Edyta Górniak

Edyta Górniak
Edyta Górniak in 2010
Born	(1972-11-14) 14 November 1972 Ziębice, Poland
Occupation	Singer
Spouse(s)	Dariusz Krupa (divorced)
Children	1 (son)
Awards	Gloria Artis Medal
Musical career
Genres	Pop, R&B
Years active	1990–present
Labels	Pomaton EMI, Toshiba EMI, Virgin Music, Agora SA, Anaconda Productions, Universal Music Poland
Website	www.edytagorniak.com
Signature

Edyta Anna Górniak (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 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.

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. 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.^[1]

"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. It brought 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 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.

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). However, the mediocre success of the singles When You Come Back to Me (it was popular especially in Scandinavia and Portugal) and One & One (minor hit in France and Germany) limited the album's global impact with sales of 350,000 copies internationally, including 150,000 copies 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 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. 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.

Falling sales

In 1999, Edyta began a tour through Poland and released internationally the concert album Live '99 in September 1999. 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. A brand new club tune Impossible 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.

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". Without any promotion all these songs also flopped on charts.

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, just like her previous album, and all without promotion.

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.

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
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