By Tom Faber
CSMR Editor
CHICAGO, USA -- We've never profiled a Polish performer before, but there's a first time for everything.
And if there was ever a good excuse for making a foray into the vibrant realm of Polish pop music, it is a really cute and energetic 26 year old singer who goes by the stage name of "Margaret." That's an Anglicization of her real name, Malgorzata Jamrozy.
It's proper that we should profile her on our Germanic schlager music review, because she is one of the very few Polish singers who has charted in both the German and Austrian markets - as well as having gone platinum in her native Polish music market
Margaret even appeared on Andrea Kiewel's renowned ZDF German schlager music show, Fernsehgarten - which in its 29th year is now the longest-standing schlager TV show around.
What really brought Margaret to our attention, is the fact that she is the first Polish pop singer ever to have been ranked by the US Billboard charts, albeit on their new assessment of popularity on social media - a nod to the fact that she's been getting tens of millions of hits on almost all of her You Tube videos.
Helene Fischer doesn't even get that!
Born in 1991 in Stargard Szczecinski, Poland, Margaret studied music from a very young age and specialized in the saxophone (perhaps as a homage to her Americanophilia.) She later attended the Jazz Academy in Krakow and took singing lessons from a renowned Polish voice coach.
She later majored in English studies at the University of Warsaw, which may explain her very good command of colloquial American English.
She got a degree in fashion design, as well, and became a major Polish fashion blogger.
But music became Margaret's main pursuit.
She began fronting several, kind of funky, Polish electropop bands, and due to her engagingly cute voice, also got a number of gigs singing radio and TV jingles in Poland.
In 2012, Margaret was discovered by several music promoters, who got her signed to a Swedish record label aligned to Universal Music-Poland. She then in 2013, released her first single, "Thank You Very Much,"
That song got huge airplay in her native Poland, went platinum there, and ultimately charted in the big German, Italian and Austrian music markets, as well. It's success was aided by the controversy surrounding its accompanying video, which was directed by Britney Spears' videographer and contained nudity.
In the ensuing years, Margaret released a number of singles, with generally good success and expanded her international scope by co-headlining the 2015 Top Music Festival in Wembley, England.
Of particular interest to Americans, in 2015, Margaret issued a compendium of, mostly American, jazz - easy listening, standards in a album entitled "Just the Two of Us," which went platinum - in the rather small Polish music market. (It is #21 in the world, compared to #16 for Austria, #4 for Germany, #2 for the UK and #1 for the USA.)
This Spring, Margaret is entering the Melodifestivalen competition in the hopes of representing Sweden in the annual pan-European Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in May in Lisbon.
Margaret's repertoire is eclectic. It runs the gamut from cute, quiet schlager-like pop to soft American jazz, to Rihanna-like funky, twerking music.
Margaret is genuinely interesting and definitely a figure on the Euro pop scene, well worthy of continuing attention.
Here's Margaret in her very animated O MNIE SIĘ NIE MARTW (Don't Worry About Me). It was her cover of a lead-in to a popular Polish TV show:
Here is Margaret in her cute, very poppy, Smak Radosci (Taste of Joy). If it takes on the patina of a Coca-Cola commercial, at points, it should be mentioned that Margaret is the paid endorser of Coke in Poland:
Here from Margaret's 2015 Just the Two of Us, jazz album, (done with Canadian Jazz performer, Matt Dusk) is The Girl From Ipenema - a Bossa Nova sensation that went to #5 in the US in 1964 for Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz:
Here's Margaret's 2017, very funky, Cool Me Down , which hit the airplay charts in Poland, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Romania and peaked at #14 on the US Billboard Twitter Emerging artists measure:
You can get more on Margaret at her Facebook page (she is such a millennial that she refuses to have a website and does all her contacts through social media):
https://www.facebook.com/MARGARETMUSICONLINE/
CSMR Editor
CHICAGO, USA -- We've never profiled a Polish performer before, but there's a first time for everything.
 |
| Polish Pop Phenom, Margaret |
And if there was ever a good excuse for making a foray into the vibrant realm of Polish pop music, it is a really cute and energetic 26 year old singer who goes by the stage name of "Margaret." That's an Anglicization of her real name, Malgorzata Jamrozy.
