Quick Confession - Martina Pártlová: Men Enjoy Saving me! I am not interested..
Martina Pártlová is fun to be with, as the whole nation could have actually found out thanks to the videos named 3in1, where the singer, together with Nikol Štíbrová and Veronika Arichteva, parodies current affairs. The singer is also known in showbiz by constantly being single. In the break of two performances of the new children´s musical Queen Kapeska at Hybernia theatre she made time to make an interview with Luxury Prague Life, where she revealed what gives her the greatest joy and on the other hand worries her.
Martina, you´ve just returned from Cuba, how was it?
Horrible. We had horrible weather. About 19 degrees, wind, rain, we have probably had only four nice days. I would never go there again. It is beautiful there, but boring. We were in Varadero.
Varadero is not Cuba, it is said.
Yeah, that is true. We of course went on some tips around, but since I cannot speak English very well we chose instead a place with a Czech delegate, who in the end wasn´t available anyway...
Well, I am sorry that you were not satisfied.
It disappointed me. The only thing that I found inspiring was Havana, it is wonderful, but simply the weather didn´t work out, I came back as white as a sheet… I didn´t enjoy it as I had envisaged. I am sorry, really, I was looking forward to it, Cuba had been my dream. Nor was it a cheap holiday, so one regrets it even more.
There is a communist regime, you must remember it here.
Yes, I was ten, eleven when the coup came.
Did you perceive it there? When I went to Cuba I was hungry all the time.
I didn´t like the tastes very much, that is a fact and it was impossible not to notice that there is nothing much in the stores. One kind only of each product. To this day I can remember the food shortage, how my mother stood in a queue to be able to buy tangerines, how she sew my clothes and, unfortunately, how she cut my hair. (laughter)
Who did you actually go there with?
With my former boyfriend… (laughter)
What? You are not together anymore? It has been a great love… a new one at that! I am confused.
He was my friend; I have known him for nine years. We had been let's say, dating. Back then. Then we stayed as buddies and a few months ago we told ourselves that we are both old and that we could give it a go again as a couple, so we tried… and we´ve found out that friendship worked a little better.
I see. And this friendship - did this attempt destroy it?
No, we are still friends. I know that it is a cliché, but it really is so. I still have keys from his home because of the dogs; I go to see them. And we still like each other. If he needs me to, I will clean his house, do the washing, cooking, unless of course he finds a girlfriend. (laughter)
I am sorry to hear that, I was looking forward to some topics such as love and weddings and so on.
I regret it too, well, stupid weather. (laughter) and we wouldn´t be talking about weddings anyway…
How old are you?
I will be thirty-nine.
You´ve been living in Prague for almost ten years…
Yes, since 2009.
How do you perceive this single life of an almost 40-year old woman, where most people tell you that you should have children?
I would like to have children, but I would like to have them through love. I do not want to do it just because I should. I cannot imagine that I have a child with someone whom I don´t love… But of course if that doesn´t work I will perhaps go to a bank. But I cannot complain about life as a single. I can say with clear conscience, that compared to some other people I have twice in my life truly loved. But I cannot stop comparing the feelings I had then to those I am experiencing now. And the current ones don´t even come close. Once I feel dissatisfied, I panic easily and then I walk away. Gemini. (laughter)
I understand, I feel it similarly, I would not wish to have a child with someone whom I do not love, because in the end I would by myself with the child anyway.
I would not even mind to be by myself, but of course I want the child to have a father and to be financially secure. Therefore I simply would not risk it. You never know what can happen and the other one should simply be the support, mental, physical as well as financial. Nowadays money is terribly important.
Wow... we have stumbled over quite a difficult subject. Better to go back to those beauties of single life?
I enjoy my life, I have time for myself, I do when I want what I want… When you have the right partner, you can actually also do what you like, but I cannot put up with jealousy. I mean the heavier kind, otherwise jealousy is quite cute.
I will change the subject completely. We are sitting in the theatre Hybernia, and I would like to say that you seem to me to look like ... Autumn…?
I am queen of natural forces. I am spring, summer, autumn and winter. I command the wind (laughter), water, air, everything.
Do you enjoy it?
Yes. Certainly. It is a continuation of Drop of Honey for Verunka where I played one of the main characters. Finally I got a positive role. I always play such bad, evil shrews, so now I am finally good.
What are you like in reality?
Something in between. Friends say that I am good… and that we have great times together. (laughter)
Martina, I didn´t know that you can sing.
Almost no one did. (laughter)
I just want to say that to be an actor/vocalist is simply a vocation, it is difficult to make a living. How long have you been rehearsing Queen Kapeska before you began to perform and thus earn?
For me to start earning at all, there had to be 3in1. I have been making a living through musicals for six years now and we have rehearsed this one for about two months. For two months you go to work from morning to night for free.
That is fascinating...
It fascinates me, too. (laughter)
How is it possible that one can manage it?
You cannot really manage it, unless you are Lucie Bílá. You have to have some cash put aside if you don´t want to leave early from rehearsals. You simply have to have some savings....like the fairground men.
And what do you enjoy doing?
What I like doing the best is the Čechomor band, where I sing. In a bit we will go on a tour, we start on 22nd April in Bechyně. We so many concerts planned before the end of the year, I really enjoy it and it fulfils me. My diary is really stuffed, we will also go to festivals abroad.
To be taken on by a band had to be a great breakthrough for you.
It´s the greatest luck that could happen to me in my music career and I will continue to be proud of it for the rest of my life.
