Radůza does it for the kids with new CD and book

The popular Czech folk singer Radůza has just released a new CD for children entitled O Mourince a Lojzíkovi. The album combines stories with songs and is part of a project which also includes a nicely illustrated book. Radůza told me how it came about.

“It started when the publishers Brio called me and asked me to write a fairytale for children, because they wanted to make a book of fairytales by people who are not writers, who are musicians or painters.

“At that time I was at home with my small son, who was two months old, and I was going crazy because I couldn’t work and I really wanted to work. So it was like a gift from God that I could do some work.

“I started to write with really great enthusiasm, and instead of writing one fairytale I wrote five. They made a single book only for me – it was very nice of them!”

How did the CD come about?

“One day I was sitting at home and one song came to me. The words of the song were connected with one of those fairytales and after that I had the idea of doing more songs like that, and maybe to read the fairytales and make a CD. It’s a small one woman musical for children, something like that. I started to work on it and I really had fun.”

Did you have any models from your own childhood of albums you had on record which featured fairytales or music, or both?

“When I was small it was very hard to get a tape player or anything like that. But yes, I remember listening to Hurvínek, if you know that. But more I was reading, a lot of fairytales – not only Czech but also from Asia, from Russia, many fairytales.”