Rafał Stanisław Kamiński (Polish pronunciation: ; born 8 November 1990), known professionally as Ralph Kaminski, is a Polish

singer-songwriter A singer-songwriter is a musician who writes, composes, and performs their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies. In the United States, the category is built on the folk- acoustic tradition with a guitar, although this role has ...

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

and

multi-instrumentalist A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments, often but not exclusively at a professional level of proficiency. Also known as woodwind doubler, doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and mor ...

. His works are often characterized by experimentation with musical styles, including

alternative pop Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

and

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

. He received two Fryderyk Awards at the 2022 Fryderyk Awards Gala as well as Best Polish Act at the 2022 MTV Europe Music Awards.

Early life

He was born and raised in

Jasło Jasło is a county town in south-eastern Poland with 36,641 inhabitants, as of 31 December 2012. It is situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (since 1999), and it was previously part of Krosno Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is located in Lesser ...

in southern Poland. His mother is a teacher. He has a younger brother, Wiktor. His cousin is a fellow singer

Michał Szpak Michał Szpak (born 26 November 1990) is a Polish singer who found fame on the X Factor (Polish season 1), inaugural season of the Polish ''X Factor (Polish TV series), X Factor'' in 2011. On 12 May 2016, Szpak represented Poland at the Eurovisio ...

, Kaminski himself confirmed this on the '' Kuba Wojewódzki'' talk show. He developed an interest in music as a child. At the age of 11, Kaminski started attending vocal classes at the Jasło Cultural Centre. He studied art and music before embarking on a professional career as a musician in 2010. Kaminski graduated from the Jazz and Popular Music Department at the

Stanisław Moniuszko Stanisław Moniuszko (; May 5 (17), 1819 – June 4, 1872) was a Polish composer, conductor, organist and pedagogue. He wrote many popular art songs and operas, including '' The Haunted Manor'' and '' Halka'', and his music is filled with patr ...

Academy of Music in

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

. He also studied at the Pop Department of Codarts University for the Arts in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

. In 2010, he composed his first song entitled "The Hill". In 2011, he performed the song at the International Carpathia Festival and won the Grand Prix. In 2012, he released his first single "Don't Know Why" and one year later started performing with his band consisting of seven members called My Best Band in the World.

Career

Talent shows

In 2009, he appeared in one of the episodes of

TVP2 TVP2 (TVP Dwa, ''Telewizja Polska 2'', ''Program Drugi Telewizji Polskiej'', ''"Dwójka"'') is a Polish public mainstream TV channel operated by TVP. Launched in October 1970, its varied line-up contains a variety of programming (documentary, h ...

programme ''

Szansa na Sukces () is a Polish music talent show aired on the TV channel TVP2. The show ran from 1993 to 2012 and since 2019. In the program, aspiring singers perform covers of hit singles by Polish recording artist bands which are invited to the show (one band ...

'', performing a song by

Perfect Perfect commonly refers to: * Perfection; completeness, and excellence * Perfect (grammar), a grammatical category in some languages Perfect may also refer to: Film and television * ''Perfect'' (1985 film), a romantic drama * ''Perfect'' (20 ...

"Objazdowe nieme kino". In 2012 he took part in the second edition of the TVN talent show ''

X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–200 ...

''; he performed

Norah Jones Norah Jones ( ; born Geethali Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She has won several awards for her music and, , has sold more than 53 million records worldwide. '' Billboard'' named her the top jazz artist of ...

' song "

Don't Know Why "Don't Know Why" is a song written and composed by Jesse Harris that originally appeared on his 1999 album, ''Jesse Harris & the Ferdinandos.'' A cover of the song was the debut single of American singer Norah Jones from her debut studio album ...

" during the auditions. He was eliminated at the bootcamp stage.

Breakthrough

On 6 June 2016, he performed at the "Alternative Stage" concert during the 53rd National Festival of Polish Songs in Opole. On 14 November, he released his debut studio album entitled "Morze". The album was promoted with the singles: "Podobno", "Zawsze", and "Meybick Song". In 2017, he performed at the

Open'er Festival The Open'er Festival is a music festival which takes place on the north coast of Poland, in Gdynia. It is one of the biggest annual music festivals in Poland. The first edition of the festival was organized in Warsaw in 2002 as ''Open Air Festi ...

, and in June 2018, he performed at the

Orange Warsaw Festival Orange Warsaw Festival is a Polish annual music festival. The first edition took place in 2008. Since 2010 it has been broadcast on television by TVN. It moved to the National Stadium in May 2013. The 2014 edition took place on 13–15 June 20 ...

. In 2019, he won the final of the 40th Actor Song Review (Polish: Przegląd Piosenki Aktorskiej) in

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

, thanks to his "Welcome To Our Fairytale" performance from the musical based on '' Academy of Mr. Kleks'', and "On the Corner" written by

Agnieszka Osiecka Agnieszka Osiecka (Polish pronunciation: ; 9 October 1936 – 7 March 1997) was a Polish poet, writer, author of theatre and television screenplays, film director and journalist. She was a prominent Polish songwriter, having authored the lyrics to ...

