Helena Majdaniec by Truus, Bob & Jan too! Via Flickr: Vintage East-German postcard. VEB Progress, Starfoto 2193. Photo by Balinski. NB Majdaniec's name is misspelled on this card. Helena Majdaniec (5 October 1941 – 18 January 2002) was a Polish big beat singer and film actor, "the queen of Polish Twist". Helena Majdaniec cooperated with Niebiesko-Czarni, Czerwono-Czarni, Karin Stanek, Olivia Newton-John, Cliff Richard and Demis Roussos. She performed mainly in Szczecin and Paris. Born officially in the village of Mylsk in Polish territory occupied by Nazi Germany (now in Ukraine), Helena Majdaniec grew up in Szczecin, where she completed her schooling with music lessons at a local conservatoire. She made her public debut in 1962 in Szczecin in student clubs. In 1962 she performed at the Sopot Festival and in 1963 at the Opole Festival. In 1963 she recorded her first album. In the 1960s, she sang at the Olympia in Paris and toured Poland, as well as Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Sweden. She worked with groups such as Radiowy Zespół M-2, the Czerwono-Czarni (1962) and the Niebiesko-Czarni (1964), Ricercar 64, Studio Rytm and composers Piotr Figl and Bogusław Klimczuk. Majdaniec' main hits of the 1960s in Poland were: Rudy rydz/ Jutro będzie dobry dzień/ Czarny Alibaba/ Happy End/ Zakochani są wśród nas/ Wesoły twist. Helena Majdaniec has also acted in a few films, notably by Janusz Nasfeter (Zbrodniarz i panna/ The Murderer and the Girl, 1953), in which she sang Happy End, and Kazimierz Kutz (Ktokolwiek wie.../ Whoever May Know, 1966). In Germany she performed as herself in The Beat-Club (1966) and the Rudi Carrell Show (1965) and acted in the TV movie Titel hab' ich noch nicht (1964) by Ulrich Thein. In 1968, Majdaniec moved to France to live in Paris, where she found engagements in the cabarets "Rasputin", "Shéhérazade", "Tsarevitch", where she gained a good reputation singing in Russian, and took part in several radio and television shows. She took part in the Rose d'Or festival in Antibes alongside Olivia Newton-John, Cliff Richard and Demis Roussos. She also performed in Canada, Kuwait and Morocco. In the 1970s, she took part in the 50 Years of Polish Songs concerts in Poland and the United States. She returned to Poland more regularly from 1990 onwards, although she still maintained her main residence in Paris. Two days after taking part with another former Polish star of the 1960s and 1970s, Karin Stanek, in a very popular television programme, she died suddenly on 18 January 2002 in her family home in Szczecin. The Szczecin Summer Theatre is named after her. Sources: English, Polish and French Wikipedia, IMDb. The song Happy End: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmEEiUzXRgI
