Edyta Bartosiewicz

Early career

Bartosiewicz learned to play guitar a ten. She studied at Nicolaus Copernicus High School in Warsaw (XXXIII L.O. im. Mikołaja Kopernika), and was interested in sports, and later attended SGPiS in Warsaw (now SGH, Warsaw School of Economics.)

Interested in music and having played in a few bands, she left for London in 1986 where she met The Blue Aeroplanes. After her return to Warsaw, having dropped out of college, she joined the Staff group. In 1989 she won Mokotowska Jesień Muzyczna. In the following year, she appeared on The Big Beat, an album by the band Halloee Poloy (formerly the Staff group). She received a number of awards and sang guest and backing vocals on various records.

Solo career

Edyta quit Halloee Poloy due to, as she said herself, resistance to her composing and song writing style. At the end of 1991 she started recording the album Love in studio S-4 in Warsaw. Rafał Paczkowski was responsible for the production of that album. This time her album was successful. By 2001, sixty seven thousand copies had been sold and finally the album achieved Gold status. The most popular singles from this album were: “If”, “Goodbye to the Roman Candles,” “Blues for you”, “Have to Carry On”. The album was also released in Western Europe by Chrysalis Records but was not noticed in this market at all.

On May 18, 1994, the album “Dream” (Sen) was released by Izabelin Studio. It was recorded with a completely new band i.e. Michał Grymuza (guitars), Radosław Zagajewski (bass), Krzysztof Palczewski (keyboard). Leszek Kamiński ( Bartosiewicz's husband as of 1990) was responsible for the production. This time her new album was sung mostly in Polish unlike the previous one “Love”, sung mostly in English. The music can be described as variable, including acoustic songs as well as hard rock songs such as cover of the song “Move Over” by Janis Joplin. Her songs: “Dream” (Sen), “Capricorn” (Koziorożec), “Tattoo” (Tatuaż), or “Joke at a Zoo” (Żart w zoo) were a huge success on the music charts.

In 1994, at the end of September, nine concerts were given in the nine biggest Polish cities. The tour ended with a huge success, as well as the album, which achieved Platinum status after selling over 300 thousand copies. Bartosiewicz herself was announced the best singer by the readers of the Polish magazine “Only Rock” ("Tylko Rock" - now known as "Teraz Rock" ["Now Rock"]), and the album’s title song “Dream” (“Sen”) is still one of her best known. The singer also received two 1995 Fryderyk Awards in the category: the Best Artist and the Best Pop/Rock Album.

By the beginning of 1995 a new single “Wonderful tonight” was realized. It was a cover of Eric Clapton song and it reached second place on Hit Parade of Program 3 (Polish radio station). At the beginning of July a new single “Madness” (“Szał”) was released and it promoted the album “Shock’n’show (Szok'n'show)”.

In October people could see Edyta perform live in 13 cities. This tour ended in May 1996. The biggest hits are: the promotion single “Madness”, Time of high tide”, “The Clock” (“Zegar”) which was realised on a single in November, and the greatest, immortal ballade “The Last One” (“Ostatni”). Single “Anger is no use” (“Na nic gniew”) which was realized during summer holidays is also worth remembering. The album “Shock’n’Show” received the platinum status and up to this day more than 280.000 of MC and CD copies have been sold. In 1995 this album won Fryderyk (Polish music award) in the category Rock Album, and was nominated to this price in eight different categories. The readers of music magazines very highly evaluated her work:

• The Best Album Award - readers of “Only Rock” (“Tylko Rock”) plebiscite
• The Best Singer Award - readers of “Only Rock” plebiscite
• Second place in Hit of the year category - readers “Only Rock” plebiscite
• Seventh place for “The Clock”
• Second place in the Best Singer category – readers of “Brum” plebiscite
• The Best Video of the Year Award for “Madness” – readers of “Brum” plebiscite

The video to the song “The Clock” won “Zloty Yacht” in category The Best Video of the Year. A new challenge for Bartosiewicz at the end of 1995 was a music production of an album of the group Firebirds.

