Edyta Górniak

Edyta Górniak MMC
Edyta Górniak in 2010
Born	(1972-11-14) 14 November 1972 Ziębice, Poland
Occupation	Singer
Spouse(s)	Dariusz Krupa (divorced)
Children	1 (son)
Musical career
Genres	Pop, R&B
Years active	1989–present
Labels	Pomaton EMI, Toshiba EMI, Virgin Music, Agora SA, Anaconda Productions, Universal Music Poland
Website	www.edytagorniak.com
Signature

Bronze MMC ribbon

Edyta Anna Górniak, MMC (Polish pronunciation: [ɛ'dɨta 'gurɲak]) (born 14 November 1972, Ziębice, Poland), one of the most popular Polish pop singers in history of Polish music, noted for possessing a wide vocal range of approximately four octaves. She started as a musical theatre actress in 1990. Górniak performed in the most popular musical in Polish history called Metro. Some shows of Metro took place on Broadway. With the performance at the Eurovision Song Contest 1994 she began her career as a pop singer in her native country and internationally. So far, Edyta has sold over 2 million albums and was featured on more than 160 magazine covers. The readers of "Maxim" magazine's internet site have voted her their most beautiful international cover girl. Edyta remains today arguably one of Poland's most gifted and beautiful singers.^[1]

Biography

Beginnings

At the age of 14 Edyta formed a band and was playing at private parties and evening dances. After taking singing lessons, in 1989, aged 16, she gave her first public appearance on a Polish television talent show where she won with Sam Brown's hit song "Stop!". In 1990 she performed on the Opole Polish Song Festival in a contest for debuting singers with an honourable mention. During the next three years she performed in music theatres. She was the star of the musical Metro ("Subway") – the most popular and longest running homegrown musical in Polish history, which brought her to Broadway. Her beauty was noticed and was offered a job by "Ellite" model agency (New York), but Edyta rejected it preferring to continue her career as a singer. Later she sang in three musical performances Do grającej szafy grosik wrzuć ("Put a Dime in the Jukebox") with classic Polish pop songs from the pre-rock'n'roll era, Blues Minus，with songs of Polish author Jonasz Kofta and Brel ，with Polish versions of songs by the Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel. In 1993 Edyta took part in the Baltic Song Contest in Sweden and finished in third place.

Eurovision breakthrough

In 1994, Edyta was the first Polish artist to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, in which she claimed a highly creditable second place, which still stands as Poland's best showing in the contest. Her song was "To nie ja" ("That's Not Me"), which was also released on a single in English as "Once in a Lifetime". Górniak was threatened with disqualification after singing the second half of the song in English during the dress rehearsal watched by the national jury members.^[2]

"To nie ja" proved to be her breakthrough in Poland, becoming there the biggest hit of 1994. Edyta was signed to Polish division of EMI. Her first studio album Dotyk ("The Touch") was released a year later, in May 1995 and sold half-million copies in Poland. Eleven songs in this album were performed in Polish. It brought new hits "Jestem kobietą" ("I'm a Woman") and the eponymous "Dotyk", which was the biggest Polish hit of 1995. Edyta Gorniak with her wonderful voice and original beauty simply became an idol of young people in Poland. Year 1995 was Edyta’s year. For her work she won many prizes and awards, for: The best Artist, The best Debut, The most wonderful song, The best Singer.In 1996 she signed a contract in London with EMI International for five albums. However, she continued recording for the Polish market, and had three more hits in Poland: Kolorowy wiatr ("Colourful Wind") – Polish version of "Colors of the Wind" from the Disney movie Pocahontas, a club hit Love Is on the Line (which was written by Kylie Minogue) and "To Atlanta!" ("It's Atlanta") – Polish hymn of the 1996 Olympic Games.

Edyta Górniak is one of the best selling Polish artists in history.

