Budka Suflera and Jacek Kawalec will combine forces, but there will be three singers. Who are Robert ¯arczyñski and Irena Michalska?

The official website of the band lists all of Budka Suflera’s lineups that have changed over the years. The most recent, however, is the one from 2019, when Romuald Lipko was still alive, the composer of most of the group’s hits and an author who also wrote for others (“Nothing Can Last Forever” for Anna Jantar, “Aleja Gwiazd” for Zdzisława Sośnicka or “All I Want Today” for Izabela Trojanowska). Rafał Żarczyński is mentioned here as the singer.

Robert Żarczyński, a historian at Budka Suflera

What do we learn from Budka Suflera’s website?

Born in 1966, guitarist and vocalist. Resident of the Lubuskie Voivodeship. The main initiator of the creation of the Budka Band, with which he performed at the Sufler Rock Festival 2016 in Piekary Śląskie. It was there that, together with the team, he received the main prize from the jury, including Tomasz Zeliszewski and Mieczysław Jurecki. In 2017, he performed at the Solo Życia festival on Polish Radio Lublin. Music is his passion from an early age.

You can read from Wikipedia that he became a fan of Budka Suflera as a teenager, and is a history teacher by education. Żarczyński made his debut as the vocalist of Budka Suflera in 2019 with the performance of the premiere song with the music of Romek Lipko and the words of Marek Dutkiewicz “If tomorrow was not”, which has been shown on YouTube over 2.5 million times since its premiere. It was also then that the guitarists Dariusz Bafeltowski and Piotr Bogutyn took part in the recording for the first time.

“Robert has a voice with a distinctive, recognizable timbre. He is rhythmically brilliant, he is a sensitive artist with an excellent sense of the stage and an excellent distance to Lipko’s composition, which was pointed out by the composer himself” – his band mates. He has already played with them on the tour, during which he was a guest artist. With Andrzejczak, the band released the album “10 lat samotności” in 2020.

A beautiful cellist, this time not with the Skalds, but with Budka Suflera

Irena Michalska is only 18 years old and comes from Nowy Sącz. She is this year’s high school graduate, she is also studying at the 2nd degree music school (cello). He has, among others, the main prize at the Jonasz Kofta “My Freedom 2021” – and it was then that the bassist of Budka Suflera, Mieczysław Jurecki, was to attract the attention. Michalska has already performed with Budka Suflera last year at a concert dedicated to the memory of Romuald Lipko in the Saski Garden in Lublin. – It is a tradition of the Budka Suflera ensemble to give chances to vocally gifted young people. Especially Romuald Lipko wanted such activity. For this reason, the Budka Suflera team once promoted Urszula or Felicjan Andrzejczak. Currently, we want to give such a chance to the incredibly gifted singing and acting Irena Michalska, who wins every singing competition she appears at and, despite her young age, makes a great impression on the audience – said Jurecki, and Michalska added:

Contrary to appearances, the young generation does not only listen to what is currently fashionable, but rediscovers the music that their parents were fans of. While preparing songs composed by Romuald Lipko, I tried to reinterpret them in such a way that they could become the voice of the young. I am very glad that I got the chance to face this repertoire and to present myself to a wider audience at such an important event for the city of Lublin, which is the naming of the Concert Shell of the Saxon Garden in the name of Romuald Lipko.

It turned out that the adventure did not end at one concert.

Jacek Kawalec will make his stage debut with Budka Suflera at the final of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity

All three will perform on January 30 in Legnica during the final of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity. – Just like on the album, I will not be the only vocalist because the band is still working with Robert Żaczyński and Irenka Michalska. I will perform “Sen o dolinie”, “Goodbye to my city” from these old works by Budka, as well as “There is such a lonely house” and “Fifth Run” with Irena and Robert. Together with Robert we will also sing “Your Radio”, and if we manage temporarily before the light to heaven, it will also be one of the most beautiful songs from Budka’s repertoire – “Noc nad Norwidem” – said Kawalec in an interview with Gazeta.pl. – For sure we will also perform these songs during concerts, when we are already performing with new material – he added.

Budka Suflera was founded in 1974 by Romuald Lipko and Krzysztof Cugowski, but from 1978 the group played without the latter. Felicjan Andrzejczak was the vocalist of Budka Suflera in the years 1982-83, then he recorded with the band incl. hits “Jolka, Jolka you remember” and “Night of the comet”. The album that he recorded with the band at the time did not come out because Cugowski returned to the band. After rearranging the songs, the band released in 1984 the album “Czas Czekania, czas glaśienia”. Budka Suflera with Krzysztof Cugowski as the vocalist said goodbye to the fans in 2014 with a concert in Lublin, but in 2019 Romuald Lipko announced the group’s return to the stage.