| Edyta Górniak | |
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Edyta Górniak, 2010 |
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| Background information | |
| Born | 14 November 1972 Ziębice, Poland |
| Genres | Pop |
| Occupations | Singer |
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Labels | EMI, Virgin Records, Sony Music |
| Website | www.edytagorniak.com |
Edyta Górniak (born 14 November 1972 in Ziębice, Poland) is one of the most popular female singers from Poland.
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At the age of 14 Górniak 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 with an honourable mention. During the next three years she was the star of the musical Metro ("Subway") - the most popular and longest running homegrown musical in Polish history and in two music performances Do grającej szafy grosik wrzuć ("Put a Dime in the Jukebox") -- with classic Polish pop songs from the pre-rock'n'roll era and Brel -Polish versions of songs by the Belgian French-speaking singer-songwriter Jacques Brel. In 1993 Górniak took part in the Baltic Song Contest and finished in third place.
In 1994 Górniak 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".
"To nie ja" proved to be her breakthrough in Poland, becoming there the biggest hit of 1994. Górniak was signed to Pomaton-EMI. Her first studio album Dotyk ("The Touch") released a year later, sold half-million copies in Poland, bringing new hits "Jestem kobietą" ("I'm a Woman") and the eponymous "Dotyk", which was the biggest Polish hit of 1995. In 1996 she signed a contract in London with EMI International for five albums. However, she continued recording also 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 released her first English-language album Edyta Górniak a year later. It was produced by Christopher Neil, who was responsible for the international success of Celine Dion. However, the mediocre success of the singles When You Come Back To Me (especially in Scandinavia and Portugal) and One & One (especially in France and Germany) limited the album's global impact, with sales of 350,000 copies internationally, including 150,000 copies sold in Poland. 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 #1 in Europe and Perfect Moment by Martine McCutcheon in 1999 - it went to #1 in the U.K. During the promotion of that album, Górniak had another two hits recorded for her Polish audience: Lustro ("Mirror") - Polish version of Reflection from the Disney movie Mulan 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 Górniak began a tour through Poland and released the concert album Live ´99. In 2002 she was dropped from EMI International and signed to Virgin Germany. Then her next international album Perła ("Pearl") was released in Poland, a year before its international premiere. It was produced by the team Absolute, which was responsible for the success of The Spice Girls. The Polish edition was a double album, which contained seven songs in Polish, and included such hits as Jak najdalej ("As Far As Possible") and Nie proszę o więcej ("I'm Not Asking for More").
Górniak was also asked to sing the Polish National Anthem at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, but her performance had a decidedly mixed reception. In 2003 an English-language version of Perła was released internationally under the title Invisible, with the club tune Impossible, which was the first international single from the album. Its mediocre success only in Germany, Austria and Switzerland made Invisible a commercial flop with over ten times worse international sales than her previous studio album. Anyway, 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.
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 Górniak's 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 May 2005, she released the single Lunatique, which was performed in French. In November, Edyta married Dariusz Krupa.
In February 2006 she appeared on the cover of Polish edition of Playboy magazine for the third time and released another club single Sexuality. Both singles recorded with Mathplanete flopped on charts, so Górniak dumped the idea of recording club music. She began working on her new international pop album, seeking a new major record label. She chose Sony BMG and the first result of this new direction was the song Cygańskie serce ("Gypsy Heart") in June. In December she released her English-language single Loving You. In January 2007 Górniak sang another movie theme, this time for the Polish-language version of the animated Spanish movie Dragon Hill. Without any promotion all these songs also flopped on charts.
From March 2007 to November 2009 Górniak appeared as the juror in six seasons of TV show "Jak oni śpiewają" ("Soapstar Superstar"), in which stars from popular Polish soap operas competed for a record deal.
Her first studio album in five years, E.K.G., finally was recorded for independent label Agora. 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 written for Górniak. E.K.G. has moved 40,000 copies in Poland, just like her previous album, and all without promotion.
In November 2008 Górniak 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. In 2009 Górniak's marriage was over and she left their own independent label. Initially, Edyta announced that she will release her fifth studio album in Summer 2010 in her new own label. Later, however, it was postponed several times until 2012. The first single rom this album was Teraz - tu ("Now - Here"), released in January 2011. Górniak directed video for this single, which was premiered in June. On the same month another single, On The Run, was sent to radio stations. Its video, co-directed by Górniak, was premiered in August. In October her new single Oj... kotku was premiered, which was the movie theme from the Polish comedy Pokaż kotku, co masz w środku. Its video was released in November and the song was sent to radio stations in December. Full album will be released in February 2012.
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |||||||||
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| GER | AUS | SWI | FRA | BEL (Fla) | BEL (Wal) | NOR | SWE | FIN | AFR | . | ||
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"When You Come Back To Me" |
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"Anything" |
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"One & One" |
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"Impossible" |
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| Year | Title | Chart positions | Sales | |||||||||
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| GER | AUS | SWI | FRA | BEL (Fla) | BEL (Wal) | NOR | SWE | FIN | AFR | . | ||
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Edyta Górniak |
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Invisible/Perła |
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Edyta Górniak participated in the 12th season of Polish Dancing with the Stars - Taniec z Gwiazdami. She was eliminated after the semifinal round.
| Week # | Dance/Song | Judges' score | Result | |||
| Pavlović | Wodecki | Tyszkiewicz | Galiński | |||
| 1 | Group Salsa/ "Honeymoon Song" | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Safe |
| 2 | Quickstep/ "Sparkling Diamonds" | 7 | 10 | 10 | 7 | Safe |
| 3 | Tango/ "El Tango de Roxanne" | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | Safe |
| 4 | Paso Doble/ "Paso Royale" | 8 | 9 | 10 | 8 | Safe |
| 5 | Viennese Waltz/ "Wspomnienie" | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | Safe |
| 6 | Salsa/ "La Vida es un Carnaval" | 8 | 9 | 10 | 8 | Safe |
| 7 | Jive/ "Chłopaki nie płaczą" | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | Safe |
| 8 | Waltz/ "Angel" | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | Safe |
| 9 | Samba/ "Tyle słońca w całym mieście" | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | Safe |
| 10 | Foxtrot/ "Manhattan" Salsa/ "La Luz del Ritmo" |
7 8 |
10 10 |
10 10 |
7 10 |
Bottom Two |
| 11 | Quickstep/ "Jožin z bažin" Rumba/ "Liberian Girl" |
7 10 |
9 10 |
10 10 |
8 10 |
Safe |
| 12 Semi-finals |
Cha-Cha-Cha/ "Sway" Argentine Tango/ "Tango De Los Asesinos" |
9 10 |
9 10 |
10 10 |
9 10 |
Eliminated |
| Preceded by first artist |
Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1994 |
Succeeded by Justyna Steczkowska with "Sama" |
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