Edyta Anna Górniak (; born 14 November 1972) is a Polish pop singer. Górniak started as a musical theatre actress in 1990. She performed in the most popular musical in Polish history, the Tony Award-nominated Metro. Some of its shows took place on Broadway. Górniak was Poland's first representative in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 with the song "To nie ja". She placed second which still remains the country's best result at the competition. This started her decades-long career as a pop singer in her native country and internationally. She is the recipient of the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis for her contributions to the arts.
Biography
Beginnings
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. In New York she was also offered a job by the Elite model agency, but she rejected it preferring to continue her career as a singer. Later she sang in next three musicals in Poland: 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 sung by the Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel. In 1993 Górniak took part in the Baltic Song Contest in Sweden and finished in third place.
Eurovision breakthrough
In 1994, Górniak 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".
"To nie ja" proved to be her breakthrough in Poland, becoming there the biggest hit of 1994. Górniak 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. Górniak with her powerful voice and original beauty quickly became an idol of young generation in Poland. 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.
International career
Górniak released her first English-language album Edyta Górniak a year later, in November 1997. 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 and the first hit of Polish act charted in history of the Music & Media's European Radio Top 50 airplay chart) let the album's global impact with sales of 500,000 copies internationally, including 150,000 copies in Poland. The journalist of legendary Billboard magazine Fred Bronson chose this album as one of the 20 best albums of the year 1998 all over the world.