Naturally erotic, smoothly chaotic

Bea Palya is a phenomenon - a phenomenon not easy to define. For labeling it folk music, it’s not ‘folk-y’ enough, for labeling it to world music (I hate this term anyway), it’s too complex. Fusional, no doubt. Ms Palya has a wonderful talent of merging different musical styles, even juxtaposing remote cultures as if they belonged together in the most implicit way.

Beáta Palya was born near Szeged (in Makó) and grew up in a small village near Budapest. She carries the roots of Hungarian ethnic traditions (often in the form of erotic folk songs, with all the beauties of the euphemic Hungarian language), as well as Gipsy music from her maternal grandfather. She picked up motifs from the Bulgarian, Romanian, Indian and Melanesian culture. Deeply inspired by Persian tunes, Bea embraced the idea of “taking time in music”. She is not afraid to use vivid pauses and big silences on stage, which allows the audience enjoy the here and now.

 

Every concert is a celebration of the joy of music. She works only with musicians who are able to improvise along with her, to fill their live performances with a magical, spontaneous flow. Beáta considers her concerts to be a sacred time where she and her musicians listen to the audience as well as to one another: it is this belief that allows them to enter into an intimate and soulful dialogue with the audience, whose energy is always the flame that ignites the fire of improvisation. This fire brings about any number of musical surprises, both for the audience and for the performers, turning it into a unique experience.  But even if there is no accompaniment, we don’t have the feeling that something is missing. Bea can maintain attention with her sole voice, her hip movements, her rhythmic patter, by reciting a poem or just…being.

The singer often compared to Márta Sebestyén gained international name and fame through Transylvania, a movie by one of my favourite directors, Tony Gatlif. Highly recommended =)

Full house. Mixed audience. She just appears in a blue silk dress with a sole percussionist, András Dés. Radiating as always and full with the energy she gathered during her 3-month-vacations in Mexico. I have never seen any other Hungarian artist with such a PRESENCE on stage. The performance is dedicated to body and rhythm. Body as rhythm.

The concert didn’t lack the (18+) songs and anecdotes either. With the contribution of the audience we could hear the classic Mindenkinek kurv’anyját! (I would prefer not to translate the title, with a basic Hungarian I’m sure you do understand). Our ancestor knew how to release stress - what a relief sending everybody to hell in certain moments. She engaged the audience into clapping, humming and rubbing palms (resembling the monotone noise of a train). We established a magic common vibration, out of time, out of space. The essence of singing, she believes, is to remain sincere - to find the notes from within one's own heart. It is to know why one sings and to sing with one's own voice.

After the concert everybody got a chance to exchange thoughts or a hug with her. And by chance I got to know which her pub she fancies. ;)

Body and space. Natural playfulness, feminine humor, self-mockery. Laughter, tears, bated breath. Sándor Kányádi: Románc. Tension, catharsis. * My side notes about the concert.

What really captures me, what makes her my no. 1 singer, is Bea Palya’s personality. She is not ‘popular’. She dares to be herself, 34, with her healthy curves and her ‘not very trendy’ clothing. Surprise, surprise: she could still become a successful performer in the 21st century, just by being herself! As she confesses: “I just had one pair of jeans in my life. It is said that it’s the symbol of rebellious personalities. I think you can protest and be a ‘personality’ wearing anything. What really matters is inside. In Prada or jeans, naked or a túrósrétes*-hat (*strudel with cottage cheese filling)”.

She has beautiful smile and exceptionally natural charm that make her the sexiest woman on Earth (if you accept my opinion, as a woman). She dares to express her happiness and sorrows, to talk honestly about her feelings. “I think and my experience is – after having struggled a lot and fighting with myself – that we create our own reality. Courage means to change the examples imposed and followed by others. And our past models.”

'The unobtainable man' tells the eternal strive of a woman to find a real man. (Vague translation:) "I travelled all seven seas to find a man, and I've already tried everything but he remains beyond one's reach. The first wants a virgin, the second is a psychiatrist, the third one a gynaecologist, the fourth a reknown Casanovist. The fifth likes the pudgy ones, the sixth prefers another man(...) The tenth beats up the girls, the eleventh is Kabir Bedi himself. #12 is father cheating, next one one a lost workaholic & 14 = the Santa Clause. The other one is always abroad, oh how far is Paris London...And if I finally find a man, Mother, what should I do then?!” It seems that nothing is good enough for us. :P Among irony and jokes, this story did not change much since the past centuries, did it. Loverman, where can you be?

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