Mika Urbaniak
Quick Facts
Biography
Mika Urbaniak (born as Michelle Urbaniak in 1980 in New York City) is an American pop singer. She is a daughter of prominent Polish jazz musicians Urszula Dudziak and Michał Urbaniak. Born and raised in the United States, she’s been living in Warsaw and London since 2001. Her style is a mixture of pop music, jazz and hip-hop. In 2010, she won the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry award Fryderyk in the category Album of the Year - Pop. She then proceeded to join forces with an extraordinary singer, composer and producer, Victor Davies. He produced Mika’s second album, Follow You, which one the Top Trendy Journalist Award and was accepted with much critical acclaim. A mix of different genres, rock, pop, and new wave, this fresh sounding album was Victor and Mika’s project together, the beginning of a long term music collaboration. In 2012 Mika Urbaniak was invited to perform with Quincy Jones at The Solidarity of Arts Festival in Gdynia. After leaving Sony Music POLSKA, Victor and Mika created their next album together. A bow to Mika’s Jazz roots they created and Swing Pop album all with Victor’s original material. They’ve toured with this material while working on their next project, a duet album of carefully selected cover songs. It was to be released in January 2019.
History
Mika Urbaniak started writing her own songs at the age of 11 and when she was 14, she performed on stage for the first time. A year later, the first song with her vocals was released. For many years, she was collaborating with major Polish artists, such as Smolik, Michał Urbaniak, Grzegorz Markowski, Mieczysław Szcześniak, Novika, O.S.T.R., Liroy and Kayah.
Mika's debut album Closer was released on 27 April 2009 through Sony Music Poland and peaked at no. 2 in the Polish sales chart OLiS. The album was promoted by singles "In My Dreams" and "Lovin' Needs a Deadline", which charted at Polish Radio's chart LP3. In 2010, Closer won Fryderyk award for the Pop Album of the Year.
The second album Follow You, released on 24 April 2012, peaked at no. 12. Two songs promoting the album were released in 2012, "Pixelated" and "Don't Speak Too Loud", and both charted at LP3. A music video for title track "Follow You" was released onto YouTube on 1 February 2013.
Discography
Studio albums
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions |
---|---|---|
POL | ||
Closer |
| 2 |
Follow You |
| 12 |
Music videos
Year | Song | Album | Source |
---|---|---|---|
2009 | "In My Dreams" | Closer | |
2012 | "Pixelated" | Follow You | |
2013 | "Follow You" |
Awards and nominations
Fryderyk
Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
---|---|---|---|
2010 | Closer | Album of the Year - Pop | Won |