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Artists / HEY (PL)
Katarzyna Nosowska - Vocals/ Lyrics Marcin Zabielowicz - Guitar
Jacek Chrzanowski - Bass
Robert Ligiewicz - Drums
Pawel Krawczyk - Guitar
The history of the group, HEY, is nothing less than a phenomenon in Polish rock'n'roll. Formed in the spring of 1992, the unknown Szczecin-based band was entered in the Jarocin Rock Festival, the biggest summer music festival at the time, with only three songs and three months as a band under their belt. The band's energetic grunge rock sound met instant acceptance from an enthusiastic audience, and won accolades and awards from critics and music journalists country-wide. It also caught the attention of independent label, Izabellin Studio, which immediately offered HEY a multi-album contract and moved the group to Poland's capital city, Warsaw, to begin recording.
In the fall of 1992 during a European rock competion, HEY won a slot in the exclusive "Le Printemps de Bourges", France's most prestigous summer rock festival, as the only representative of Poland. HEY was then selected to participate in the TRANS EUROPA EXPRESS - an annual rock tour of 12 European capitals which also included 15 concerts in France.
In February of 1993, HEY released its debut album, "FIRE". The album skyrocketed overnight to first place on all of Poland's music charts. Within only a few months, the album went double-platinum selling over 350,000 copies. HEY's recording success was reinforced by overwhelming response to its first promotional concert tour of 11 of Poland's largest cities. The entire tour was sold out two weeks before the day of the first concert. Within little more than a year, HEY had completely changed the face of rock music in Poland.
Not only was HEY embraced by fans, but the band received the highest possible critical acclaim and industry awards from the most important music journals in Poland. The monthly magazines, "TYLKO ROCK (Only Rock)" and "BRUM" bestowed on HEY first place in the categories: Group of the Year, Hope of the Year, Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year and in the category Hit of the Year, HEY captured first and second place with "Dreams" and " Moja i Twoja Nadzieja (Your and My Hope)". Additionally, HEY vocalist, Katarzyna (Kasia) Nosowska, received honors and awards from non-industry publications and organizations, and became known as the definitive female rock artist in Poland.
HEY was quick to capitalize on the momentum from the first album and tour, and released the album, "HO!" in April of 1994. With its second album, HEY exceeded all expectations, eclipsing the success of "FIRE". 10 days after it's release, "HO!" had sold nearly 250,000 copies, guaranteeing not only another multi-platinum album, but also the success of the promotional concert tour which followed. "HO!" produced 5 hit singles , "Misie" (Teddy bears), "Ja Sowa" (I the Owl), "Is it Strange", "Ho!", and "Niekoniecznie..." (Not Necessarily...). The "HO!" tour included the 15 biggest concert halls in Poland, and drew over 80,000 fans from across the country.
For the second time, HEY received the highest honors possible both from the music industry and from other organizations. The head of TV Poland, the largest television concern in Poland, presented HEY with its Special Award of Excellence, and broadcast live a short HEY concert.
For the second time, HEY caught international attention. In October of 1994, in cooperation with MTV,
the band played to a capacity crowd of 12,000 in Poland's largest concert venue, "Spodek", in Katowice.
Not only did this concert win the group a Fryderik Award (equivalent to a Grammy) for Concert of the Year,
but also provided the material for HEY's third album, "LIVE".With "LIVE", HEY officially joined the ranks of Polish music legends with a total of over 700,000 albums sold. At this time, the band signed a three- album contract with the international record company, PolyGram, which promised to open new doors for HEY.
1994 was a watershed year for the group. Polls ranked the band first in all categories. The most important music magazines, "TYLKO ROCK", "BRUM", and "BRAVO" again awarded HEY "Group of the Year" in addition to a long list of other titles for the second year in a row. HEY was also recognized by the Polish music industry in 1994, winning "Fryderyk" awards in the categories: Band of the Year and Concert of the Year.
In January of 1995, HEY made its concert debut in the New York City, playing to full houses in such legendary clubs as C.B.G.B's and The Limelight. HEY played similar venues in Chicago as well, and returned to play an encore performance at The Limelight in New York that summer. HEY sparked again the interest of MTV, as well as CNN which interviewed the band during their US engagements.
On October 30, 1995, HEY produced its 4th album, "?" which added to the long list of successes already acheived. "?" sold over 250,000 copies, and was supported by a 30 concert tour. Again, HEY delivered a multi-hit album, including four singles which reached number one on the charts; "Early Winter", "Angel", "Heledore", and " A Letter".
The resounding commercial success of each of HEY's albums and promotional concert tours, the countless awards and special recognitions, and the popularity of HEY's members as music personalities have carved HEY a permanent place as a legend of Polish music. HEY is one of the few names in Polish music which can boast sales of over 1,000,000 copies.
By the end of 1996, HEY's most important awards included:
From "TYLKO ROCK"
-Group of the 1990's
-Group of the Year (1993, 1994, 1995)
-Vocalist of the Year (K. Nosowska)
From "BRUM"
-Group of the Year (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996)
-Album of the Year
-Vocalist of the Year (K. Nosowska)
-Composer of the Year (P. Banach)
-Hit of the Year ("Letter")
From "BRAVO"
-Group of the Year
From "POPCORN"
-Group of the Year
-Hit of the Year
From "SUPER EXPRESS"
-Group of the Year
-Album of the Year ("?")
-Lyricist (K. Nosowska)
From "GUITAR AND BASS (Poland)"
-Guitar player of the year (M. Zabielowicz-third place)
-Bass player of the year (J. Chrzanowski-third place)
In May of 1997, HEY released its fifth album, "KARMA". With this release, HEY mixed its traditional sound with the feeling an style of the Woodstock Era. The band, again, received critical acclaim and industry honors. And again, HEY received a gold album award for sales with KARMA.
Although the promotional concert tour for KARMA included only 5 open-air concerts in June, according to local police who were assigned to "keep the peace" over 100,000 fans turned out to experience HEY's dynamic stage presence once again.
After another two-year hiatus from recording, HEY released its seventh album entitled simply "HEY". This would be the last album of the band in its original formation. As with all of HEY's previous albums this one also contained several "firsts". For the first time, all songs were recorded in the Polish language. And, for the first time in Poland, a CD was released in an octagon-shaped box, and with it's red background and white typeface, the album quickly earned the nickname "STOP" after its uncanny resemblance to the ubiquitious roadsign.
The concert tour promoting this album was the longest in HEY's history with over 50 appearances throughout Poland. Both fans and critics welcomed the album as HEY's best work since its first album, "FIRE".
In the 9 years from the groups inception in 1992 there had never been any changes to the original formation of artists. ..until shortly after the release of the album HEY, when Piotr Banach -founder and leader of HEY- suddenly decided to leave show business altogether. Pawel Krawczyk, known from is work on Kasia Nosowska's solo projects as well as from his work with other underground bands, replaced in short order…. just in time to tour with Hey in the fall of 1999.
From 1999 until now HEY has been playing concerts throughout Poland and abroad, playing their legendary repertoire for fans, trying out new sounds, and putting together materials for HEY's newest album entitled "[sic!]".
Scheduled for release on October 22, 2001 HEY has partnered with Warner Music Poland to promote and distribute their newest release. The first single and its video were released in mid-September and debuted in the top 10 of Poland's most important charts. To hear the single yourself, visit HEY's website, where you can click to hear it play.
URL: www.hey.pl
management: krzysztof.dominik@hey.pl
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