It's proper that we should profile her on our Germanic schlager music review, because she is one of the very few Polish singers who has charted in both the German and Austrian markets - as well as having gone platinum in her native Polish music market
Margaret even appeared on Andrea Kiewel's renowned ZDF German schlager music show, Fernsehgarten - which in its 29th year is now the longest-standing schlager TV show around.
What really brought Margaret to our attention, is the fact that she is the first Polish pop singer ever to have been ranked by the US Billboard charts, albeit on their new assessment of popularity on social media - a nod to the fact that she's been getting tens of millions of hits on almost all of her You Tube videos.
Helene Fischer doesn't even get that!
Born in 1991 in Stargard Szczecinski, Poland, Margaret studied music from a very young age and specialized in the saxophone (perhaps as a homage to her Americanophilia.) She later attended the Jazz Academy in Krakow and took singing lessons from a renowned Polish voice coach.
She later majored in English studies at the University of Warsaw, which may explain her very good command of colloquial American English.
She got a degree in fashion design, as well, and became a major Polish fashion blogger.
But music became Margaret's main pursuit.
 |
| Margaret - from quiet jazz to funky twerking |
She began fronting several, kind of funky, Polish electropop bands, and due to her engagingly cute voice, also got a number of gigs singing radio and TV jingles in Poland.
In 2012, Margaret was discovered by several music promoters, who got her signed to a Swedish record label aligned to Universal Music-Poland. She then in 2013, released her first single, "Thank You Very Much,"
That song got huge airplay in her native Poland, went platinum there, and ultimately charted in the big German, Italian and Austrian music markets, as well. It's success was aided by the controversy surrounding its accompanying video, which was directed by Britney Spears' videographer and contained nudity.
In the ensuing years, Margaret released a number of singles, with generally good success and expanded her international scope by co-headlining the 2015 Top Music Festival in Wembley, England.
Of particular interest to Americans, in 2015, Margaret issued a compendium of, mostly American, jazz - easy listening, standards in a album entitled "Just the Two of Us," which went platinum - in the rather small Polish music market. (It is #21 in the world, compared to #16 for Austria, #4 for Germany, #2 for the UK and #1 for the USA.)
This Spring, Margaret is entering the Melodifestivalen competition in the hopes of representing Sweden in the annual pan-European Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in May in Lisbon.
Margaret's repertoire is eclectic. It runs the gamut from cute, quiet schlager-like pop to soft American jazz, to Rihanna-like funky, twerking music.
Margaret is genuinely interesting and definitely a figure on the Euro pop scene, well worthy of continuing attention.
Here's Margaret in her very animated O MNIE SIĘ NIE MARTW (Don't Worry About Me). It was her cover of a lead-in to a popular Polish TV show:
Here is Margaret in her cute, very poppy, Smak Radosci (Taste of Joy). If it takes on the patina of a Coca-Cola commercial, at points, it should be mentioned that Margaret is the paid endorser of Coke in Poland:
Here from Margaret's 2015 Just the Two of Us, jazz album, (done with Canadian Jazz performer, Matt Dusk) is The Girl From Ipenema - a Bossa Nova sensation that went to #5 in the US in 1964 for Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz:
Here's Margaret's 2017, very funky, Cool Me Down , which hit the airplay charts in Poland, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Romania and peaked at #14 on the US Billboard Twitter Emerging artists measure:
You can get more on Margaret at her Facebook page (she is such a millennial that she refuses to have a website and does all her contacts through social media):
https://www.facebook.com/MARGARETMUSICONLINE/