Maria Antonina Rodowicz, known professionally as Maryla Rodowicz, (<small>Polish pronunciation</small>: born 8 December 1945 in Zielona Góra), is a Polish singer, guitarist and actress.
Throughout over 60 years of her career, she released twenty Polish and four foreign-language studio albums including five with platinum and three with gold certifications and selling over 15 million records. Known for her close collaboration with Agnieszka Osiecka and Seweryn Krajewski, her most popular songs include "Maà Âgoà Âka" (1974), "Futbol" (1974), "Remedium" (1978), "Niech à ¼yje bal" (1984), "à Âatwopalni" (1997) and "Wszyscy chcàkochaÃÂ" (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 â Gloria Artis.
Originally the Rodowicz family came from Vilnius. Her father worked at the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius before the Second World War and her grandparents were the owners of a pharmacy near the famous Gate of Dawn. Rodowicz studied at Liceum Ziemi Kujawskiej (Cuiavian Land High School) in Wà Âocà Âawek 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 Wà Âocà Âawek.
Her career began in 1967, after winning first prize at the Festiwal Piosenki i Piosenkarzy Studenckich (Student Songs and Singers' Festival) in Kraków. Two years later she recorded her first well-known song, "Mówià Ây mu" ("The girls told him", English version known as "Love Doesn't Grow On Trees"), and in 1970 â her first longplay. In 1973, she gained popularity with the song "Maà Âgoà Âka" with lyrics by Agnieszka Osiecka. A year later, during the World Cup Opening Ceremony in Munich, 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 "Maà Âgoà Âka", the artist's most famous songs are "Niech à ¼yje bal" ("Long live the ball"), "To juà ¼ byà Âo" ("Done that"), "Wielka Woda" ("Great water"), "Rozmowa przez ocean" ("Talk over the ocean"), "Bossanova do poduszki" ("Bedside bossa nova"), "à Âatwopalni" ("Inflammables") and her latest album's hits such as "Wszyscy chcàkochaÃÂ" ("Everybody wants to love") and "BÃÂdzie co ma byÃÂ" ("What is to be, will be"). In 2005 she recorded an album Kochaà(To love) with lyrics by Katarzyna Nosowska. 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, Tulsa, and Los Angeles, 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 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 zastÃÂpcza (Foster Family).
In 1992 she released her autobiography under the title of Niech à ¼yje bal.
She was featured in a 2012 episode of the Polish Name That Tune, known as Jaka to Melodia, 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 as a coach, replacing Izabela Trojanowska. Her life and music career was the subject of a documentary film entitled Maryla. Tak kochaà Âam aired by TVP1 channel in December the same year.
The notable Polish Madonna written by Agnieszka Osiecka (an emotional portrait of an average Polish woman trying to make ends meet) contains clear Catholic symbolism and references to the social circumstances characteristic to Poland in the late eighties that marked the last years of the communist era in Poland. 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 "made in France" can only come true in her dreams. The song won the journalists' prize at the Opole festival in 1987.
In mid-1970s, she was in a highly publicized relationship with actor Daniel Olbrychski. She has three children, Jan Jasià Âski (born in 1979) and Katarzyna Jasià Âska (born in 1982) with her partner and later husband, Krzysztof Jasià Âski. She also has a son JÃÂdrzej (born in 1987) with her (now divorced) second husband, Andrzej Duà ¼yà Âski.