BRATISLAVA – Fate did not grant her a long career, but her talent is still unforgettable! Eva Kostolányiová went to artistic heaven too soon.
Eva Kostolanyiová was born on November 2, 1942 in Trnava. She grew up in modest circumstances with seven siblings, her parents worked as workers in the sugar factory in Trnava. After finishing elementary school, she got a job at a meat processing plant, but besides her work, she privately attended singing lessons. However, she was close to music and dance from an early age. At the age of fifteen, she performed in the Slovak Folk Art Collective (SĽUK) and from 1960 in the Military Art Ensemble. There she met her husband, Ján Kostolányi, whom they married in 1965. After seven years of marriage, they divorced, but Eva kept his last name.
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(Source: Opus)
She first performed with Ľuba Belák’s band, then performed as a singer in Braň Hronac’s orchestra, with whom she performed at home and abroad. Since 1972, she has been singing with her own group HEJ. The leader of the group was Eva’s second partner and fiancé Andrej Šebo – a musician and trombone player. Eva Kostolanyiová’s biggest hits include the songs Bábika, Poľi so mneu, When the grass is mowed, When you are alone, Good morning, I wish you, Blind love, Don’t cry anymore, Kade chodeva láška or the duets Smoliar and Hello there with Michal Dočolomanský, who considered her the best singer of those times.
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(Source: youtube.com)
When Eva found lumps in her breast, she was only 29 years old, but she did not give in to depression or despair. Doctors operated on her tumor and later had to remove her breast as well. However, Eva continued to sing and dance, she even got a role in a musical. Her movement and acting talent was fully demonstrated at the end of 1972 in the television adaptation of the operetta Mam’zelle Nitouche. In 1973, she won the silver Bratislava lyre for a duet with Karol Duchoň Chhála humoru. In the same year, she sang the Slovak version of the title song to the American cult film of the same name “Mr. Teacher from Love”.
After hormonal treatment, her voice became rough and she had to cut her long hair, but she did not give up and considered it only a change of image and repertoire. But later she understood that her days were numbered. Eva Kostolanyiová died on October 3, 1975, just a month before her 33rd birthday. She was one of the most popular performers of Slovak popular music, in 2015 Eva Kostolanyiova Street in her native Trnava was named after her.
