And the Queen of Queens (well, I would say The Queen of Gypsies, for she was the only one from all the female performers to deserve this title, in my humble opinion): Esma Redzepova.

There could be pages and pages told about this charismatic lady from Macedonia, please check out her website at www.esma.com.mk

The whole evening with such a powerful, lively show was a real highlight for Stockholm (there should be much more of this kind of concerts, to shake up this cold North a bit...!!!) Let me just give you my personal impressions only about Esma's appearance, in a few words - more I can't find to express it all...

It happened to me.

What is it? Many times when I sing, I can see tears in peoples' eyes, they come to me to tell how grateful they are, what feelings I gave them with my songs - the most fantastic moments for a singer, to see others touched by something you do.

At those moments, I could imagine their states of mind, for I often have the same when I listen to music, I can be very emotional about it. But: it was still not completely real for me how my listeners felt, for I have known this only from instrumental music. I can't recall any singer alive whose voice has ever reached to my heart so deeply that it brought out my tears - and believe me, I have done quite some listening, including some of the biggest names, live...

So now it happened to me.

In the very first song when Esma stepped on the stage (stepped? is that a satisfactory word about a Queen, a real Dame, a phenomenon?), she did it to me. Letting her soul out with that powerful voice penetrated the innermost core of my being, and my feelings and thoughts had to flow out...

What an inspiration...!!! I was flying high the whole evening, and ever since, when I just think of those moments or listen to the recordings I caught with my mobile...

I am not Gypsy myself, but love their culture, the music and the dances, it's an unbelievably rich source material for me that I try to weave into my performances. Have seen many of their folks singing, dancing and playing, on stage or at parties, but from this moment on, with these three or four songs from Esma, probably a new world opened for me as a singer.

If this is something that I can also give to others (and from the feedback, apparently I can...), this is what I wanna do in my whole life, as long as I am able to.

Thank you so much, Esma, with my greatest respect and admiration!!! Wish you good health and that people of the world can hear you for many, many years to come!

(She performed yesterday in Pécs (Hungary), if someone attended, I would love to hear about how was it)

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Some random impressions from a concert I had with my friends:

Photo gallery (pictures being uploaded continuously) of St Stephen's Day Festivities where Andrea Gerak & Friends gave a hot concert in front of 5000 people in Ibrany, Eastern Hungary.

It was an incredible feeling to visit the then village where my family came from and where I have spent many summers in my childhood with my Grandma and cousins. Now, after more than 20 years, Ibrány became a town and its face has changed a lot, with great modern buildings, a very nice, prospering little city - yet I arrived home to my folks, met several relatives and many people who all seemed to be friends with each other. Indeed, the atmosphere during my entire stay was great, very friendly, people enjoying the concerts and other events of the two days. 

I can't tell you how it felt to stand on the stage on the 20th of August when after the official celebrations I got to lead all those thousands to sing with me the National Anthem...

At our concert, people were clapping, singing along, moving their bodies - I even got a "dance partner": a Gypsy man was dancing pretty good, right in front of the stage, and Soma, our accordeonist, showed the crowd who was the man, twisting his feet in a lads' dance from Transylvania.  

There is too much to talk about the other programs, all the delicious traditional Hungarian food of next day's cooking contest... That fish soup... ahhh!

Oh, and I met Andrea Gerak in person! Now this is something you wouldn't have guessed, would you? But I'll prove it with photos ;-)

Also, I was very happy to give great moments to my Mom who came with me and besides being proud of her daughter :-) she met relatives, old girlfriends... We visited the local museum (which was very interesting, I could have spent a whole afternoon there), the wonderful church where I used to go with my Grandma and where I have heard those old men and women singing beautifully, on that typical voice that is particular to this part of the world and is still one of my inspirations as a singer... We saw one of my uncles and his wife (oh, her poppy seed cookie!!!), and in the cemetery, my Father's parents...

Lots of more pictures later on Flickr, as I'll have time to upload them...

I am most grateful to everyone who organized this event and contributed to it in some way! And longing to go back...

Previous post: How not to choose the right partner? Mistake #5t >>>
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But just for the record and to make it complete, here is one last thing that might be useful for some of you - in fact, I wish so much I'd had known this better!am looking into the future :-)

Quick recap of the previous articles (if the links won't work, go here): 

Mistake #1: Different communication levels

Mistake #2: Too different purposes, lifestyles

Mistake #3: Non-supportive partner

Mistake #4: When you don't look, only listen.

This last one below may seem obvious to some people, or may seem totally and revolutionary new to others, even completely unreal to some:

superiority/inferiority

It is simply when one of the partners feels superior (greater, more powerful, more important etc) or inferior (lesser, weaker, less important etc), compared to the other. Although the "symptomes" vary, the end result will be the same: with such a partner, one will feel worse and worse, less able, less competent and healthy, happy, valuable, active, creative, you name it. 

This has endless manifestations and ramifications throughout the various civilizations of Earth: from openly and often crucially suppressing women in certain countries, to the bigotry of misinterpreted gender equality in other places (shall I mention Sweden? don't get me started on it, maybe another time...)

