Jacek Kaczmarski

Jacek Marcin Kaczmarski ['jat͡sɛk kat͡ʂˈmarskʲi] (22 March 1957 – 10 April 2004) was a Polish singer, songwriter, poet and author.

Life

He was the son of painter Anna Trojanowska-Kaczmarska, a Pole of Jewish background, and the artist Janusz Kaczmarski.

Kaczmarski was a voice of the Solidarity trade union movement in 1980s Poland. His songs criticized the ruling communist regime and appealed to the tradition of patriotic resistance within Poles. He remains best known for his protest songs on social and political subjects ("Mury" (Walls) based on "L'Estaca" by Lluís Llach, "Obława" (Wolf hunt (lit. Raid))). However, his commentary was not restricted to contemporary politics, and his texts' themes have retained their relevance in Polish culture beyond the collapse of the Soviet Union and its communist bloc.

He made his debut in 1977 at the Student Song Festival, where he was awarded first prize for his work "Obława" based on the song "Охота на волков" by Vladimir Vysotsky. In 1980 he won second prize at the Opole Song Festival for "Epitafium dla Włodzimierza Wysockiego" (Epitaph for Vladimir Vysotsky).

Kaczmarski was on tour in France when the martial law was declared in Poland in December 1981. He lived in exile until 1990. During these years he gave concerts in Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and Israel. From 1982 on, he worked as an editor and journalist with Radio Free Europe and hosted his own radio program, "Kwadrans Jacka Kaczmarskiego" (Fifteen Minutes with Jacek Kaczmarski).