Kasia Kowalska

Born on the 13th of June 1973, she grew up in Sulejówek near Warsaw together with her two older brothers. Music was always present in her life, even when, as a young girl, she sang her way to the first music award in the Scout Song Contest, and when she skipped lessons to sing with her first amateur bands, or when she cooped herself up in her bedroom after school to sing out loud the songs of her favourite artists. Music has been in her for as long as she can remember, and has developed in her a unique sensitivity to sound... it was through music that she could best express her feelings and emotions.

In the 90’s, before the release of her first album, she performed and cut records with many different bands such as Human, Fatum, Hetman, Piersi and Talking Pictures. Yet it was her cooperation with the Evergreen band co-funded by Robert Amirian that proved to be her greatest success; in 1993, during the Children’s Day concert at the “Stodoła” in Warsaw, she was spotted by Katarzyna Kanclerz from Universal Music Polska, which soon resulted in a contract for Kasia... and so it began. Kasia’s first album, entitled Gemini, was released on September the 12th, 1994. The album received a warm reception in the music environment and sold very well, quickly gaining GOLD and then PLATINUM Discs! (for over 300,000 copies sold). Even as a teenager, Kasia had performed alongside Ewa Bem (Dziennik mej podróży), toured with Edyta Bartosiewicz, during which she promoted her first album, and even supported Bob Dylan (an undeniably great distinction for a then debuting artist). She also received numerous prestigious awards at the time, such as the Fryderyk ’94 Award in the Debut of the Year category, the title of The Greatest Hope of the Polish Rock Scene, awarded to her by Tylko Rock (Only Rock) magazine. At the finale of the Nationwide Radio Stations Poll TOP ’94 she received Best Debut ’94 and Best Song of the Year Awards! Then came 1995 and with it another prize – the Grand Prix and Audience Award at the Sopot Festival ’95...

On the 20th of November 1995, the Koncert Inaczej (A Different Concert) album was released, which was a record of a unique undertaking featuring such distinguished musicians as Wiesław Pieregorólka, Robert Majewski and Henryk Miśkiewicz. Stylistically, the album is very different from Kasia’s earlier debut record. Alongside the already familiar rock pieces there are beautiful musical jazz compositions by such famous musicians as Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Billy Joel and Jimi Hendrix. A month after its release Koncert Inaczej went gold. In June of 1995, during a concert commemorating R. Riedel and released on CD and cassette, Kasia performed List Do R. Na 12 Głosów (A Letter to R. for 12 Voices): Modlitwa 3 – Pozwól mi and Kim jestem – jestem sobie. And then there were more awards, not least of which was the Fryderyk Award ’95 in the Song of The Year category for A to co mam; first place in TOP ’95 (Vocalist of the Year and Hit of the Year); Vocalist of the Year ’95 from Brum magazine; second place in the same category from Tylko Rock, and two Golden Microphones from Popcorn and one Brown Otto from Bravo magazine.

Another album, entitled CZEKAJĄC NA... (Waiting for...) had its premiere barely a year after the previous one, on September the 30th 1996 to be precise. Kostek Yoriadis, whom Kasia had met when working with the group Human, saw to the music production of the record and the first single from the album, Coś optymistycznego, proved an instant hit, and a perfectly organized concert tour attracted crowds of fans. Enriched with elements of funky music and the sound of the FIRE BRASS wind instruments section (a line-up including Janek Czaja, Marcin Dembek and Mariusz “Fazi” Mielczarek), the album is more poppy and optimistic in tone than the purely rock Gemini. The turn of the year 1997 was a time of new artistic experiences for Kasia. She spent the period on the set of Nocne Graffiti (Night Graffiti), a film directed by M. Dutkiewicz in which she played the part of a young drug addict, thus manifesting another of her talents and gaining the recognition of film critics. The soundtrack album was for the most part composed by Robert Janson, but another great hit from it was Kasia’s Zgubiłam swój rozsądek. She also performed a Polish version of The Bell-Ringer of Notre Dame (Esmeralda’s Prayer), and a piece for the film Awantura o Basię (Argument about Basia) entitled Zgubiony dom (A Lost House). It was an amazing if not difficult period in her life, and not only because of the pressure of business... In May 1997 her daughter Aleksandra Julia was born, and so the following two years she dedicated to taking care of her little ‘Ola’ and preparing material for a new album, PEŁNA OBAW (Full of doubts), which was released on April the 8th, 1998. As with the previous albums, Kasia was the co-composer and author of the lyrics, and this time she was also involved in the production of the record. The album showed how comfortable she felt within the rock genre, and the singles Co może przynieść nowy dzień and Wyrzuć ten gniew stayed at the top of the music charts for a long time. The album also meant new awards for Kasia: a Fryderyk ’98 – Audience Award (from a TV phone-in) and Song of the Year for Co może przynieść nowy dzień.

