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Polish Tango: Hanka Ordonówna - Milongera, 1930

4,935 views · Published 5 October 2014 · 2:58 · Indexed 6 November 2026

Channel: 240252 · 2014 · Music

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Milongera – tango: Hanka Ordonówna & Chór Dana z akordeonem, Syrena-Electro 1930 (Polish)

NOTE: Hanka Ordonówna, the No 1 diva of prewar Polish song – had a tiny voice yet so perfectly trained (she took singing lessons from the legendary Yvette Guilbert in Paris), that she was able to portray with her singing the deepest and the most subtle shades of human heart’s feelings. Therefore, each song she performed was more than just singing: through her artistry, it was polished into a precise form of a little emotional gem, like a well constructed poem or a short story. Her highest success, which guaranteed her immortality in history of the Polish singing – was an evergreen “Milość ci wszystko wybaczy” (All Will Be Forgiven By Love) she performed in a 1933 thriller movie “Szpieg w masce” (A Masked Spy). Best composers and best writers, including such most distinguished Polish poets like Julian Tuwim or Marian Hemar – simply struggled to have their music or their lyrics performed by Ordonówna. Her happy marriage to one of the top-flight Polish aristocrats, Earl Michał Tyszkiewicz not only hadn’t in the least excluded her from the artistic life but on the contrary - considering the fact, her husband was a talented author of many of her lyrics - it contributed to strengthening her position in prewar artistic world of Poland. All that abruptly ended in September 1939, when Michal was mobilized and she had to flee from the bombed Warsaw to Wilno. Shortly later, after annexation of Wilno by the Soviets in 1940, she was arrested by the Soviet secret police and sent to a Gulag, while her husband was also arrested as a war captive and was lost in the unfathomable depths of Soviet prison system. It was not until the end of the war when they two were back together and in 1944 they managed to get out from Soviet hell, to begin the new life. But it did not last long. Renewed tuberculosis killed Ordonówna in exile in Beirut, in 1950.

 "Milongera" - with the lyrics written by poet Julian Tuwim - was one of top hits of the revue "Coś wisi w powietrzu" (Something Is In  the Air) which was presented in 1930 on stage of the Warsaw cabaret Qui pro Quo. That Argentine tango - played exclusively on a single accordion - is a magnificent display of vocal artistry of Ordonówna, who is accompanied with no less talent by Chór Dana (- the best Polish revelers before 1939).

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