The highly competitive auditions and large audiences which filled the house for evening concerts contributed to the success of the 38th Student Song Festival (SFP) that ended Oct. 14 in Cracow.

The festival, which is the country's most prestigious student event, was special this year because of its 40th anniversary celebration. Many well-known artists started their careers as SFP laureates, including Ewa Demarczyk, Marek Grechuta, Jacek Kaczmarski, Stanisław Sojka, Renata Przemyk and Grzegorz Turnau.

Qualifying rounds to the SFP take place all over the country at local competitions and song festivals, largely organized by student communities. Out of about 500 participants every year, only one tenth is invited to perform in Cracow.

The culminating moment of the festival was the Gala Concert Saturday Oct. 12, during which a panel of judges awarded the First Prize to Iwona Loranc, who sang with the Tricolor band from Bielsko-Biała. Her victory was not a surprise, as she had also been successful at earlier festivals, including the Actor Song Festival in Wrocław.

The Second Prize went to Joanna Lewandowska from Warsaw, a performer of great vocal potential and dramatic expression.

The panel's decision to grant the Third Prize to the Shau Palatshy Hashyshu band turned out to be controversial. Their music, featuring a blend of hip-hop, funk and rap, was a departure from the style traditionally presented at the festival. The boys from Opole apparently scored points for originality, but their performance was not extraordinary.

According to Jan Poprawa, the chairman of the panel of judges, besides the talent of nearly all participants, a strong point of the competition auditions was the performers' stylistic diversity. "The phenomenon of the 'student song' of years ago associated with a poetic song and guitar accompaniment is out of date today. We invite bands to the SFP that are formed by students. It turns out that they play various kinds of music and that doesn't make work any easier for the judges, who have to deal with different styles such as rap, rock and the classic actor's song in one competition," said Poprawa. The festival's panel included singer Maryla Rodowicz, radio journalist Marek Niedźwiecki and composer Zygmunt Konieczny.

Winners of honorary mentions included the Rockiya band from Cracow. The band plays an original mixture of sharp jazz-rock and metal, one more example of "new wave" student music. Anna Batko- with a strong voice and original stage presence- and friends gave one of the more exciting performances both during the auditions and the concert of laureates.

The second part of the festival gala was composed of hits by Marek Grechuta, a legend of Polish poetic song. The program was also enriched by performers such as Ewa Bem, Maryla Rodowicz, Krystyna Janda, Mietek Szcześniak and the festival's laureate Iwona Loranc. Grechuta, whose songs are associated with several SFP generations, celebrates his 35th jubilee this year. Sejm Speaker Marek Borowski paid a special visit to Cracow to congratulate the artist and publicly declared that both he and his wife are among Grechuta's fans. The audience in the Juliusz Słowacki Theater gave Grechuta a standing ovation.

The festival's other honored artist was Leonard Cohen, to whom a concert titled In My Secret Life was dedicated. Cohen's songs, performed in various styles by artists of two generations, attracted a crowd of 2,500 to the over four-hour concert in the hall of the Academy of Economics. The program included a classic interpretation of "Famous Blue Raincoat" by actor Piotr Machalica, a "new wave" version of "Susanne" by rock singer Katarzyna Nosowska, and "Ain't No Cure for Love" by Stanisław Sojka, who provided his own accompaniment on piano. Cohen's songs became very popular in Poland in the 1970s and 1980s thanks to translations by Maciej Zembaty, who also appeared on the festival stage.

After several less successful editions, the SFP called up memories of its halcyon years. SFP director Jacek Wilczyński admits that it has been a long time since festival tickets sold out well before the event. "I am very glad that at the 40th anniversary of the festival we succeeded in showing that the event is alive, attracting large audiences, and proving that demand still exists for non-commercial artistic music," he said.
Wilczyński says the next festival will be organized with equal vigor. He told The Voice that talks were being conducted concerning the participation of an international superstar, however, he would not disclose the guest's identity.
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