Who would have thought it since by profession you are a goldsmith?
No, no, I was trained as jewellery saleswoman. Not a goldsmith… But the pay there was only three thousand before tax, so I went to be a waitress. That was a little bit better. (laughter)
Can you remind our readers who and when discovered that you can sing?
When I worked at one restaurant, I sang a little and some enjoyed it, some were swearing… (laughter) I´ve been singing since childhood, but I never went to any singing lessons. Then one of my buddies tried to recruit me a little but I let that go. And after a while my friends told me to go into X Factor. And that was hell.
Why hell?
I had terrible stage fright. Terrible. That was when my parents heard me sing for the first time. I mean like on stage with a microphone in hand. My father wept. That was well done, he made me cry too, thanks Daddy, so I nearly could not sing at all.
How long have you been in 3in1?
For about three years.
So it´s been almost three years ago when I asked you whether you make any money out of it. And you all laughed, saying not at all.
Well, we did for fun, simple pleasure.
And today? How many records have you got?
I don´t even know, but it is true that now we make some profit, but unfortunately we have not shot anything for a long time now, simply because we don´t have the time.
Aren´t the videos ordered by companies?
They even order some, but as I say, we haven´t been shooting anything, because for that we have to think up the whole thing, meet up and shoot it. Nikol has a baby, Veronika is still shooting the First Republic series, I has rehearsals, now the band Čechomor… it is not simple to play all the time. (laughter)
So in fact now the business is at a standstill.
Yeah, but we still have Instagram… we spend some time on that, too. (laughter)
This reminds me that you girls are on radio Europe 2.
Yes, we have a night programme, 3in1, we broadcast from eight to ten every evening from Monday to Thursday.
What are the topics like, usually?
Sometimes a bit bizarre things, sometimes the tabloids, relationships, but it always ends up at the same topic … how to say it politely. Excretion. (laughter)
You said that 3in1 to you means mainly friendship, but nevertheless three women... It must be quiet before storm sometimes.
Look I also say, that guys are better friends, but here is the fact that we are adults here, not an elementary school, moreover, we are all half-guys... (laughter). We don´t argue at all when we are thinking up the topics, sometimes there is a growl, but it is all soon over. We are not gossipy bitches, we speak openly. Three graces on one rubbish-heap. It is difficult, but manageable. (laughter) I must say that we are really true girlfriends around and I thing for ever. We support each other in anything. Always, when there is some mishap it is them whom I call, with whom I analyse it. And that is a two-way road.
That is great, few people have that nowadays. But do you still go to České Budějovice? Do you still have friends there, for example from school?
Sure, I have friends from both the first class elementary as well as the training college. I try to see them when I go there, but I confess and here I can also say that I am sorry that now it is a bit difficult. If I go there at all it is to see my parents and my sister. It is priority for me.
Does your sister have children?
My sister is four years older and has an almost eleven year old son. He tells me that I am the crazy aunt, or ´aunt from China´. I do not know well why from China exactly... I was supposed to come for a weekend, my sister counted on it, and instead I shared photos from JAR. And he commented that I am crazy, that I promise to come and then travel to the end of the world. So I am crazy aunt. In the past he didn´t pay much attention, but now he giggles nicely. I am kind of cheeky with him...
You are cheeky somehow in general.
Yes, with all children. They are all little skunks. I never call them anything else in the theatre either. I like to tease them and irritate them and bit, but that does not mean that I don´t like them; on the contrary, I love kids and I will be the best Mom in the world.
Now tell me how do you take care of yourself.
I regularly go to Asklepion, where they take care of me from head to toe. Mainly for a facial. I enjoy Phytomer, Nuxe, Babor. For make-up I like Mac or Lancome and I love white Nivea´s body cream. Nothing smells as good as white Nivea, for over 20 years. (laughter)
Do you enjoy this pampering?
Yes, but the truth is that there is precious little time for that now. I am neglecting myself now but of course I soon intend to change that.
What about fashion?
Well I enjoy clothes, I´ve recently bought shoes by Laboutin, that was a real treat. I think that I will not even wear them, that I will just look at them at home, so as not to destroy them. (laughter) They are heavenly. It was my dream. I have always wanted them.
What else do you have as another dream from the world of fashion and luxury?
Hey, I would like a Birkin. I have a bedsit in Budějovice I could sell… (laughter) To be able to invest in this handbag, I would have to make a million per month. And anyway… I would probably rather buy a new car or a house…or simply a proper holiday.
I would scratch it straight away, I just throw them somewhere… once I bought Prada and it looks as if it´s been chewed up by a cow.
I am also interested in sport, you have always worked hard on yourself.
I love beach volleyball but there simply isn´t any time.
Don´t tell me that!
I swear. If I am ever free now, I just lie down, that´s a fact. But I have to start again, I know, Karel Frýd keeps writing to me asking when do we start. In addition, I can see how it all looses the tone, I´ve put on weight... I quite enjoy food, I love sweets. I put on six kilo of fat, everywhere. I was really petite… it is simply awful.
But the fans do not mind
No, they are great. They keep inviting us to Moravia, to the wine cellars, fat, thin, old, they don´t care ...
They do not want to take you as a wife?
Sometimes, when an article is published somewhere that I am single, still or again, men tend to rescue me, but although it is nice I am perhaps a bit choosy, it is not particularly attractive to me.
Martina and you happy?
Yes, I am. I am happy, even though sometimes I am sad. But when I am with Čechomor on stage, it is the top.
Thank you so much for the interview.