The year 1996 was as interesting in Bartosiewicz career as the previous one. She played tens of concerts, among which on 9 July she opened Bryan Adams’ concert in Spodek Katowicki. She was a star during “Wegorzewo 1996” (Polish music festival). Edyta’s recital during Sopot Festival was very well received. It was there that she received the Platinum status for her albums “Dream” and “Shock’n’show”. She received a warm reception. The recital lasted about 40 minutes but thanks to enthusiastic reaction of the public it was prolonged about 20 minutes (4 encores). Edyta performed her biggest hits but also presented her two new songs “Only a moment” (“Tylko moment”) and “Think about me” (“Pomyśl o mnie”), which became a single.

In October she started working on her new album, which was recorded in January and February 1997. The premier of Edyta’s fourth album entitled “Child” (“Dziecko”) took place on 9 June, and the single “Jenny” was present in radio stations since 21 April. By September more than 100.000 copies were sold, and this album was in the top ten of bestselling albums of the year. The album was promoted within the tour and a second single “I lied” (“Skłamałam”), which became a big hit. During a concert in “Stodola” (Stodoła) in Warsaw she received another platinum status for the album “Child” (more than 200.000 CD and MC sold). Next singles: ‘We don't know each other” („Nie znamy się”), ‘Boogie czyli zemsta slodka jest’ and the title song “Child” enjoyed quite big popularity. In February Edyta played three concerts in the United States and Canada. In March 1998 Edyta once again won Fryderyk in the category “The Best Rock Album”. Besides that, she was also nominated in five other categories. The album “Child” is thought to be the most frank album of Polish rock and, generally speaking, Polish entertainment music. (Machina 03/02).

In July 1998 Edyta entered the studio to record a new album. This time it was not with Leszek Kaminski but with an English publisher Rafał Mckenna who also worked with artists such as Blur, Pulp, or Radiohead. The first song from this album was “Love like fire” (“Miłość jak ogień”) which immediately won the first place on Polish hit lists. The premier of the album “Waterfalls” (“Wodospady”) took place November 9, 1998. Another single was the title song. The album reviews characterized it as the most mature of all. Songs like “Mandarine” (“Mandarynka”) showed Edyta’s interest in psychedelic music. On the other hand, Edyta did not turn her back on image that was known from her previous albums. Songs like “Love like fire” and “Waterfalls of tears” confirm that. In many reviews it is said that the most distinguished long plays are “Dream”, “Child” and “Waterfalls”. The video to the third single “Seven seas, seven lands” (“Siedem mórz, siedem ladów”) was made in picturesque landscape in the US (precincts of Los Angeles). In May 1999 the last single promoting “Waterfalls”, entitled “The Rebel” (“Buntowniczka”) was realised. Till this day 75, 000 copies have been sold which gave Edyta another golden status title. In 1998 she was nominated to Fryderyk in many categories.

On 29 November 1999 album entitled “Today are my birthday- the best of” (“Dziś są moje urodziny- the best of”) was realized. This was the album that summed up the artistic work of Edyta and it was promoted by the song “21st century” (“XXI wiek”). The album, as Edyta admitted, was forced by denouncement of the contract. At the beginning of the year 2000 a song “Master” (“Mistrz”) was realized and it promoted a medley. She ended the year 1999 separating from her phonographic industry Universal Music Poland.

The year 2000 started with a prestigious award for the Personality of the Decade presented by the “Only Rock” magazine. In February 2000 Edyta collaborated with Justyna Steczkowska. She wrote a number of lyrics for Justyna’s album “Day & Night”. Moreover, she also made a well-matched duet with Kazik Staszewski in the hit-song “Four Rooms”, which promoted Kazik’s album “Melassa”. In the same year she collaborated with Anita Lipnicka. Together they created “The Last Letter” song – Edyta prepared the music and Anita wrote the lyrics. Effect of that collaboration was presented on Anita’s album “My eyes are green” (2000). In January 2001 Edyta, together with the band Agressiva 69, recorded the title song for Mariusz Treliński’s movie “Egoists”.

