Guest Post: EWA ANGELI

Featured Guest Post: Ewa Angeli

At Got Your Head in the Clouds, we like to get inside of an artist's mind. These formative questions help bring insight to an artist's music and often adds an element of surprise. In today's Featured Guest post we have Polish artist Ewa Angeli.

Topic Question: What was your inspiration behind translating these classic Polish Christmas songs into English for a wider audience? What memories do these songs bring to you?

EWA:

EWA ANGELI is an accomplished multidimensional pop artist with a splendid, memorable, and increasingly acclaimed voice. While she hails from Poland, Ewa writes and performs in English, and her writing includes formidable collaborators, as do her recordings. Her increasing emphasis is pop/romantic ballads, and she has received critical recognition for her work. One critic notes that Ewa’s vocals allow her to draw and hold a crowd regardless of what she sings, in any genre.

Growing-up in Poland, Ewa hungrily sought and listened to American jazz and pop. She was inspired by many artists, all of them American, including Eva Cassidy, Sade, Bonnie Raitt, and many others.

Her listening skills are not limited to music. Ewa’s attentiveness and quick, yet thoughtful, answers make her a fine interview subject. She is relaxed, confident and charismatic onstage and off. Her conversational accent is charming. As a lead singer with unique and effective elements of style and voice, Ewa mesmerizes audiences and fills dance floors. Committed and hard-working, steadily building a following and fan base, Ewa attracts music industry and fan attention throughout Europe and the U.S.

Ewa Angeli’s album “In Night’s Still Silence” introduces to the world the traditional Polish Christmas Carols recorded in English for the first time in history. Reaching back as far as to XVIII century these beautiful Christmas Carols in traditional and contemporary arrangements bring to the world the magnificence of Christian tradition of Christmas. The album is titled after one of the carols “In Night’s Still Silence.” Polish tradition is very rich with well over 2,000 Christmas Carols. She selected 12 the most beautiful and popular ones. Her choice was limited to those that were already translated into English. Polish immigrants to Minnesota after II World War in 1949 published first translations of Polish Christmas Carols. She based mainly on those old translations except “Once a Beautiful Lady” which is her favorite. Unfortunately this one was not translated to English yet so she had to do it herself.

The idea of recording this album was inspired by realizing that Polish traditional carols had never been recorded and sung in English before. She thought it would be great to do it, especially that the songs are very beautiful and unique. Also, they can help second generation of Poles understand and feel closer to their Polish roots. Through this album, as being Polish she can share with others my Polish roots and tradition. The Polish Catholic tradition is full of amazing songs about the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The interpretation as well as very interesting musical arrangements let us rediscover the beauty of Christmas carols sung for centuries by Polish people. These songs bring her childhood memories. The Christmas time she used to spend with her family and friends. She remembers helping her mother preparing 12 traditional Christmas meals for the

Christmas Eve dinner, waiting for Santa Claus, making a snowman, singing Christmas Carols, and of course having lots of fun.