Polish people had a chance finally to see the Czech musician
Ivan Mládek whose song
Yozhin from the Bog (
Jožin z bažin ) caused a mass rave in the country. In Opole in the south of Poland, Mr Mládek faced photoflashes and chanting of "Yozhin is here".
The song composed for a demijohn of prune alcohol (Slivovitz) as reward thirty-odd years ago was recently winning all the hit parades in Poland, so the singer/composer decided to perform live with his Banjo Band for the inauguration of an exhibition in Opole. It took some time, though, for him to be aware that the song was really so popular in Poland. "I thought it was a joke, but it transpired that was not so, strangely enough," Mr Mládek explained. "It was a really enormous surprise."
At the sports hall in Opole, people were waiting for the performance with great expectations. Soon after the first jokes and songs, nevertheless, the audience started to applaud - not only the singer who was able to surprise the audience with his knowledge of Polish language, but also Mr Ivo Pešák for his dance creations.
The popularity of Mládek's song, that has been spreading throughout Poland thanks to the Internet, was further confirmed by the quantity of invitations to more performances. "I will probably be playing in Poland from now on at least once every month until September," Mr Mládek explained his plans.
His first Polish tour in years will take him to Poznan in the North, to the capital Warsaw and to Kielce. He will be singing some songs in Polish. "It was not difficult to learn to sing the main song in Polish from the sheet, but a whole two hour programme might be more difficult," he said.
Besides the concerts, people in Poland (who keep downloading Mr Mládek's most popular song to their mobile phones, dance to it at the discos and hum it along at their workplace) can look forward to a special recording.
February 22, 2008, kot, Mf Dnes