Hoy, Your Papaya is Polish!

"Papaya" is ubiquitous now in the Philippines, thanks to Edu Manzano and his program. Marcos babies like me knew Papaya in their childhood but can't exactly point where the papaya tree came from. A Pinoy homeschool teacher pointed out that it was a Groovychick's remix of Urszula Dudziak's song. Dudziak is a Polish jazz vocalist and was a great scat artist with a five-octave range. The Encyclopedia of Popular Music noted that "Language barriers hold no problems for her, as she customarily eschews words in favour of a wordless vocalizing that is far more adventurous than scat." She recorded about a dozen albums but even Edu is not sure on what year "Papaya" became a hit. I had a feeling that "Papaya" was included in her album entitled "Urszula" because this album was produced by Arista Records in 1975 and she was 31 then. She later became a vocalist of Vocal Summit group, together with Jay Clayton, Jeanne Lee, Bobby McFerrin, Norma Winstone, Michelle Hendricks, and Lauren Newton so that must be the ultimate vocal gymnastics team. "Although her remarkable talent is worthy of greater exposure, Dudziak's chosen style has meant that she has remained relatively unknown except to the cognoscenti," EPM wrote. How ironic that a country like the Philippines, where the musical taste of the common person is the opposite of cognoscenti, would champion Urszula.