She performed alongside Frank Sinatra and died poor and forgotten. Few knew her real name

née Cieślak, because that was the real name of the singer, she was born on June 10, 1938 in Belgium, but 8 years later she moved with her family to Lewin Kłodzki. She has been passionate about the stage since she was a child. She learned to play the violin, piano and trombone, and also sang in the choir. Although she could successfully perform in the opera, she chose a different path.

She performed not only in Poland, but also abroad. Millions of people loved Violetta Villas

She made her debut on the stage in 1960 in a Polish Radio broadcast and already then Władysław Szpilman foretold her a world career. He suggested that she adopt a pseudonym, because her real name could cause trouble for foreigners. His predictions were correct. Until the mid-1960s, she won the hearts of Polish listeners, and later, as , she began performing in the French Olympia and set out to conquer Las Vegas. The press quickly dubbed her the “voice of the atomic age” and the “white raven of world vocals”.

She was distinguished not only by her four-octave voice, which drove fans crazy, but also by her unique, for those times, presence. She wore monstrous dresses, lush blonde curls, and seduced men with a fan of false eyelashes. Over the years of her career, she has released as many as 8 studio albums, one live album and 8 mini-albums. She sang not only pop, but also opera arias, pre-war tangos, jazz, sung poetry and sacred music.

She saw enemies in everyone. She loved animals and trusted only the housekeeper

With the passage of years and failures in love (she had three failed marriages behind her), Villas began to isolate herself more and more from the world. She wanted to feel free, she had enough limitations. She enjoyed animals, which she took in to her house in Magdalenka near Warsaw. Later, she moved to her family home in Lewin Kłodzki and opened a shelter. Over 150 cats, 300 dogs and other animals were under her care, including m. goats. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the funds to feed them, let alone pay for necessary veterinary treatments. She hired her friend, Elżbieta, to help, but the woman was also unable to cope with the constantly multiplying duties.

In 2006, Villas was committed to a psychiatric hospital and the animals at her shelter were taken away. After leaving the facility, she considered everyone enemies, she trusted only the housekeeper, whom she took under her roof. The woman was supposed to look after her, make sure she took her medications as prescribed by the doctors. What was their life like together? It still remains a mystery. It is known, however, that the singer behaved more and more disturbingly, as her son Krzysztof was informed by the neighbors. “I love all that is humiliated, rejected, degraded, trampled,” as her pack of dogs and cats reappeared, and she came out of the dilapidated house to them wearing white fur and headdresses. died on December 5, 2011, and the cause of her death remains unexplained to this day. The artist’s firstborn accused her babysitter of neglect. A court battle began, during which Elżbieta B. was accused of mental and physical abuse of the star and was imprisoned for 1.5 years.