Andrea Gerak

Enya, Sally Oldfield, Lisa Gerrard, Marta Sebestyen, Katalin Szvorak, Iren Lovasz, Bea Palya -- Andrea Gerak deserves a place in this list.

For the Press version and more details, please check out my official website.

http://www.andreagerak.com/bio.html

My first main singing role was in the kindergarden where I was the poor girl who finally got married to the prince. Isn't it cute? Ha-ha... A few years later, at 10, I performed a lot with the school choir, and discovered the folk dance group in my home town, near to the Slovakian border in Hungary.

From that on, that was my life: rehearsals, sweat and sore muscles, workshops, camps, dance houses where you can sing and dance for the whole night to the best bands playing live, many times I was teaching others, also children, how to sing or dance this special stuff, local performances, tours and festivals in Hungary and in Europe, stage, backstage, dressing rooms, and incredibly lot of fun, fun, fun, the best fun I could possibly have.

Yet with all this, it took me some time to decide what I want to do in my life. Since I realized that I can make the greatest effects on others with my voice, I am looking for the best ways to develop all what I want to share and reach as many people as I can.

All what I am now and what I have achieved so far, I did it without any manager, label or agency, only with the understanding and help of my family, many friends and fans. And of course, all those professionals I am in contact with or I learned from: fellow artists, web supports, seminar lecturers, etc.

Yes I do. At the moment, mostly in Sweden and Hungary, but I am available worldwide.

If I like singing live?

There is nothing better than that - yeah, there is: dancing. I could talk for days about special moments of performing, I did have a few... Shall I tell you about the young girl in Zurich, Switzerland, who was on drugs, and after she was listening to me, wrote this in my Guestbook: "There is hope... Thanks!" Or the old lady who heard me when I was busking somewhere and after 2 years, when I came in the same city, she recognized my voice from a few streets away and just had to find me, because she's been looking forward to hear me again ever since.

I like it best when I do have something to say with my songs, it's an occasion to communicate with the audience, let it be an exhibition opening on a particular theme, a birthday -- or even a funeral. I remember singing in a church for a beautiful young girl who's just left.

These kind of moments show me the great responsibility that we artists have. It's the question of what kind of effect do you want to achieve with a song: will people feel better, or will they feel worse after that they have listened to you? I do like it when they get some nice moments out of my songs.

First of all Hungarian folk, traditional music from different regions of the historical Hungary, which has included, before World War I, Transylvania, Moldavia, parts of Slovakia, Croatia and Yugoslavia. In that part of the Europe, we have a very fortunate mixture of cultures, giving me a big variety of melodies, performers and styles to choose from. To name a few: instrumental and vocal gypsy music, dances from the Balkan, songs that were sung only by girls of certain villages, Marta Sebestyen, Bela Halmos, Muzsikas and a lot of bands playing authentical folk, but I would also listen to folk rock or new age.

Besides that, I grew up also with 70's & 80's pop, classic rock and Vangelis, Mike Oldfield, and extremely good Hungarian artists and bands.

I am very grateful to all the people that supported me in any ways through the years.

Thank you!