Eva Olmerová
| Eva Olmerová | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Born | 21 January 1934 |
| Origin | Prague, Czechoslovakia |
| Died | 10 August 1993 (aged 59) |
| Genres |
Jazz Pop music |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
Eva Olmerová (21 January 1934 – 10 August 1993) was a Czech pop and jazz singer. She is regarded as one of the greatest Czech jazz singers of all time.
Eva Olmerová was born in Prague in 1934. She started piano lessons at the age of 6, as a pupil of Aurelie Káanová-Bubnová. After World War II her grandparents returned from London, where her grandfather had worked with Edvard Beneš, president of the exiled Czechoslovak government. Her parents divorced in 1948, when she was fourteen.
She remained with her father. At his cottage in village Třebsín near Štěchovice she had first-hand experience of the tramping movement and began to sing folk songs with guitar accompaniment. In the early 1950s she became involved in Prague's jazz scene and performed with the Arnošt Kavka Band. In 1951, in her seventeen years, she was arrested by the Czechoslovak state security service, in connection with her grandfather's political activities and her uncle Otmar Kučera's wartime service as Commander of 313 Squadron RAF. At the police station she experienced degrading treatment: she was forced to undress, then interrogated. Later, in 1958, she attacked and slapped a policeman and was jailed for fourteen months.
In 1952, she married for the first time but was soon divorced. For a while she earned a living as a professional singer in the bars of Prague. In 1962, the composer Karel Mareš offered her an engagement with the Semafor Theatre. Olmerová agreed, but this promising start was sabotaged when her "criminal past" was revealed in anonymous letters. Her performance of the Mareš song Jsi jako dlouhý most ("You're Like A Bridge So Long") won her the Czechoslovak song competition Hledáme písničku pro všední den ("In search of a song for the weekday"). She was otherwise banned from public performance in Prague.
Towards the end of 1963 the official restrictions imposed on Olmerová's career were eased. She began a collaboration with the Traditional Jazz Studio, worked occasionally with other music ensembles and was also allowed to perform regularly in the Theatre on the Balustrade, where she met and formed a friendship with Václav Havel, the later Czechoslovak and Czech president. In 1965 she married again. This marriage ended with her husband's emigration after less than a year. Olmerová began to use phenmetrazine in combination with alcohol - she sought psychiatric help but her use of alcohol and drugs would continue to dog her career.
...
Wikipedia