MC Erik & Barbara: Haščáková’s departure upset me, Aresta admitted

Although Erik Aresta and Barbara Haščáková formed an inseparable duo in the nineties and every teenager of that time knew their songs by heart, they parted ways. She moved to America, where she eventually died mysteriously, while he remained at his birthplace. “We were in occasional contact, we used to write to each other on holidays, I liked to send her photos of my daughter, but we did not discuss her privacy,” Aresta stated for the Slovak daily Pluska.sk. “It was more or less about such polite messages between us. The last time we wrote to each other was around October, roughly a month before her death.’

To this day, he realizes that he owes her success. “It’s nice that I was able to compose songs, but that’s half the battle.” Her voice made our songs so that now I can jump around the stage, sing, even with another singer, but I can make a living from music. I am very grateful to Barbara for this. I’m doing something I enjoy. I remember it very fondly. It was quick, though.” you lamented. When Barbara decided to pursue a solo career, it upset him.

Dramatic ending

“I admit I was angry at the time because we had – maybe I’ll release it again – about eight unreleased things, it was already preparation for the third album. Barbara then came to me that she no longer felt that way. I knew she was going to go solo, even though I understood it, but on the other hand, I was angry. I told her that if we finish it, it will be a good launching pad for her and she can come out from a completely different position for the solo. So she didn’t “feel” the third album anymore. You can’t force a person. I was sorry! he confided.

She wanted to be like Madonna

Barbara saw inspiration in Madonna (65) and Michael Jackson (†50), and when she became the winner of the Golden Nightingale in 1999, she saw a great future ahead of her. However, after trials with tabloid journalists, she traveled to America to visit her relatives – and never returned.

“She settled there, found peace there, no one wrote about her there, so she stayed there,” Aresta shrugs today. Even the possibility to record other songs and clips did not convince her, although she would still be a star in Slovakia. “She said to me at the time: ‘You know what, Eric, I’m already used to the life in America, it’s very depressing for me here.'”

Sadness and domestic violence?!

However, the paradox is that she was not particularly happy even behind the big puddle. Although she got married, her marriage to Steven S., a descendant of Czechoslovak emigrants, was not exactly full of sunshine. “He tried to control and manipulate Barbara. Both her husband and his mom kept blaming her. They humiliated her, insulted her, didn’t hold her, didn’t support her, didn’t give her a helping hand,” her friend told Nové Čas. The Slovak newspaper even managed to obtain a file in which it is stated that Haščáková’s husband was arrested in the city of Sarasota at the end of August last year for domestic violence…