Agnieszka Osiecka

Agnieszka Osiecka was a prominent Polish songwriter, having authored the lyrics to more than 2000 songs, and is considered an icon of Polish culture. She was also a journalist and a writer. She had one daughter, journalist, Agata Passent. She graduated from the Faculty of Journalism at the University of Warsaw in 1956. She debuted as a journalist in 1954 in the journal Głos Wybrzeża (Seaside Voice). During her further studies at the Directing Faculty at the National Film School in Łódź she wrote film reviews for Sztandar Młodych (Youth’s Standard) and cooperated with Nowa Kultura (The New Culture), Po Prostu (Just Like That), Literatura (Literature), Kultura (Culture) and Polska (Poland). Between 1954 and 1972 she was associated with Student Satirical Theatre and chaired its artistic council. There, she debuted as a lyricist. She wrote 166 political and lyrical songs for this company. She used to say "I am a journalist, that is why some of my songs are reports which rhyme." She served on the artistic board of the STS Theatre until it closed in 1972. 1962 marked her debut on Polish National Radio. Renown Polish actress Kalina Jędrusik sang Osiecka's lyrics to a hit song by Franciszka Leszczyńska called "My First Ball" (Mój pierwszy bal). One year later at the first National Festival of Polish Song in Opole in 1963 Agnieszka achieved a major success winning the main prize and six other prizes for her lyrics: "Piosenka o Okularnikach“ (music by Jarosław Abram), as well as "Białe małżeństwo,“ "Czerwony kapturek,“ "Kochankowie z ulicy Kamiennej,“ "Solo na kontrabasie“ and "Ulice wielkich miast.“ She was now recognised as a prominent young poet and the Polish National Radio offered her a job to create and lead a team to broadcast The Radio Song Studio. She also worked on theatre and television productions. Together with composer Adam Sławiński she wrote a series called "Listy śpiewające“ ("Singing Letters“). She died of cancer on 7th of March 1997 in Warsaw.