Schwesta Ewa

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Schwesta Ewa

| image = Schwesta Ewa - Pressefoto 2019.jpeg

| caption = Schwesta Ewa in 2019

| image_size =

| alias = Ewa Malanda
Ewa Müller

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1984|07|16|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Koszalin, Poland

| origin = Frankfurt, Germany

| genre = German hip hop

| occupation = Rapper

| years_active = 2012–present

| label = {{ill|Alles oder Nix Records|lt=Alles oder Nix|de}}

| associated_acts = Xatar

| website =

}}

{{lang|de|Ewa Malanda|italic=no}} (formerly Ewa Müller; born 16 July 1984), known under her stage name Schwesta Ewa, is a Polish rapper in the German music scene.

Ewa's family was stranded in Germany while en route to the United States when she was a child.{{cite magazine|author=Jakob Paur|title=Schwesta Ewa – The Art of Storytelling|magazine=Juice|issue=161|year=2014|pages=40–43|url=http://juice.de/schwesta-ewa-the-art-of-storytelling-interview/|language=German|accessdate=18 November 2016}} She rose to fame in Frankfurt, where she originally moved in order to work as a prostitute. While working, she met the rapper Xatar, who signed her to his record label, and her first album, {{lang|pl|Kurwa}}, reached number 11 on the German album chart.{{cite news|url=http://www.fr-online.de/frankfurt/schwesta-ewa-rapperin-soll-fans-zu-prostitution-gezwungen-haben-%2C1472798%2C34945794.html|date=17 November 2016|accessdate=18 November 2016|title=Rapperin soll Fans zu Prostitution gezwungen haben|author=Kathrin Rosendorff|newspaper=Frankfurter Rundschau|language=German}}

In November 2016, Ewa was arrested and later convicted of bodily harm, abuse of minors and tax violations in connection with the prostitution of five of her fans, some of whom were underage.{{cite news|url=http://www.focus.de/kultur/musik/fuerchterlicher-verdacht-machte-schwester-ewa-minderjaehrige-fans-zu-prostituierten_id_6215286.html|title=Machte "Schwesta Ewa" minderjährige Fans zu Prostituierten?|newspaper=Focus|date=16 November 2016|accessdate=18 November 2016|language=German}}{{cite news|url=http://www.focus.de/kultur/musik/verdacht-auf-zuhaelterei-polizei-ermittelte-seit-monaten-gegen-rapperin-schwesta-ewa_id_6221234.html|title=Polizei ermittelte seit Monaten gegen Rapperin "Schwesta Ewa"|newspaper=Focus|date=18 November 2016|accessdate=18 November 2016|language=German}} She was released in February 2021.{{cite news|url=https://www.fnp.de/frankfurt/schwesta-ewa-rapperin-knast-gefaengnis-frankfurt-tochter-instagram-entlassung-frei-zr-90189017.html|title=Skandal-Rapperin Schwesta Ewa ist frei – Doch die Zeit im Knast hinterlässt Spuren bei ihrer Tochter|author=Kerstin Kesselgruber|date=4 February 2021|accessdate=12 February 2021|website=Frankfurter Neue Presse|language=German}}

Early life

File:Frankfurt Bahnhofsviertel 873-h.jpg

{{lang|de|Ewa Müller|italic=no}} was born 16 July 1984 in Koszalin, Poland to a predominantly jewish and otherwise religiously diverse family.{{cite video|title=Schwesta Ewa bei Letzte Runde #3|chapter= Mein Vater ist ein Mörder|series=Letzte Runde|date=26 May 2014|accessdate=18 November 2016|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6gMtGkVb98}} She is an atheist.{{cite video|title=Schwesta Ewa bei Letzte Runde #3|chapter= Mein Vater ist ein Mörder|series=Letzte Runde|date=26 May 2014|accessdate=18 November 2016|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6gMtGkVb98}} Her father was arrested and imprisoned on the charge of murder while Ewa's mother was pregnant, and so {{lang|de|Ewa|italic=no}} spent the first three years of her life in hiding – her mother feared that the family of the victim would attack her in revenge.

When {{lang|de|Ewa|italic=no}} was 3 years old, her mother left Poland and headed for West Berlin, with the aim of seeking asylum in the United States. Her mother was approved for a Green Card but was then convicted of theft. The Green Card was withdrawn, leaving the family stranded in Germany. {{lang|de|Ewa|italic=no}} grew up in a refugee home, and later a women's shelter, in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, at the time in West Germany. Her mother married a German man, and {{lang|de|Ewa|italic=no}} took her stepfather's surname, Müller. {{lang|de|Ewa|italic=no}} has two brothers born in Germany, who know that she worked as a prostitute. {{lang|de|Ewa|italic=no}}'s mother does not know about her career, and she is no longer in contact with her father.

At the age of 16, Ewa began working as a bartender at a bar in Kiel's red light district, while studying at a {{lang|de|Realschule}} (the middle rank of high school in the German school system) to become an occupational therapist, but failed her final exam, which {{lang|de|Ewa|italic=no}} subsequently attributed to smoking cannabis.