In January 2001 the song “The Tale” appeared on the subsequent volume of the “Fridays for fives” medley by Radio ZET. The song became a hit. Beginning of 2001 also brought changes to Edyta’s group: drummer Krzysztof Poliński was replaced by Przemek Momot, who worked together, among others, with Kasia Nosowska, Robert Gawliński, groups Yugoton and Women; and bass player Radek Zagajewski was replaced by Michał Grott. In November 2001 Edyta published a re-release of her first solo album “Love”. The album was published in Universal’s series “Invincible”. Bartosiewicz was also asked to write a number of lyrics for Edyta Górniak’s album “The Pearl” (2002). The song “I don't ask for more” became a second single from that album. Edyta is also an author of lyrics for the title song, which was released as a fourth single.

At the beginning of 2002 Edyta signed a contract with BMG Poland and from March 4 she started work on a new album. On June 17 the single “Innocence”, that was supposed to promote the new album, was released. On June 29 the video clip for that song was broadcast. The new album was supposed to be released in August 2002; however, for unknown reasons and despite the fact that the album was finished release-date had been postponed many times. After some time Edyta and BMG Poland declared the contract null and void, and until the present day the album has not been released.

In 2004, quite unexpectedly, Edyta performed in a duet with Krzysztof Krawczyk in a song “It’s hard for... (us to be together)”. That song became a second single from Krawczyk’s album “That which is important in life” and achieved a great commercial success on the market, becoming the biggest hit of 2004. In August, Edyta appeared together with Krzysztof Krawczyk during the Sopot music festival. Moreover, Edyta performed during 2004 New Year’s Eve concert organized by TVP (state-owned Polish Television). The year 2004 was extremely successful for Edyta Bartosiewicz. She managed a comeback in media and was on the covers of many popular magazines for a long time.

After a half year break Edyta returned exactly on June 5, 2005 when she performed on Cracowian Main Market Square during the Enchanted Song Festival. Edyta was among such stars as: Anna Maria Jopek, Sylwia Wiśniewska, Urszula, Andrzej Piaseczny, Grzegorz Turnau, Michał Wiśniewski, and Pawel Kukiz. She truly enchanted the crowd with her two hit-songs: “Jenny” and “The Last One”.

In September 2005, Edyta performed during the special 10-years-anniversary concert of Myslovitz; during which she performed the song “I would like to die of love” together with Myslovitz’s frontman, Artur Rojek.

Motivated by huge success of duet with Krzysztof Krawczyk, Edyta returned to work on her new album. She returned to Sony & BMG (formerly BMG Poland) and release of her new album was scheduled for spring 2006. Unfortunately, just when the album was about to be released a tragedy happened. Manager, concerts’ organizer and Edyta’s biggest friend – Jacek Nowakowski, died on March 9. He was only thirty-four. Edyta, lost in grief, cancelled the release of the new album.

On September 2, 2006 Edyta performed during a Tomasz Stanko, her last appearance for two years. She returned to the stage on July 5, 2008, at the TOPtrendy Festival in Sopot, on the occasion of Krzysztof Krawczyk's 45th anniversary on stage. With Krawczyk, she performed "The Tale" and "It's Hard For... (Us to Be Together)."

Studio albums

Compilation albums

• 1990 Mateusz Święcicki Award (Nagroda im. M. Święcickiego)
• 1992 Amber Nightingale Award – Sopot festival
• 1994 Fryderyk Awards – Best Artist and Best Pop/Rock Album
• 1994 Fryderyk Awards – Best Female Vocalist
• 1995 Fryderyk Awards – Best Rock Album (also eight other nominations)
• 1997 Fryderyk Awards – Best Rock Album (and five other nominations)
• 2004 Fryderyk Awards – Best Song Trudno tak...razem być nam ze sobą (So hard...for us to be together)