The legend of the Slovak musical scene, singer, multiple winner of various awards in Slovakia, a member of the Slovak Hall of Fame since 2006, Miroslav ”Meky“Žbirka died on Wednesday at the age of 69.
His parents - Slovak Šimon Žbirka and English Ruth Gale met in London in 1943 where his father served as a soldier in WWII. The two moved to Bratislava after the war. The youngest of their three sons who later became popular as Meky was born in 1952 in Bratislava.
Miroslav Žbirka is one of the original members of the cult rock band Modus founded in 1967. In the 1980s, he started his successful solo career and released 14 albums between 1980 and 2018. Meky also recorded some of his music in the Abbey Road studio where the Beatles – his musical idols - also recoded their works. The two albums recorded in London were produced by Rob Cass featuring original texts translated by Pete Brown – the English performance poet, lyricist, and singer best known for his collaborations with Cream.
Žbirka also created notable works with another famous singer, Marika Gombitová. The two recorded numerous legendary songs either as a duo, as part of the Modus band and also in the cult musical Neberte nám princeznú.
In the era of the common state with Czechs, the Czechoslovak Republic, he was the first Slovak singer to beat the pop idol Karel Gott in the vox-pop known as the Golden Nightingale in 1982. In the same year, he was the winner of the Villach international music festival with the hit Love song. The introductory part of his notoriously well-known hit The Ballad of field birds, can be heard in German pop-music guru Dieter Bohlens’ hit Gefuehle sind herzlos.
