez ocean" ("Talk over the ocean"), "Bossanova do poduszki" ("Bedside bossa nova"), "Łatwopalni" ("Inflammables") and her latest album's hits such as "Wszyscy chcą kochać" ("Everybody wants to love") and "Będzie co ma być" ("What is to be, will be"). In 2005 she recorded an album ''Kochać'' (''To love'') with lyrics by

Katarzyna Nosowska Katarzyna (Kasia) Nosowska (born 30 August 1971, Szczecin) is the lead singer of the Polish rock band Hey. She is also known for her solo career, which in contrast to Hey's guitar-driven rock delves more into electronica. Apart from penning Hey ...

. 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 Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, an ...

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

, and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

, as well as in Poland including the ''Festiwal Piosenki i Piosenkarzy Studenckich'' (Student Songs and Singers' Festival) in Kraków and the

National Festival of Polish Song The National Festival of Polish Song in Opole ( pl, Krajowy Festiwal Piosenki Polskiej w Opolu, KFPP) is an annual music festival in Opole, Poland. Together with the Sopot Festival it is one of the two most important music festivals in Poland. The ...

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 zastępcza'' (''Foster Family''). In 1992 she released her

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English p ...

under the title of ''Niech żyje bal''. She was featured in a 2012 episode of the Polish '' Name That Tune'', known as ''

Jaka to Melodia ''Jaka to melodia?'' (meaning "What Melody Is It?") is the licensed Polish variation of the classic game show Name That Tune, running every year since 1997 on TVP1. It is licensed by Prestige Entertainment Group and Sandy Frank Film Syndicati ...

'', in which she sang her rendition of the popular Chór Czejanda number '' Czerwony Autobus'' ("The Red Bus") after a celebrity contestant guessed the song. On August 18, 2021, it was announced that she will appear in the third season of ''

The Voice Senior ''The Voice Senior'' is a version of ''The Voice'' TV series franchise in which seniors participate. Versions The first such variation was '' The Voice Senior'' from the Netherlands, which was followed by other international variants: : Franchis ...

'' as a coach, replacing Izabela Trojanowska. Her life and music career was the subject of a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

entitled ''Maryla. Tak kochałam'' aired by

TVP1 TVP1 (TVP Jeden, ''Program I Telewizji Polskiej'', ''"Jedynka"'') is the main public television channel of TVP (Telewizja Polska S.A.), Poland's national television broadcaster. It was the first Polish channel to be broadcast and remains one ...

channel in December the same year.

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 The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

symbolism and references to the social circumstances characteristic to Poland in the late eighties that marked the last years of the

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

era in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

. In this song, the author questions whether the "Polish Madonna" (or, in other words, the Catholic Holy 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 Lipstick is a cosmetic product used to apply coloration and texture to lips, often made of wax and oil. Different pigments are used to produce color, and minerals such as silica may be used to provide texture. The use of lipstick dates bac ...

"made in France" can only come true in her dreams. The song won the journalists' prize at the Opole festival in 1987.

Personal life

In mid-1970s, she was in a highly publicized relationship with actor Daniel Olbrychski. She has three children, Jan Jasiński (born in 1979) and Katarzyna Jasińska (born in 1982) with her partner

Krzysztof Jasiński Krzysztof Jasiński (born July 21, 1943, in Borzechów) is a Polish actor, TV and theatre director.Krzysztof Jasi ...

. She also has a son Jędrzej (born in 1987) with her (now divorced) husband Andrzej Dużyński.