Andrej Blada was born in Nacina Ves (Michalovce District) in eastern Slovakia in 1939. He was still only a child when he moved with his family to northern Bohemia. He died in Trmice (Ústí nad Labem District) in the Czech Republic in 2006.

Blada spoke the so-called East Slovak or Servika dialect of Romani. During a recording session with the Prague-based researcher Milena Hübschmannová in May 1976, he told a that he had learnt from his father.

On this occasion, Andrej Blada also talked about his deceased mother, who had been a popular storyteller who at weekends had been visited by the Roma of her alone for this reason. He remembered all the tales she told him, especially ‘Tündérszép Ilona’ [Beautiful Fay Ilona]: ‘… že oj te la xudelas te vakeren, ta vakerlas tosarastar dži jepašrat ratji’ (‘… when she started telling it, she spoke from morning till midnight’).