From Yiddish Folk to Tango

From Yiddish folk to tango

This is the approach also taken by Polish-Israeli singer Olga Mieleszczuk, who performs in Yiddish and Polish in order to demonstrate the interaction of different cultures in the interwar period. She also uses international styles and approaches to evoke the cosmopolitanism of the era.

“I’m performing Polish tangos with a bandoneon, which is classic for Argentinian tango and it wasn’t used in interwar Poland almost at all,” explains the singer. “Despite the uniqueness of Polish tango, tango pieces of Buenos Aires were a constant source of inspiration for the composers of the Polish tango. In our repertoire, we also have few interwar tangos from Buenos Aires with Polish lyrics written especially by Piotr Stratus.”