Fryderyka Elkana’s career began in 1961, when she performed in the cabaret of the Warsaw student club Stodoła. Immediately afterwards, her talent was appreciated at the Student Cabaret Festival in Częstochowa. There, Agnieszka Osiecka noticed her. It was she who persuaded Freda, then 19, to participate in the 1st National Festival of Polish Song in Opole in 1963. The song “Czarna Mańka”, written especially for her by Agnieszka, brought Elkana distinction and opened the door to a great career.
A year later, Fryderyka returned to Opole, where she sang “From the White Dunes”. Thanks to this hit, she received an invitation to the International Song Festival in Sopot. She sang “Song from the Suburbs” on the Sopot stage and that was the moment when her fame crossed the border of the People’s Republic of Poland. It was after this performance that the manager of the famous Parisian Olympia became interested in her. Elkana went to perform in France.
Career abroad and return to Poland
After successes in Paris, Elkana recorded her first album and began touring in Europe. After returning to Poland, she played with famous jazz bands, including: Janusz Zabiegliński’s swingtet and the band of Zbigniew Namysłowski and Włodzimierz Nahorny. Freda’s newly discovered passion for jazz soon led to her singing alongside Urszula Dudziak.
Lucjan Kydryński described Fryderyka Elkana as a unique artist who maintained independence and authenticity. Unfortunately, her defiance was not in line with the political realities of the time – she was censored in the public media.
Despite this, Andrzej Wajda cast her as the Witch in the television play “Macbeth”, and Ryszard Pluciński engaged her in the film “Concert on 707 Streets”.
The reality of communist Poland turned out to be unbearable in the long run. In 1969, after marrying caricaturist Janusz Majewski, Fryderyka decided to end her stage career. She emigrated to Sweden, where she settled in the south of the country and focused on family life and raising her son, Marcus.
Mysterious disappearance and unclear information about the Polish star
After Fryderyk Elkana moved to Sweden, she gradually disappeared from public life. In 2013, the media reported unconfirmed information about her death. However, the artist’s relatives never confirmed these reports. There is very little activity on her official Facebook profile. In 2012, an entry appeared in which the artist promised: “I haven’t written to you for a long time. I have to improve. From today there will be no such breaks.” Then nothing appears for the next eight years, until in 2020 the fanpage shares Janusz Bogacki’s old memories.
So what happens to Fryderyka Elkana? It remains a mystery.