Kate Ryan

Born on the 22nd of June 1980 in Belgium, Kate has had contact with the stage since she turned 16, yet she’s been dealing with music seriously since 2000 when she started her collaboration with Phil Wild and Andy Jenseens – producer and author of 2Unlimited’s hits. They decided to invest their time in the talent they discovered in this vocalist, and her debut CD, Different was launched in 2002. The record was signed by the then-mysterious name, ‘Kate Ryan’.

“To tell the truth my real name is Katrien, but it sounds a bit strange”, the artist explained quickly. “I decided to use a nickname. It was created by dividing my real name in two halves and reading it in English. So, that’s the whole secret.” Different brought us 12 tracks and 3 bonus tracks – French versions of three songs which were originally sung in English. The first single from the CD was a cover of a great hit by Mylène Farmer. “I was really scared of confronting the original version. In France, Desechantee is almost a classic, and Mylène is a real star who can be compared to Madonna in the US”, said Katrien after the launch. However, the decision to choose Desechantee turned out to be a great one as wherever the single was published, it became grossly popular and it soon became clear that the new version of the hit overshadowed the original. But the success of the first single was only a foretaste of what was to happen to Kate in the following months. Libertine became a summer hit of 2003, just like Mon Coeur Résiste Encore or Scream For More. Different sold more than one million copies, and, overnight, Kate became recognised all over Europe. When in the summer of 2003 “De Morgen” newspaper published a list of the one hundred most popular faces in Belgium, it turned out that the singer took fifth position in this ranking, losing only to such celebrities as Jean-Claude Van Damme or the Front 242 group. Following a series of concerts promoting her debut album, in the autumn of 2003 the artist hid in a studio, preparing material for her new CD. In the meantime, she visited Poland several times, appearing, among others as a special guest on the show “Bar – Bez granic”, a special guest of Michał Wiśniewski’s show “Jestem jaki jestem”, and also took place in a huge concert entitled ‘Andrzejki na Planecie” organised by Radio Planeta at the “Spodek” hall in Katowice. In March 2004, she appeared in our country once again, yet this time the purpose of her visit was more professional, as she came here to promote her second CD.

Stronger, fronted by the single Only if I appeared on the 29th of March. It included 14 premiere songs in a similar style to those from the first album. “My second CD is stronger, more pop than dance-like, because this is the direction I would like to take in the future. I don’t want to stay in one place, I will develop”, she says. The album was a market success, yet not as spectacular, as the first record. Her first album, Alive, appeared in 2006. It was promoted by the single Je t’adore which the vocalist also presented at the Eurovision contest. The song only reached the semi-finals of the Eurovision, but reached number one in the Polish and Belgian Hit Charts.

On the 30th of May 2008, Kate Ryan published her fourth album, Free. The CD was promoted by the singles Voyage Voyage and Elle, Elle l’a, which became summer hits. On the 8th of August Kate performed at the Sopot Festival and received a gold disc for selling 10,000 copies of Free in Poland.