On November the 8th, 1999 she released a special two-disc version of the album Pełna Obaw, supplemented with five new tracks which so far had been released only as singles: To co może przyjść, A to co mam, Straciłam swój rozsądek, Chcę znać swój rzech, and Ave Maria. In April 2000 Kasia toured the USA with a few very successful and well-received concerts for American Polonia. But that’s not all. On November the 13th, after a two-year break, Kasia came back in grand style with her fifth album, entitled “5”. The producer and author of the majority of it was Adam Abramek. The album is rooted in the rock music style yet enriched with modern elements that give it a fresh and original tone. The first single was Nobody, which topped the music charts nationwide, and on the 21st of December the record went Gold! Other singles such as Być tak blisko and Będę jak consolidated her position and her new album on the music market. Two new awards joined an already sizeable collection – a statue awarded by Popcorn magazine and “Superjedynka” in the Rock Album category, which Kasia received during the Festival in Opole in 2001. It was at that festival that another of her songs, entitled Starczy słów had its premiere. In the same year Kasia received one of the most prestigious awards worldwide – the MTV Music Award for 2001!

The end of 2001 also brought a truly pleasant surprise to all her fans – during the annual “Wigilia u Prezydentowej” charity concert organised by the Presidential Palace, Kasia and a Gospel group U2’s beautiful I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, which – as she admitted herself – was a very interesting musical experience in her life. In February of 2002 the 30 TON TV programme presented the Polish Internet Music Awards. Kasia received no less than three Stars for 2001 in the following categories: Best Vocalist of the Year, Best Polish Music Video 2001 for Starczy słów and Best Polish Artist’s Web Page for www.kasiakowalska.pl. On June the 9th, 2002 Sting and Robert Plant, musicians for whom Kasia has great appreciation, visited Poland, and she was asked to support their concert, which to her was an undeniable pleasure and distinction. In the same month (June the 10th, 2002) her new song Bezpowrotnie was released, from a new album entitled A Tribute to Ayrton Senna, dedicated to the great rally driver and Formula I World Champion Ayrton Senna. The album included compositions by world-famous musicians such as Queen, Phil Collins, Tina Turner and Pink Floyd. The song can also be found in a medley entitled Słońce, lato, muzyka. All in all it was a very arduous year for the artist.

At the turn of June and July 2002 she gave several well-received concerts around the country, and in August she started working on her new album. This time she chose Michał Grymuza – a famous musician, guitarist and arranger – to act as her producer. The result of their cooperation was heard as soon as the middle of September, when all the radio stations broadcast the titular first single, ANTIDOTUM, promoting the new record company under the same name. This sixth album was also released by Universal Music Polska, and had its premiere on October the 14th, 2002. It consisted of 12 tracks and a multimedia presentation of music videos for Bezpowrotnie and Antidotum. The record went gold the very next month (on November the 21st) with 35,000 copies sold! The next single, which also had a music video, was Pieprz i sól. Another award followed, supplementing her already considerable collection – Artist of the Year 2002, from Radio Eska. Among other projects in which Kasia participated at the time were: On March the 10th, 2003 – RMF FM – Moja i Twoja Muzyka mix with a Polish version of Roxette’s Listen to your heart prepared by Kasia called Widzę twoją twarz. – April the 1st, 2004 – Więcej muzyki w Radiu Zet, a mix distributed with Naj magazine and featuring her Nobody piece. During the “Piosenki zjednoczonej Europy” concert Kasia gave another brilliant rendition of U2’s I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. On the 31st of May, Antidotum went Platinum with 70,000 copies sold. The Platinum Disc was handed to her on the 31st of May at the Opole Festival, and on the same day she received the “Superjedynka” award for Antidotum in the category of Rock Album of the Year.

Even though the next year was, to her, a time of strenuous work and numerous concerts, in April of 2004 she had already started working on another album, again with Michał Grymuza as her music producer and arranger, and the entire album was recorded with analogue technology. The first single promoting it was To co dobre, accompanied by a music video. Soon afterwards Kasia, along with the group directly working on the visual aspect of the project, went on a dream journey to a magic place, “a different world” as she said, which fascinated her so much, and which she had so longed to explore – Japan, or more precisely, Tokyo and Kyoto; cities with unique auras which she chose as the setting for her photographic session to promote the album. Thanks to photographer Robert Wolański, the end result of the journey can be seen in a 24 page-long booklet attached to the record and in an exclusive interview for Twój Styl magazine. 2004 also saw the release of the new album, SAMOTNA W WIELKIM MIEŚCIE (Alone in a Big City). It consisted of 11 tracks and one bonus track hidden at the very end for all her fans! Now, finally, after a four-year break, her new and long-awaited album Antepenultimate was released on the 10th of November 2008. On this latest record, Kasia depicts musical stories of complicated male-female relationships. She captures in ten songs that which is often so difficult to express in words. The first single is entitled A ty, czego chcesz?

“In all of us there are unfulfilled dreams, longings and other demons... through this record I wanted to understand them better, to familiarize myself with them” says Kasia of her new material. Among those participating in the project were Jurek Runowski (guitar, music production), Krzysztof “Kmieta” Kmiecik (bass), Marcin “Ułan” Ułanowski (percussion), Ryszard Sygitowicz (guitar), Adam Sztaba (piano), the Royal String Quartet and Jasiek Kidawa (production).