1953–1998
Kvitka Cisyk
American singer of Ukrainian descent
Her voice sold Fords, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, and it sang an Oscar-winning song in a 1977 film, though her name wasn’t in the credits. Kvitka Cisyk, a New Yorker born to emigrants from Lviv, paid for two albums of Ukrainian songs herself.
Key accomplishments
- Recorded the song “You Light Up My Life” for the film of the same name (1977)
- The voice of advertising songs for Ford, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and other companies
- The albums Kvitka: Songs of Ukraine (1980) and Two Colors (1989)
Whose voice is in the Oscar-winning song?
Did you know that the heroine of the 1977 American film You Light Up My Life sings with a Ukrainian voice? Kvitka Cisyk recorded the song for Joe Brooks’s film, but her name was left out of the credits. The version that topped the charts was a different recording, by Debby Boone, and the song itself won an Oscar.
A violinist’s daughter, by way of Lviv
Kvitka Cisyk was born in 1953 in Queens, New York. Her family had lived in Lviv until 1944. Her father, the violinist Volodymyr Cisyk, taught her music from early childhood. She went to a Saturday school of Ukrainian studies, spent her summers at Plast camps (Plast is the Ukrainian scouting movement), and later studied violin and classical singing.
The most wanted voice in advertising
From the mid-1970s Cisyk worked in the studio: she sang radio and TV commercials and sang backing vocals for Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt and Michael Bolton. From the early 1980s she was one of the most popular jingle singers in the United States.
For Ukraine, she paid out of her own pocket to record two albums of Ukrainian songs: Kvitka: Songs of Ukraine (1980) and Two Colors (1989). In 1983 she visited Ukraine unofficially. She died of cancer in New York in 1998.
Why it matters today
Kvitka Cisyk introduced many listeners to Ukrainian song, and her albums are still heard in Ukraine. Streets in Lviv and other cities bear her name, and Lviv has a memorial museum dedicated to her.