International career

Edyta released her first English-language album Edyta Górniak a year later, in November 1997. It was produced by Christopher Neil, who was responsible for the international success of Celine Dion. Songs were written by writers of many legendary pop classics like: Billy Steinberg ("Like A Virgin" for Madonna), Simon Climie ("I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" for Aretha Franklin and George Michael), George Merrill and Shannon Rubican ("I Wanna Dance With Somebody" for Whitney Houston), Siedah Garrett ("Man in the Mirror" for Michael Jackson) or Rick Nowels ("Falling into You" for Celine Dion). The single When You Come Back to Me quickly became a hit. In Asia it was on the third place (only Madonna and Spice girls were better) on MTV’s top list, in other Asian countries it was always in the top five. In Portugal "When you come back to me” was in the top ten on their music charts for over half of the year! This song was so popular that it was even played in a popular TV series in Portugal. And probably the popularity of that series also contributed to the success of Edyta’s new album. It became a PLATINUM ALBUM in Portugal. Another single "One & One” took third place In Switzerland, and became a minor hit in France and Germany. "One & One" led Edyta as the first Polish singer in the Music & Media's European Radio Top 50 airplay chart. The big promotion was on. Edyta, before Japanese premiere was invited to Tokyo, where she spent a week meeting with the promoters from the whole of Asia. She gave interviews for many Asian well known newspapers (read by about 10 million people!),for Japanese MTV, and for many radio stations.She also sang in the special promotional concert, made by Toshiba – EMI where the Japanese could listen to Edyta’s newest song on the Internet.The album "Edyta Gorniak" was a big success in Scandinavia. In Norway it went Gold. In Poland it went gold after one week and platinum after one month.The album sold 500,000 copies internationally, including 150,000 copies in Poland. Fred Bronson, the journalist appearing weekly "Chart Beat" column in Billboard magazine,regarded the album "Edyta Gorniak" as the top 20 albums of the year 1998 all over the world in his column.^[3] Two songs from that album were successfully covered by other artists: One & One by Robert Miles in 1996 (before Edyta's original version was released as a single) – it went to No. 1 on the European singles chart and Perfect Moment by Martine McCutcheon in 1999 – it went to No. 1 in the U.K. During the promotion of her international album, Górniak gave concert in Poland with legendary tenor José Carreras and recorded with him a new hit Hope For Us in 1997,which was recorded in three countries: in Poland the choir and the Orchestra was recorded, in Great Britain the guitar and in the USA the voices of both vocalists. In the beginning of 1998 Edyta went back to London for few days. In the middle of January she flew to the South Africa. From there she flew to Asia. Year 1998 is the year of no ending promotions and concerts all over the world. She also had two more hits recorded for her Polish audience: Lustro ("Mirror") – Polish version of Reflection from the Disney movie Mulan in 1998 and Dumka na dwa serca ("Dumy on Two Hearts") – theme from the Polish film With Fire and Sword, which became the biggest Polish hit of 1999.

In 1999, Edyta began a tour through Poland and released internationally the concert album Live '99 in September 1999. In year 2000 Edyta won the first prize for the best Eurovision song of the last decade. The celebration took place in Spain and was live on Spanish Television – TVE. Edyta was the only artist, who sang live. In 2002, she was dropped from EMI International and signed to Virgin Germany. Her second international studio album was released in Poland in March 2002 under the title Perła ("Pearl"), a year before its international premiere. It was written and produced mainly by the team Absolute, which earlier worked for Tina Turner and The Spice Girls. New songs also were written by Steve Kipner ("Genie in a Bottle" for Christina Aguilera) and John Reid ("When The Heartache Is Over" for Tina Turner). The Polish edition was a double album, which contained additional seven songs in Polish, including hits Jak najdalej ("As Far As Possible") and Nie proszę o więcej ("I'm Not Asking for More").