{{lang|de|Ewa|italic=no}} began sex work at the brothel in the back of the bar. She then moved to Bonn, and then on to Frankfurt's {{lang|de|Bahnhofsviertel}} red light district. Her alias there was "{{lang|pl|Anja|italic=no}}", for which she adopted a false Polish accent.{{cite video|title=Schwesta Ewa bei Letzte Runde #4|chapter= "Ich war auf Crack"|series=Letzte Runde|date=26 May 2014|accessdate=18 November 2016|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6gMtGkVb98}} There, she was able to earn €20,000–30,000 a month as a prostitute, but also became addicted to crack cocaine. Suffering under its effects, her looks deteriorated and her earnings began to decrease, until she was forced to give up cold turkey.

Career

File:Out4Fame-Festival 2016 - Xatar.JPG, Ewa's mentor and label boss|upright=1.1|alt=A bearded man wearing sunglasses, a chain, and a T-shirt reading 'CHABOS', rapping on-stage.]]

Her breakthrough came at a party in Bonn, where she met the rapper and record label boss Xatar. Xatar was impressed by her voice and became her friend. He later signed her and became her mentor, sending her to London to practice her rapping.

In December 2009, Xatar and seven accomplices robbed €1.7 million of gold from a transporter lorry. Xatar fled to Iraq, where he was caught and arrested in February 2010.{{cite news|url=http://www.stuttgart-journal.de/tp/pool/nachrichten-stuttgart/sj/2010/02/19/news/goldraub-von-ludwigsburg-xatar-im-irak-festgenommen/|title=Goldraub von Ludwigsburg – Xatar im Irak festgenommen|language=German|date=19 February 2010|newspaper=Stuttgart Journal|accessdate=18 November 2016}}{{cite news|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/xatar-in-prison-111/|title=Xatar in Prison|newspaper=Vice|access-date=18 November 2016}} Xatar's flight and subsequent arrest impacted {{lang|de|Ewa|italic=no}}'s career – she found herself "twiddling her thumbs", unable to share her tracks with him. However, she also decided that she would not go back to prostitution – her promotion as a rapper meant that she was now famous, and she was worried about returning to drugs. She has described rap as a form of music therapy, helping her work through her past.

With Xatar running his record label from prison, {{lang|de|Schwesta Ewa|italic=no}} eventually managed to appear on the song "Beifall" from Xatar's album 415 and on "Frauen" on Hinterhofjargon by {{ill|Celo & Abdi|de}}. Her first mixtape, {{lang|de|Realität}} ("Reality") was released on 5 October 2012.{{cite web|url=http://www.16bars.de/magazin/4107/interview-schwesta-ewa-ueber-realitaet/|title=Interview: Schwesta Ewa über "Realität"|website=16bars.de|language=German|accessdate=18 November 2016|date=7 October 2012}} No tracks from Realität charted, but her first music video, {{lang|de|"Schwätza"|italic=no}} ("Small Talker") received over six million views on YouTube. After the release of the {{lang|de|"Schwätza"|italic=no}} video in 2011, Ewa gave up prostitution to become a full-time artist.{{cite video|title=Schwesta Ewa bei Letzte Runde #1|chapter=Kein Zurück in den Puff|series=Letzte Runde|date=24 May 2014|accessdate=18 November 2016|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3L4pokEZ_A}}

Her debut album, {{lang|pl|Kurwa|italic=no}} (from the Polish {{lang|pl|kurwa}}, both a slang term for "whore" and a general-purpose expletive; formerly {{lang|de|Dr. Entjungferung}} ("Dr. Deflowering", with "Dr" also standing for {{lang|de|"Deutschrap"}})) was released in January 2015 and reached number 11 in the German album charts.{{cite web|title=Schwesta Ewa/Longplay-Chartverfolgung|url=http://www.musicline.de/de/chartverfolgung_summary/artist/Schwesta+Ewa/longplay|agency=www.musicline.de|accessdate=18 November 2016|language=de|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161119123711/http://www.musicline.de/de/chartverfolgung_summary/artist/Schwesta+Ewa/longplay|archive-date=19 November 2016|url-status=dead}}

=Lyrical content=

Many of {{lang|de|Schwesta Ewa|italic=no}}'s songs cover scenes from her life as a prostitute, and she describes herself as a storytelling rapper; topics include being attacked by johns, and being forced to watch the rape of a friend.

{{lang|de|Ewa|italic=no}} has described herself as uncomfortable on stage and sometimes suffers stage fright. She therefore prefers to rap straight through, without banter or comic routines. However, she is accompanied on tour by strip dancers who perform as she sings.

