The scene of this solemn and historic event resembles a certain frame from the film ”In blazing sunshine“: Jan Kiepura sings in the Viennese Opera, while the square around the theatre is filling up with a crowd waiting for the spectacle to end, for „the Boy from Sosnowiec” to appear in the square and sing for his audience there. Jan is lifted up onto the roof of a car and he sings and sings and sings - popular arias and the songs which were currently in vogue, the tunes which the street would then hum all over the globe.
    Kiepura would sing in every place and time, whenever he was asked to do so. He did not spare his voice, for he was eager to sing and he loved his audience. For Polish people, he was a national hero, the hero of their collective imagination, while in the world’s eyes he appeared as a leading opera singer of the 20th century. He was also one of the brightest stars of the then nascent musical film, the film made up of songs.
    He was fiercely patriotic, and throughout his life he emphasised his Polish-ness. He took part in the struggle for independence, in various money-raising campaigns for social or national causes: before the war, collecting money for the Winter Aid, Cracow’s National Museum, and The National Defence Fund; during the war - for the Polish army forming in the West; after the war - for the ”millennial” schools (new schools for Poland’s millennium of state history).
    It was a long way from Sosnowiec to a worldwide career, and there were formidable obstacles on the way. He was born a hundred years ago, on 16th May 1902, as the son of a humble baker, in the basement of a house in Majowa Street which also held the bakery and the bread oven. The Kiepura family later moved to their own house in Miła Street.
    It was in Sosnowiec that Kiepura’s personality developed, and it was possibly thanks to this Sosnowiec background that Jan Kiepura gained such a pre-eminent position in the world’s culture, that he gained acclaim and universal admiration. He sang with an Italian timbre - a voice that was likely to take shape in the sunlit Italy or Spain, but - in Sosnowiec?
    His rare talent arose among factory smokestacks, but he knew how to quickly build on it, and he made the most of it. The talent was fused in him with that peculiar, unmistakable defiance, the character shaped by the ethos of the Sosnowiec ”Pogoń” - the defiance of a real ”boy from Sosnowiec“. It was this original trait, combined with a beautiful voice and a mastery of vocal technique, that commanded him the world’s respect as one of the most eminent singers of his age, a worthy rival for the greatest names.
    Jan Kiepura’s life was difficult, completely filled with work, marked by renunciation. He gave up all that could stop him from achieving his dream, the one he defined with such zest already as a young man in Sosnowiec: ”you’ll see, one day I’ll become a great artist”.
    Still, being a great artist is not easy, as the life of a great artist is just work, and work, and more work - renunciation and the ability to overcome dozens of obstacles on the way to the dreamt-of career - and all this with no guarantee from the Muses that such dedication will ever be crowned by success. Owing to his persistence and strength of character, he became famous and admired earlier than he could expect. He is still remembered at the Viennese Opera, where his legend was born. While recalling those times and people in front of the camera, Helmut Zielk, mayor of Vienna, said to me: ”Jan Kiepura was for Vienna in the 1930s what The Beatles were for London in the 1970s”. Critics called him ”a phenomenon”, ”a Croesus of the voice”, ”a second Caruso”.
    When I asked Placido Domingo what Kiepura’s position would be today, he answered thoughtfully: ”I guess that one of us the three tenors would have to yield his place to Kiepura. Or perhaps there would be four of us?” A similar feeling was expressed also by Luciano Pavarotti.
    Jan Kiepura enjoyed success in the world’s major opera houses. He conquered the Viennese Opera, the Milanese La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Operas of Paris, Berlin and Munich, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, The Opera in Rio de Janeiro, and The Grand Theatre in Warsaw. Directors of the greatest opera houses made every endeavour to have Kiepura to sing for them, if only for a couple of nights, and they patiently waited for him to come and ravish the crowds with his song.
    In 1930, Jan Kiepura opened a new chapter of his life with a part in the film ”Naples the City of Song” made by the ASFI film company from London. He accepted this offer rather reluctantly, and yet the cinema was soon to absorb him for many years. After the success of the first film, he was hailed as the screen lover number one of the musical film. He played in many films made by companies from Berlin, Vienna, Paris, London and the American Hollywood. Thanks to these films, Kiepura was very famous and even wealthier than before. He became the favourite of audiences which had never been to the opera and would perhaps have never visited such a place. Kiepura’s screen popularity, his singing on a car roof among the crowd and from a hotel balcony - the operatic environment noted all this with disapproval. There were ironical remarks and an upsurge of hostility. The conservative connoisseurs of the operatic art accused him of frittering away such a promising career and exchanging a genuine success for cheap mass popularity. But for Kiepura, this was not cheap popularity. He followed his instinct and gladly allowed the excited crowds to carry him on their hands. He sang in squares, in stadiums, for tens of thousands of listeners, foreshadowing the new era which was soon to come - the one we call the era of mass culture, of the omnipotent television. Already in the 1920s and 30s, Kiepura became a harbinger of that trend with which the ”Three tenors” have won over the audiences of today. He believed that the artist ought to leave the closed space of the theatre, face the crowd and carry the people away with the intensity of his interpretation, let them love him and adore him. His performances in the Old Town Square in Warsaw were greeted with the applause of forty thousand people. He achieved the same in Cracow, Katowice, Gdynia and many other cities on three continents. Crowds gathered everywhere to hear and, of course, also to see him.
    More than half a century has passed, but Kiepura’s legend is still alive. We love him for his merits, but also for the vices of his character, for his fiery temper and his radiant sunny smile, for the joy of living with which his recordings and screen creations are imbued. And, finally, for his colourful life story, which is yet to become the subject of many a film or TV series. I am very happy to see so many old and new fans of Jan Kiepura who have gathered here, in the centre of Sosnowiec, to take part in this beautiful and moving ceremony.
    Maestro Jan! Maestro Jan Kiepura! You were born here, in Sosnowiec, so, to paraphrase the Polish bard’s words: You are from Sosnowiec stock. With your whole heart you were - even at a time when this confession could only harm you - a Pole. Thanks to exceptional talent and a spectacular career, you became a Citizen of the World.
    Today, you return to your hometown, the town of you childhood and youth. You stand before us in the same posture, as if you were about to sing a touching aria or a captivating song. Give joy, as you did in former years, to the inhabitants of the town and to guests who will come to see your likeness in bronze. This square ought to become a meeting place for the young and the adult alike.
    Standing in front of this imposing and exquisite monument, we will imagine that Maestro Kiepura is going to sing anon, that we will hear once again his fervent ”Ninon, please smile”, ”The dark and fair ones”, ”Signorina” or ”O sole mio”. We will touch the folds of his streaming overcoat and the golden glittering hand with gratitude, for to touch Jan Kiepura has always meant - good luck.
    Maestro Kiepura! You were the smile, the splendour, the delight of the Polish 1920s, the Polish 1930s, that special time in our history when we experienced the hard-won independence. May you now be the splendour, delight and smile of the town of Sosnowiec, which with you now celebrates your centenary.