. In August that year, he performed at the Pol'and'Rock Festival. On 22 November, he released his second studio album entitled "Młodość" (Youth), which reached number 17 on the official sales list in Poland. The album is seen as a nostalgic journey to the 1980s music and contains autobiographical and

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

elements. He also participated in the Talent Is Not A Crime project recording a song "Czy ty słyszysz mnie?" (Can You Hear Me?) with Daria Zawiałow, Michał Kush and Schafter. In 2020, he became a recipient of the Grzegorz Ciechowski Artistic Award of the City of Toruń. In 2021, he released his third solo album entitled ''Kora'', which is a tribute to Olga Jackowska, the lead vocalist of

Maanam Maanam (Tamil for respect or dignity) was a Polish rock band. History Maanam was formed by Marek Jackowski and Milo Kurtis in 1975 as guitar band M-a-M. In 1976 the band was joined by guitar player John Porter and by Kora ( Olga Jackowska) - ...

rock band ''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...

and an icon of Polish

New Wave music New wave is a music genre that encompasses pop music, pop-oriented styles from the 1970s through the 1980s. It is considered a lighter and more melodic "broadening of Punk subculture, punk culture". It was originally used as a catch-all fo ...

who died in 2018. The same year he won the

Paszport Polityki Paszport Polityki (Polityka's Passport) is an annual Polish cultural award presented by the weekly magazine '' Polityka'' since 1993. It is presented in six major categories: literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written wor ...

conferred by the ''

Polityka ''Polityka'' (, ''Politics'') is a centre-left weekly news magazine in Poland. It had a circulation of 95,300 during 2021. ''Polityka'' has a slightly intellectual, socially liberal profile, setting it apart from the more conservative ''Wprost ...

'' weekly news magazine in the Popular Music category. In 2022, he received two Fryderyk Awards for his 2021 album ''Kora''. He won in the Artist of the Year and

Sung Poetry Sung poetry is a broad and imprecise music genre widespread in European countries, such as Poland and the Baltic States, especially Poland and Lithuania, to describe songs consisting of a poem (most often a ballad) and music written especially ...

categories. The same year, he also won Best Polish Act at the 2022 MTV Europe Music Awards.

Private life

In the spring of 2017, he fell ill with depression. He talked about the illness and two years of

psychotherapy Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of Psychology, psychological methods, particularly when based on regular Conversation, personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase hap ...

in the song "D Club" from his album ''Młodość''. He is a vegetarian. He mentioned

ABBA ABBA ( ) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the List ...

Amy Winehouse Amy Jade Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011) was an English singer, songwriter, musician, and businesswoman. With over 30 million records sold worldwide, she was known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix ...

Culture Club Culture Club are an English new wave music, new wave band formed in London in 1981. The band comprises Boy George (lead vocals), Roy Hay (musician), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), and Mikey Craig (bass guitar), and formerly included Jon Moss ( ...

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

George Michael George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer-songwriter and record producer. Regarded as a pop culture icon, he is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling rec ...

Tom Odell Thomas Peter Odell (born 24 November 1990) is an English singer-songwriter. He released his debut extended play, ''Songs from Another Love'', in 2012. He won the 2013 BRIT Awards, BRITs Critics' Choice Award in early 2013. Odell's debut studio ...

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Known as the "Queen of Motown Records", she was the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown#Major divisions, Motown's most suc ...

and

MGMT MGMT () is an American rock band formed in 2002 in Middletown, Connecticut. It was founded by singers and multi-instrumentalists Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser, Ben Goldwasser. Originally signed to Cantora Records by the nascent ...

among the artists whose music he values the most. He also named Abel Korzeniowski and

Zbigniew Preisner Zbigniew Preisner (; born 20 May 1955 as Zbigniew Antoni Kowalski) is a Polish film score composer, best known for his work with film director Krzysztof Kieślowski. He is the recipient of the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis as we ...

among his favourite

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

composers.

Discography

* ''Morze'' (2016),

ZPAV The Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry (; ZPAV) is the trade organization that represents the interests of the music industry in Poland, and the Polish chapter of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Founded ...

: Gold * ''Młodość'' (2019), ZPAV: Gold * ''Kora'' (2021), ZPAV: Gold * ''Bal u Rafała'' (2022), ZPAV: Gold

References

External links

Ralph Kamiński Instagram Site

Ralph Kamiński Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaminski, Ralph 1990 births Living people Polish male singer-songwriters Polish singer-songwriters Polish record producers 21st-century Polish male singers 21st-century Polish singers People from Jasło MTV Europe Music Award winners Codarts University for the Arts alumni