I
Marika Gombitová

About:

12 September 1956

Marika Gombitová was born in the village of Turany Ondavou, Slovakia as one of five: she has one sister and three brothers. She studied mechanical engineering and began singing in a group with her brothers in the early seventies. Later she was discovered singing in Kosice by Janko Lehotský, who was forming a new group of players into what would become the band Modus. The original – and most successful - formation of Modus consisted of Lehotský, Žbirka, Lučenič and Gombitová.

During her time with Modus, she also released several solo albums, on which the members of Modus contributed and participated. Later on Marika Gombitová recorded more songs, written and composed by herself.

The song ‘Vyznanie’ (‘Confession’) from the album ‘Dievča do dažďa’ became an instant success in 1979 and Marika Gombitová became one of the leading pop singers in Slowakia. Her very promising career was adversely affected on 30 November 1980 by a tragic car accident. Gombitová remained confined to a wheelchair. After a few months of recovery, she returned to singing successfully. In 1981 she contributed to the musical ‘Do not take our princess’, together with Mary Rotrova and Miro Žbirka. In the mid eighties, Marika Gombitová quit her participation in Modus and focused on her solo career. She released some very modern, electronic albums during the eighties. Nevertheless, her physical condition forced her to withdraw from public life in the late 1990s.

Although she had to withdraw from public live, her songs are part of the Slovak music history and they remain very popular, receiving a lot of airplay on the national radio stations. In 2007 election of the ‘Slovakian song of the century’, her outstanding interpretation of ‘Vyznanie’, written by Ján Lehotský and Kamil Peteraj, ended in first position. More than 30% of the tv-audience voted for this classic song, which was first performed at the Bratislavská lýra song contest in 1979.

On the web:

- Marika Gombitova's website: http://marikagombitova.com

If you like this, you probably like... / european counterparts:

Hana Zagorová (Czech Republic)

What do we think:

PA: Marika has a very high pitched voice, that took me quite some time to get used to. (Apparently, this is a singing style that is common in these parts of Europe.) Now that I have, I really appreciate her songs and albums. Her earlier albums (with members from Modus) are very melodically and have immediate emotional impact. On her albums from the eighties, she recorded more of her own songs and she really experimented with electronic arrangements, resulting in a strange but intriguing mixture that sounds like Kylie Minogue singing with Erasure – but then with Slowakian lyrics of course. ‘Vyznanie’ is a classic Europop-torch song that somehow reminds me of Bette Midler’s ‘The rose’. Very worth while discovering!

Albums:

With Modus:

Modus - 1979

♪♪♪ - Balíček snov (Packet of dreams)-1980

99 zápaliek (99 matches) -1981

Záhradná kaviareň (Garden Cafe) -1983

Solo:

♪♪♪♪♪ - Dievča do dažďa (Raincoats for girls) – 1979

♪♪♪ - Môj malý príbeh (My little story) - 1981

♪♪♪ - Slnečný kalendár (The solar calendar) - 1982

Mince na dne fontán (The coins at the bottom of fountains) - 1983

♪♪♪ - Marika No. 5 - 1984

Voľné miesto v srdci (Vacant space in the heart ) - 1986

Ateliér duše (Studio Soul) - 1987

Kam idú ľudia? (Where do people go?) - 1990

Zostaň (Stay) - 1994

English albums:

Rainy Day Girl - 1980; My friend the tree - 1984; Marika No. 5 - 1984

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♪♪♪♪♪ = outstanding album, an absolute must-have
♪♪♪♪ = great album, highly recomended
♪♪♪ = nice album
♪♪ = be careful, requires listening before buying
♪ = best to be avoided