Bar and arrest

Alongside her rap career, {{lang|de|Schwesta Ewa|italic=no}} opened a bar in Central Frankfurt, {{lang|de|Stoltze|italic=no}}. The bar was raided by police on suspicion that it was an illegal brothel, prompting an angry response from Ewa who wrote on Facebook "This is a bar, not a brothel! [...] I will open a legal brothel in two months. It will pay taxes etc. Don't worry!"{{cite news|url=http://www.fr-online.de/frankfurt/schwesta-ewa-rapperin-soll-fans-zu-prostitution-gezwungen-haben-%2C1472798%2C34945794.html|date=17 November 2016|accessdate=18 November 2016|title=Rapperin soll Fans zu Prostitution gezwungen haben|author=Kathrin Rosendorff|newspaper=Frankfurter Rundschau |language=German |quote= Das ist eine Bar und kein Puff! Hier wird getrunken und nicht gefickt! Ich suche Kellnerinnen und keine Huren! Das legale Bordell mache ich erst in zwei bis Monaten auf. Mit Steuer zahlen und so. Keine Angst. |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161227055405/http://www.fr-online.de/frankfurt/schwesta-ewa-rapperin-soll-fans-zu-prostitution-gezwungen-haben-,1472798,34945794.html |archive-date= 27 December 2016}}

At 8:30 AM on 16 November 2016, Ewa was arrested by a SEK police tactical unit in {{lang|de|Oeventrop|italic=no}}, a district of Arnsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia where she was recording her new album.{{cite news|url=https://www.derwesten.de/staedte/arnsberg/rapperin-schwesta-ewa-in-arnsberg-festgenommen-id12366932.html|title=Rapperin Schwesta Ewa in Arnsberg festgenommen|author=Ilka Wiese|date=17 November 2016|accessdate=21 November 2016|newspaper=Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung|language=German}} She was detained at {{ill|JVA Frankfurt-Preungesheim|de}} on charges of human trafficking for sexual exploitation, pimping, bodily harm, and offenses against the German tax code. {{lang|de|Ewa|italic=no}} had been under investigation by the organised crime department of Frankfurt Police for several months, and was alleged to have brought young female fans, between the ages of 17 and 19, to a hotel room and offered to lend them money for costs such as rent, clothing, cosmetics and petrol, then forced them into prostitution to repay this debt. Following the arrest, Ewa's record label released a statement that her surname had been changed to Malanda.{{cite web|title=Erster Post zu Schwesta Ewas Situation seit der Inhaftierung online|date=24 December 2016|accessdate=9 January 2017|website=hiphop.de|url=http://www.hiphop.de/magazin/news/erster-post-zu-schwesta-ewas-situation-seit-inhaftierung-online-297889}} On 20 June 2017, Malanda was found guilty of 35 counts of bodily harm, tax violations and the abuse of minors, and was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months. She was cleared of pimping and human trafficking, on the grounds that the girls had become prostitutes of their own free will. Malanda's appeals to the Federal Court of Justice ({{Langx|de|Bundesgerichtshof}}) were rejected.{{citation|surname1=FOCUS Online|periodical=FOCUS Online|title=Prostitutionsprozess-Urteil: Schwesta Ewa muss zwei Jahre und sechs Monate in Haft|language=German|url=http://www.focus.de/kultur/rotlicht-prozess-gegen-rapperin-schwesta-ewa-urteil-gefallen-zwei-jahre-und-sechs-monate-haft-im-prostitutions-prozess_id_7262313.html|access-date=20 June 2017

}}

In February 2021, Malanda announced via Instagram that she had been released from prison early for good behavior, having served two-thirds of her sentence. She said that her three-year-old daughter, Aaliyah Jeyla Malanda, had suffered trauma due to being away from her mother.

Discography

File:Schwesta Ewa - Kurwa - Cover.jpg

= Studio albums =

rowspan="2" \|Title ! rowspan="2" scope="col" \| Release ! colspan="3" scope="col" \| Chart position
class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:90%;" \|GER {{cite web\|url=https://www.offiziellecharts.de/suche?artist_search=Schwesta+Ewa&do_search=do\|title=Discografie Schwesta Ewa\|website=offiziellecharts.de\|language=de\|accessdate=13 February 2020}} ! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:90%;" \|AUT {{cite web\|title=Schwesta Ewa Austrian Albums Chart\|url=http://austriancharts.at/search.asp?search=Schwesta%20Ewa&cat=a\|agency=austriancharts.at\|accessdate=18 November 2016\|language=de}} ! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:90%;" \|SWI {{cite web\|title=Schwesta Ewa Swiss Albums Chart\|url=http://hitparade.ch/search.asp?search=Schwesta%20Ewa&cat=a\|agency=hitparade.ch\|accessdate=18 November 2016\|language=de}}
Kurwa \| Released: 9 January 2015{{cite web\|title=Schwesta Ewa – Kurwa\|website=Discogs\|url=http://www.discogs.com/Schwesta-Ewa-Kurwa/release/6506295\|agency=www.discogs.com\|accessdate=18 November 2016\|language=en}} Label: {{lang\|de\|Alles oder Nix\|italic=no}} Records Formats: CD, digital download, streaming, box set \| 11	28	34
Aywa \| Released: 1 June 2018 Label: {{lang\|de\|Alles oder Nix\|italic=no}} Records Formats: CD, digital download, streaming, box set \| 8	20	26
Aaliyah \| Released: 31 January 2020 Label: Alles oder Nix Records Formats: CD, digital download, streaming, box set \| 5	25	—