Edyta was also asked to sing the Polish National Anthem at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, but her performance had a decidedly mixed reception. In March 2003 international version of Perła was released, under the title Invisible. Edyta sang also in Spanish, French and Italian and these songs would be released on local versions of the album. Edyta presented her new material in Rome on July 2001. A brand new club tune Impossible was the first international single from the album. Its success in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Czech made Invisible at the top 40 of the European albums chart. The Polish version called Perła had quite good results in her native country in a time of phonographic crisis, selling 40,000 units. A year later she was dropped from Virgin and after ten years of cooperation she also left her Polish label. In that time she had another hit in Poland, Nie było ("Wasn't"), recorded with Polish metal band Sweet Noise.

Independent music

That same year she gave birth to her son, Allan. The father of her child was Dariusz Krupa, who worked with her as a guitarist. Together with Krupa she founded their own independent label, EG.Production and Krupa became her manager. First she started a collaboration with the Polish production team Mathplanete to record her new Polish album in a brand new style, with chill-out club music. In 2005, she released the single Lunatique, which was performed in French. That year she married Dariusz Krupa.

Gorniak performing in 2006.

To promote another club single Sexuality in 2006, Edyta appeared on the cover of Polish edition of Playboy magazine for the third time. Both singles recorded with Mathplanete flopped on charts, so she dumped the idea of recording club music. The same year she began working on her new international pop album, seeking a new major record label. She chose Sony BMG and the first results of this new direction were the songs Cygańskie serce ("Gypsy Heart") and Loving You. In 2007, she sang another movie theme, this time for the Polish-language version of the animated Spanish movie "Dragon Hill".

From March 2007 to November 2009, Edyta appeared as a judge in six seasons of Polish version of the TV show "Soapstar Superstar", in which stars of soap operas competed for a record deal.

Her first studio album in five years, E.K.G., finally was recorded for her own label. It was released in October 2007 and promoted by the single and her first video in almost five years, List ("Letter"). It was a Polish version of Celine Dion's "I Surrender", which originally was given to Edyta. E.K.G. has moved 40,000 copies in Poland.

Return on top

In November 2008 Edyta released a single To nie tak jak myślisz ("It's Not How You Think"), which was the movie theme from the Polish comedy "To nie tak jak myślisz, kotku". This song became another breakthrough in her career – her first after six years of absence in Polish radio and music television. She also recorded her Christmas album Zakochaj się na Święta w kolędach ("Fall in Love With Carols on Christmas"), released in December with the biggest newspaper in Poland, "Gazeta Wyborcza". In 2009 Edyta's marriage was over and she left their own independent label. In 2010 she took part in Taniec z gwiazdami, Polish edition of the TV show "Dancing with the Stars".

In 2011 Edyta released the first single from her fifth studio album, Teraz – tu ("Now – Here") and directed its video. Another single, On The Run, also had video co-directed by her. Later that year she released the single Oj... kotku ("Oh... Kitty"), which was the movie theme from the Polish comedy "Pokaż kotku, co masz w środku". Full album My ("We") was postponed several times until February 2012. It was released by her new own independent label Anaconda. Next hits were singles Nie zapomnij ("Don't Forget") and the first dance tune since Impossible, Consequences.

Also in 2012 she took part in the Polish edition of the TV show "Clash of the Choirs". The same year Edyta gave her second concert in Poland together with José Carreras. In 2013 she recorded Frank Sinatra's classic All The Way, together with Matt Dusk and became a judge of the third series of The Voice of Poland.

In 2014 Edyta signed a new record deal with Universal Music and released three singles from her forthcoming sixth studio album: Your High with two different videos, Glow On (both in 2014) and Oczyszczenie (2015). She also returned to The Voice of Poland as a judge for its fifth (2014) and sixth (2015) season.

In February 2016 she will release her new single "Grateful", which she submitted for Polish national final for Eurovision Song Contest 2016.

Discography

"Dancing with the Stars"

Edyta Górniak participated in the 12th season of Polish Dancing with the Stars – Taniec z Gwiazdami. She was eliminated after the semifinal round.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edyta Górniak.

• Edyta Górniak – Official Site
• Message board