Since what should have been Valinka’s seventy-first birthday this time last year another couple of celebrities who share that birthday have come onto my radar, both remarkably linked to the female music scene of the satellite nations of the former Soviet Bloc, in the case of one of them in a past-times sense of the expression.
The other noteworthy aspect of this pair of personalities is that they are mother and daughter, specifically, respectively, Doina Spătaru and Mălina Olinescu. The perhaps yet more striking aspect about this couple of 29th January-born celebrities is that the former is still with us on Planet Earth while the latter tragically took her own life aged just thirty-seven. This occasion has been celebrated in Doina’s case and marked in Mălina’s over at this post at the ‘Sister Blog’ to ‘Bananas For Breakfast’, ‘Girls Of The Golden East’.
As this song performed by Valinka, in the Czech-language lyrics to Peter Magain’s tune by Miloš Dražil, deals with the mother/daughter relationship and also as the original version had been in Romanian, performed by Dida Drăgan and, furthermore, as this particular performance of the song was in the year of Mălina Olinescu’s birth, meaning, of course, that she should have been celebrating her half-century today, here is a selection of stills from Valinka’s ‘Věřím’ (‘I Believe’), from 15th August of that year, on the Slovak Television show, ‘Interparáda č. 9’ (‘Interparade No. 9’) taken from an album at my ‘The Curves Man’ Flickr.
Here is a video of the above stills in glorious action from the similarly all-too-early departed ‘RETRO SLOVAK’ YouTube channel host, Tomáš Hurtešák, who, like Mălina, left us in their thirties. To Slovaks, Valinka will forever be ‘Valéria’, as her name was in her Hungarian-Slovak childhood in Michalovce, before Prague came beckoning and Valéria had to ‘go Czech’ as Valérie.
Here is an ImTranslator translation of Miloš Dražil’s lyrics.
Ráda vzpomínám na ten dům
Ze svých dětských dnů
Stůl tam tenkrát voněl kávou
A já šla dál mokrou trávou
Velikou jsem měla touhu dávnou
Sama si odpověď najít správnou
Dalekou jsem prošla cestu sráznou
Věřím i když dál mám náruč prázdnou
I remember that house fondly
From my childhood days
The table smelled of coffee back then
And I kept walking through the wet grass
I had a great longing
Find the right answer yourself
I have traveled a long and steep road
I believe even if my arms are still empty
Snad jednou sny vrátím
Zpátky ke svým stráním
Zase chci být se svou mámou
A slyšet znít píseň známou
Poběžím jak vítr za svým přáním
Dojetím se slzám neubráním
Poletím jak pták si cestu zkrátím
Ráda ráda mámo já se vrátím
Maybe one day I’ll get my dreams back
Back to my neighbourhood
I want to be with my mom again
And hear a familiar song
I will run like the wind after my wish
I can’t help but cry with emotion
I will fly like a bird to shorten my journey
I’m happy mum I’ll be back
Křídla dám svým přáním
Vráskám a šedým skráním
Až budu stát před svou mámou
A slyšet hrát píseň známou
Poběžím jak vítr za svým přáním
Dojetím se slzám neubráním
Poletím jak pták si cestu zkrátím
Ráda ráda mámo já se vrátím ….
I will give wings to my wishes
Wrinkles and grey hair
When I stand in front of my mom
And hear a familiar song playing
I will run like the wind after my wish
I can’t help but cry with emotion
I will fly like a bird to shorten my journey
I’m happy mum I’ll be back ….
Courtesy of this page at Aleš Korábek’s Fan Site for Valérie Čižmárová.
I hope that ‘Bananas For Breakfast’ Blog readers find this performance as visually and aurally stunning as I do!
'Bananas For Breakfast' - Fan Blog for Valérie ('Valinka') Čižmárová 