Maria Tănase was a Romanian popular, fiddler’s, romance music singer and variety theater actress. He was named the “Skilled bird” (by Nicolae Iorga and the Queen of the Romanian songs.
She was born in the suburbs of the Brick Makers from Bucharest (the area of the Children palace – Youth Park), being the third child of Ana Munteanu, originary from the commune Cârța, the county of Sibiu (Țara Făgărașului) and of the florist Ion Coandă Tănase (1877 – 1958), from the village Mierea – Birnici, the county of Dolj, on the valley of Amaradia. She had a sister and a brother: Aurica and François.
In May 1934 she employs at the Theatre”Cărăbuș”. On the 2nd of June she debuts in the magazine Cărăbuș – Express (of N. Kirițescu) with the pseudonym Mary Atanasiu, chosen by Constantin Tănase. In the same year she record the Mansard (romance music by Nello Manzatti) at the recording house “Lifa Record”, this being the first recording for the artist.
In the summer of the year 1937 he records the first popular songs at the recording house “Columbia”, under the supervision of the ethno-musicologist Constantin Brăiloiu and Harry Brauners, the first two being Cine iubește și lasă and M-am jurat de mii de ori, which she recorded in the accompaniment of the folk music band Costică Vraciu from Gorj. The date of the 20th of February 1938 represents the radio phonic debut of the artist. In 1938, Maria Tănase sings in the well-known luxury restaurant”Luxandra”, accompanied by the orchestra of the violinist Petrică Moțoi. On the 17th of August 1938 sings at the ending of the summer courses of the Popular University from Vălenii de Munte (Prahova), where the historian Nicolae Iorga names her the Skilled bird. In the same years she engages at the Theatre “Alhambra” of Nicolae Vlădoianu. In September she launches with a great success the songs Mi-am pus busuioc în păr and Habar n-ai tu in the magazine Constelația Alhambrei, which she then records at “Columbia”. By the end of the year 1940, the Iron Guard prohibits her to appear in public and, through the order of the Minister of Propaganda, all the gramophone disks existent with Maria Tănase were destroyed in the Radio’s discotheque, as well as their matrixes from the recording house Columbia. The last concert of the artist, before the censure, took place on the 20th of October 1940, at the Municipality Theatre “Maior Gheorghe Pastia” from Focșani. The newspaper “Timpul”, no. 1356 of the 16th of February 1941, announced the readers about the reappearance of Maria Tănase in a radio-phonic program. After the instauration of the communism, in 1952 she is requested to profess at the Middle music school no. 1 from Bucharest, within the department of popular music, which was newly created. She had as students Victoria Darvai, Ileana Constantinescu, Natalia Șerbănescu. She also sang in numerous restaurants and premises from Bucharest (especially in the inter-war period): „Neptun”, „Café Wilson”, „Parcul Aro”, „Luxandra”, „Luther”, „Continental”, „Prispa-naltă” from the Obor Market. In the spring of the year 1963, being in a road show at Hunedoara with the Folk Music Band of Gorj, she finds out that she suffers from lung cancer. She interrupts the tour, asking Mia Braia to replace her. On the 2nd of May she arrives home, in Bucharest.
Maria Tănase always had an Oltenian soul. Maybe this was also because of the fact that her father, the florist Ion Tănase, was born in the small village from Gorj, Mierea Birnicii and he lived in his youth at Craiova. In Bănie, Maria Tănase came in the hard years of the war, when she had shows together with the great folk singers of the city. Also here she carried away the folklore. And the Bănie remained grateful to her, by offering her a museum, a festival, a fountain and it remained as memory the home where she lived in this period.
