“She is like that! That's how she is! I am your Venus, I am your fire, if you so wish. " Don't understand what this is about? And if so: “She's got it! Yeah, baby, she's got it!”? These are lines from the hit song "Venus" by Shocking Blue, which hit the charts all over the world in 1970. And we are talking about the soloist of this Dutch group - Mariska Veresh.
Creativity and career
Mariska Veresh was born off the coast of the North Sea of the Netherlands, in the city of The Hague, on October 1, 1947. The father of the future star was a Hungarian gypsy, and by occupation he was a violinist of one of the gypsy orchestras. Mariska's mother was of Russian-French origin, but was born in Germany.
Since childhood, Mariska Veles loved to sing and did it in her father's ensemble. Veresh began her singing career at the age of 17. At first she sang in the Hague group Les Mystères, and a couple of years later, she ended up in the Blue Fighters group (also, by the way, from The Hague). Then, on the way to the main success in her life, there were such groups as Danny & Favorites, Motowns and Bumble Bees. And this did not last long - until 1968.
At one of the events where Bumble Bees performed, the manager of the Shocking Blue group (organized a year earlier) noticed the young vocalist Veresh and persuaded one of the members of his group, Robbie van Leeuwen (who is also the founder) to take the girl with him. The new band Veresh released their debut album in 1969, and a year later the group became famous all over the world, thanks to the very song "Venus". Marishka, after her overwhelming success, began to be called nothing other than the sex symbol of the group.
Life after
Shocking Blue discography contains 10 albums. The group broke up in 1974, after which Marishka did not stop and continued her career as a musician, but already a solo career, which was not crowned with much success, either due to the lack of proper motivation of the frontwoman, or due to other circumstances. However, already few people were worried about the question “how does that same girl from the song“Venus?”
It should be added that the band reunited 10 years later to give a couple of concerts at one of the festivals, but without the band's founder, Robbie van Leeuwen, who, by that time, had already settled in Luxembourg. During her independent career, Mariska Veresh independently released about a dozen singles and 2 full-length albums, being a member of Shocking Jazz Quintet (1993) and Andrei Serban's gypsy ensemble (2003).
Personal life
Veresh loved cats, never smoked, did not use alcoholic beverages or drugs, but Mariska Veresh's personal life was not as rich as her musical career. Throughout her short life, she never learned what it means to be a wife or a mother. In 1996, Mariska herself, answering questions from a journalist for the Belgian magazine Flair, said the following: “Then I looked like a painted doll and no one was allowed to touch me. Now I have become more open to people. Whatever those mean, the fact remains. Her love and brainchild is music. Her family is the people with whom she made this music.
Mariska Veresh passed away when she was 59 years old, on December 2, 2006, in the city where she was born. Three weeks before her death, she learned that she had cancer. And two months before her last breath, she still delighted her most loyal fans with performances on stage.
