Biography
The very mention of Rula Lenska calls to mind the 1970s and the British pop/rock sound of that decade, although singing was never her main pursuit. Born Rosa-Marie Leopoldnya Lubienska in England to a Polish-descended family, she stood at the heart of the era’s pop culture and even attained a measure of media-icon status in the United States. From childhood she had set her sights on acting; she trained at drama school and, in the process, adopted a shorter professional name. By her own account in an interview on the Rock Follies website, her father used to call her Zlota Kula, meaning "little golden ball," referring to her curls as a young girl, and Kula got intermingled with Rosa and became Rula, while Lenska was a shortening of Lubienska.
Her first professional appearance came in a Francis Durbridge thriller on the West End stage. The decisive breakthrough arrived with her casting as Q in the television series Rock Follies, first broadcast on British screens and subsequently on American public television. The program chronicled an all-female rock band whose songs were composed and recorded by Andy Mackay of Roxy Music. Although Julie Covington supplied the principal vocal focus, Lenska’s striking appearance and air of exoticism formed a central part of the show’s visual identity; she contributed harmony vocals, if not at Covington’s vocal standard. Her own natural singing voice is notably deep, recalling the timbre of Marlene Dietrich or, decades later, Nico, yet within the series and the fictional group she remained a harmony singer.
She proved sufficiently capable to record later with Mackay’s studio ensemble the Explorers. The Rock Follies album displaced Led Zeppelin’s latest release from the summit of the U.K. charts in 1976 and was succeeded by a second LP, Rock Follies of 77. Thereafter Lenska devoted herself chiefly to acting and is best remembered in America for a series of Alberta VO5 commercials in which her name was prominently featured, rendering her one of those figures known primarily for being famous.
Her first professional appearance came in a Francis Durbridge thriller on the West End stage. The decisive breakthrough arrived with her casting as Q in the television series Rock Follies, first broadcast on British screens and subsequently on American public television. The program chronicled an all-female rock band whose songs were composed and recorded by Andy Mackay of Roxy Music. Although Julie Covington supplied the principal vocal focus, Lenska’s striking appearance and air of exoticism formed a central part of the show’s visual identity; she contributed harmony vocals, if not at Covington’s vocal standard. Her own natural singing voice is notably deep, recalling the timbre of Marlene Dietrich or, decades later, Nico, yet within the series and the fictional group she remained a harmony singer.
She proved sufficiently capable to record later with Mackay’s studio ensemble the Explorers. The Rock Follies album displaced Led Zeppelin’s latest release from the summit of the U.K. charts in 1976 and was succeeded by a second LP, Rock Follies of 77. Thereafter Lenska devoted herself chiefly to acting and is best remembered in America for a series of Alberta VO5 commercials in which her name was prominently featured, rendering her one of those figures known primarily for being famous.
Singles