And this is what is called today as "energy vampires" or "psychic vampires", and it is vital to know the basics about the subject of how people become suppressed and by whom, the real nature of suppression, and how to handle that. Otherwise one can't do anything effective about it, no matter if you try to use the most fashionable, ezoteric psycho-bla-bla, full with the most scientific-sounding words. It's more simple than that. 

Simple examples, taken from real life:

It's very easy to recognize if your partner shows his or her superior attitude to you in a direct manner: being bossy, ordering you around, always criticizing what you do, etc. There are thousands of stories and jokes around this sad topic, and I am sure everyone can think of a couple who are like that.

Solution? If you are not masochist and don't want to live with a despot, quit and find a partner. (Note: there might be times when your partner who was not critical to you at the first place but a real sweetheart, becomes so after a while - that has a certain reason which can be remedied and love can reign again.)

But what if your partner doesn't show it directly that he or she thinks less of you than of his or herself? Snide, sneaky, covertly hostile comments: "Darling, why do you put on red skirt in your age?", "In this jacket, everyone will see that you came from another country", "jokes" about you in front of your friends and so on "Oh, that's only my Hubby, he doesn't count", might seem funny and well-intentioned - but the result is that you will feel somehow uncomfortable and degraded, and maybe you don't even recognize why.   

Solution? Unless you are the same sneak type and you enjoy killing each other slowly but surely, RUN!!!!!!!! As fast as you can, and don't ever look back.   

Inferiority might be also very hard to detect at times, but can ruin a relationship just like that.

Especially artists and other talented, outstanding people tend to attract such partners - people with lesser abilities, vital force, emotional or mental powers, personality etc, etc, need somebody else close to them so that they can feed on the energy of the other one. These people might be the most lovable, best intentioned persons who will not knowingly "suck the blood" of the stronger, more able one and if your partner is like that, they might most honestly love and admire you and would even die for you.

In fact, it very well may be that these people who feel smaller, weaker, less talented and so on than their partners, have no any other reason for that, except that they have "learned" it from other people sometime in the past that they were weak, no good etc, and by now, this is what they think about themselves.

An example: you are an artist and your mate is telling you "You are so great, and I know I will never be able to get to that height, I can't even grasp how can it be..." He is saying what? That no matter if he is an extraordinarily intelligent man, with outstanding leadership talents and other skills, let's say - he feels he is less more valuable than you are. Then how are you supposed to love and admire such a man, how can you two be partners?  

Fortunately, again, this kind of inferiority, when the other who feels he is less than you are, but in fact he has some really great values, can be remedied and you can greatly help him. There are steps one can take to discover the causes why one thinks less about himself than one should. But in such a case, it has to be first of all the party concerned who needs to have the will to sort out his or her issues, you can only assist your partner. If your partner doesn't want to, kindly say goodbye and RUN!!!!

Indeed, I had myself this problem, even with a boy where basically everything else seemed to be almost perfect: my thing was that that time I had no name as an artist, no real path and future before me, for I didn't know myself what I wanted to do with my singing, I only had some very lousy gigs, I felt I was in a quite degrading position - and he was a successful musician, making good money with it, performing for the biggest international festivals etcetera. So I didn't really have the self-confidence and all that which would be necessary for a stable relationship. (By now, although I am not a superstar, this is not a issue any more, I could even have the biggest rock star, if he came my way ;-)

Alright folks, hopefully there is some info you'll find useful in all this, for yourself or for somebody you know...

Wish you all happiness, with a partner who indeed does what he or she speaks about, with whom you can communicate very well, with whom you can align your purposes and life, who is supporting you (and of course this has to be mutual), and with whom you can honestly love and admire each other. How about that? :-)

Photo source: Imperial group as Mars and Venus, by Marie-Lan Nguyen on Wikimedia Commons

Also in Andrea's Survival Guide

Previous post: Drifting >>>
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Voila!

DRIFTING

Drifting in your music,
Passionate,
Ethereal,
Ecstatic.

Drifting in your talking,
Meaningful,
Playful,
Caring.

Drifting in your being,
Powerful,
Loveful,
Yearning.

You are drifting me away
To places I have never seen -
Or are these places
I have always known,
Always wanted to be?

I wonder
Where are you taking me?

Drifting me along...

- Andrea Gerak

Also in Andrea's Stories

My poems:

Drifting
Imagining
Dancing violets
Call of the night
I'll be You
A song is born
Why did you come to me?
It's not too late
(for a marriage)
Beauty of the world

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And now my very first Hungarian poem was just born! Which is again, a bit mysterious, because in the past decade, I spent more time abroad than in my homeland, I haven't been there now for more than 9 months... Here it is for those of you who understand this strange little language and want to read it.

Tried to translate it into English, but I find it rather difficult: not only technically, having to find the right words in a foreign language, but more importantly, I feel it would lose something from its mood, the spontaneous atmosphere, the feeling I had right then and right there. For me, it is completed, I said what I wanted to say with it - now let's see the next one :-)

Which is already forming, in English again... Back to you soon :-)

My poems:

Drifting
Imagining
Dancing violets
Call of the night
I'll be You
A song is born
Why did you come to me?
It's not too late
(for a marriage)
Beauty of the world

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The internationally touring brilliant singer put an outstanding show on the stage, featuring her outstanding vocals conveyed with passion and communication, great stage presence, remarkable musicians and vocalists, songs that gave chills, tears or joy to the audience, making them clapping, tapping, singing along, laughing, or submerging deep in their thoughts and emotions, evoked by the melodies.

A very professional performance and very human in the same time; Elisabeth is a master of keeping contact with the audience in a lovely manner.

Have to mention how respectfully she treated her colleagues on stage: six of them being excellent young talents (three of them in fact her sons!), and despite of that we could witness a few first time performances, such as the opening song, each performer did a great job. Apparently all of them on the stage enjoyed every minute of the show, just as did the audience.

Lead Vocals : Elisabeth Kontomanou
Drums : Donald Kontomanou
Bass : Lars Ekman
Piano : Pelle Karlström
Guitar : Erik Söderlind
Guitar : Joey Belmondo
Backing Vocals : Pixie Jakobsson
Backing Vocals : Christine Sundberg
Special Guest : Gustav Karlström

To get a little taste, open Elisabeth Kontomanu's MySpace and play the songs while looking at the photos.

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See my impressions from before, during and after the event - a wonderful evening in Stockholm!

Previous post: Thinking outside the box >>>
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Giving big, scientific words and explanations that seem oh so scientific, simply seems insanely ridiculous to me. Blatantly put: this study (just as the similar ones designed to explain why certain human behaviors - good or bad - come from certain brain malfunctions) doesn't prove a sh*t. For the very simple fact that there is no such a thing as "psychological illness". All those "diseases" have been and are being invented by psychiatrists, in order to sell medications for profits and control the population as a herd of sheep.

Watch the next phases of this story, it will go like this: soon they will STATE that indeed, there is a brain malfunction in geniuses, a certain "chemical imbalance" causes them to think and act in a super fast and individual way. And the next step will be saying "no worries, researches to develop the right cure are already in progress" (without mentioning which pharmaceutical company is funding those studies), and a bit later, voila, researchers have identified the chemical factor which is missing/overrepresented in the brains of those individuals, from which it is just one step away to develop "the right cure," in form of a new drug, of course (and guess which company will manufacture that drug...).

This is the standard routine of putting new psychiatric drugs on the market, just look at any of them. With a few other steps in between, so that it won't be so obvious - and also with an ingenious PR where they sell the idea to all the authorities and to the media. Ordinary people then will have no other choice than to believe the ingeniously made-up story, because it comes from the authorities and experts, and they hear it all the time from tv, radio and the papers, so it must be true.

Oh, yeah.

And here we can see how ingeniously they are working on this plot: psychs (=psychiatrists) are planning to classify independent thinking as a mental disorder - see NaturalNews article Now independent thinkers are considered diseased by psychiatry.

Simply ignore what these guys say, and think outside of the box, folks!

These are the kind of things highly creative persons tend to play around with (warning: shameless self-promotion :-)

Watch video on YouTube

And fortunately, there are sooooo many artists and thinkers, inventors around whose work I could put here to illustrate what a highly creative human being can accomplish, a good couple of names cross my mind, close and not-so-close friends, determining personalities of the past and the present and the creators of future of Mankind.

Read this one, too: Restless people

Also in Andrea's Survival Guide

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Since a couple of days, I am sorting out a few things around me with the help of a friend: spotting moments in my past that still had an effect on me - and I tell you: they are NOT good effects, and one can be surprised about how long time ago they have happened...

With freeing the attention captured in old stories, it is obviously much easier to see one's present situations, handle problems and get the show really going. 

Well, I just find it interesting what reactions I got only in the course of 24 hours: two new friends on Facebook who heard me for the first time, likened my singing and talent to Lisa Gerrard's (and they were not the first ones to say so), and another man was listening to me for a rather long time, eyes closed and I could see the greatest serene happiness on his face - wow, these are the moments that make a singer want to sing forever... And he said that he was a big music fan, loved opera, familiar with many artists but he hasn't heard such a beautiful singing...

I do get such comments every once in a while ("never heard anything like this" is quite common), but now they just suddenly started to flow in, one after the other... Hmm... interesting...

So I should do the next steps in putting my things in order and see what happens :-)

Maybe this song can be considered a bit Lisa Gerrardish? Madárka (Little Birdie)

Don't know, and that is not even the point, enjoy anyway!

Previous post: Not to Idol >>>
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Well, I had a legitimate excuse not to participate: I just got out of a bad cold when I was not able to sing for more than a week, today being the first day when I dared to try. (It worked nicely :-) But anyway, I didn't plan to go, for these talent shows are not really for artists with decades on stage behind them - and I am not sure if I ever want to be a Swedish Idol.

My friends told me I should take the plunge: "Show 'em how to sing a Swedish song for real!" I am sure I could do that, apart from that the pronunciation is quite difficult for me and I would most probably sing it with a strong accent.

I can imagine that it could have been fun, but now there's no point in going "what, if...". I didn't go, I won't be a Swedish Idol - simple. Probably not the biggest thing I miss out in my life, and I have a few other games to play...

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