Michal Szpak represented Poland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "Color of your life". Poland was able to achieve significant results in the competition only during its debut, when it took 2nd place in the final. The rest of the performances of Polish performers were very mediocre. It is not surprising that for Eurovision 2016 Poland has chosen a very eccentric performer, who differs from all previous ones with special charm and charisma.
Art surrounded Michal from early childhood, however, at that time he was more interested in poetry and drawing. A little later, he began to seriously get involved in music and made his first appearance at a talent competition at the age of 9.
Then followed the school, where he became close to the founder of the Whiplash group and could not stay away from their work. This collaboration helped him to become noticed in Poland as a famous singer-songwriter Roberts Gawlinski.
The next step in Michal Szpak's career was the performance at X-Factor, where he was able to pass the qualifying round and stayed on the show until its very end. In the final, he took 2nd place and went on a concert tour with the rest of the finalists of the show.
2015 was a turning point in Michal Szpak's career - he recorded his first single. It could be a complete failure, as is often the case with finalists of various kinds of competitions. Naturally, in such a situation, one could forget about a further career, but nothing of the sort happened. The Polish version of the first single took the lead in the charts and allowed the young man to record his first album.
During the selection, Shpak competed with the Eurovision 2016 contender from Poland Margaret with the song "Cool me dawn". Until the very announcement of the results of the selection, it was not clear who exactly would represent the country at the International Competition.
One way or another, but Shpak's victory in 2015 at the National Festival of Polish Song, in fact, became a decisive factor on his way to Eurovision. The song with which the singer went to the contest was chosen by the fans of the performer by voting.
Michal Szpak performed at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 from Poland with the song "Color of your life", which was later included in his second album. For the first time he performed in the framework of the International Competition in the second semi-final. Viewers and members of the jury evaluated his performance in different ways. The singer made a strong impression on the "fans" and Poland received 4th place. The jury members were less favorable and put the country in 15th position. In terms of total points, the country took 6th place and was added to the list of finalists of the competition.
In the Eurovision-2016 final, the situation has not changed - the jury members rated Michal's performance at 7 points and awarded him the penultimate, 25th place. The situation was saved by TV viewers, who in their vote put Poland in 3rd place. As a result, the country was in 8th position - and this was its best result over the past 13 years.
Today, the singer continues to develop in all directions and decided to direct his energies towards obtaining a degree in psychology at the University of Warsaw.
Polish Eurovision participant Michal Szpak was born in 1990 (November 26) in the provincial town of Jaslo in the south in a large family - he has a brother and two sisters.
Although Michal did not study music professionally, it was his passion from early childhood. The boy devoted most of his time to singing, and at the age of 9 he was awarded the first award - a prize from the Young Talents Studio of the House of Culture in Jaslo. While still a schoolboy, he became a member of the Whiplash musical group, the guys performed songs in the style of hard rock. The cover of the song "Cienia w dolinie mgieł" performed by the group was awarded by the jury of the national competition. And this made it possible for the purposeful young man to move to Warsaw.
The next important stage in the creative career of the young singer was participation in the X-Factor talent show (2011). Despite the critical statements of some judges about his outrageous appearance (make-up, manicure, jewelry), the young man managed to take an honorable second place. The performer captivated the hall and the strict jury with his unusual multifaceted vocals, special magnetism and boundless passion with which he devoted himself to his performance.
After the end of the show, Shpak with the rest of the X-Factor members performs with numerous concerts around the country. He also takes part in various festivals and show programs. And already at the end of 2011 he releases his own disc called "XI" with a selection of five songs.
In November 2015, Michal completed his first music album "Byle być sobą". Then he decided to participate in the national selection for Eurovision 2016. To the court of fans, he presented two songs from his album. The vast majority chose Color of Your Life. Michal Shpak will present this song in Stockholm in the second semi-final of the Euroshow.
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Color of Your Life When loneliness is knocking on your door tell me black or white No one is tell me black or white Every day we must fight with the wind tell me black or white tell me black or white |
The color of your life When loneliness knocks at your door Nobody will Tell me black or white Every day we must fight the wind Tell me black or white Tell me black or white |
Member Name: Shpak Michal
Age (birthday): 26.10.1990
City: Jaslo, Poland
Song: Color of Your Life
Place: 8
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Michal was born in the small town of Jaslo. In addition to him, there is another boy and two girls in the family, so this is seven. It can be considered a large family. Shpak has always had an unusual appearance - long hair, manicure and makeup, so he never had a large number of friends.
Until 2011, the young man was not professionally engaged in music, but had the experience of playing in his own rock band "Whiplash". All the more strange is his arrival at the Polish talent contest "X-factor", where the main focus of music was pop.
According to the results of the show, Shpak took only second place, but still received deafening popularity. This was facilitated by the outrageous image "close to the female" and the deep, charming and truly masculine voice of the performer.
After the show, the performer goes on his first musical tour with other participants, and also in the same year, on the wave of success, Shpak releases his debut album "XI", which consists of only 5 tracks.
After the project, the performer received many offers from all over the world, but these were not production centers or recording studios, these were travesty shows.
But Michal has said many times that he does not plan to leave only due to his extravagance. All his femininity is only part of the picture, not its basis.
By the way, the Polish press relishes it to this day - many newspapers consider this a manifestation of childhood trauma and delve into the singer's past with relish, trying to find unpleasant skeletons.
The performer considers the record “XI” to be something like a preview, but he calls it a full-fledged album “Byle być sobą” which came out in 2015. In the same year, Shpak decides to try himself in the selection for Eurovision 2016. It should be noted that in 2016 in Poland, for the first time in several years, not only an internal selection through a jury was held, but also a selection with the participation of the audience.
The final decision was made by ordinary people. It was they who chose Michal with the song "Color of Your Life". An interesting fact - many critics believe that this composition is very similar to one of the songs of the Russian group "Lube" and this fact may even lead to disqualification.
Shpak sincerely hopes that success in Eurovision 2016 will bring him not only fame and recognition, but also cash contracts. With the most youthful spontaneity, the performer declares that his main dream is to earn money for a big house in Warsaw, where he will gather his entire large family, which is now scattered around the world: his older sister and mother work in Italy, and dad and two younger children still reside in Jaslo.
The next step was participation in the show X-Factor. During the castings, he performed the song Dziwny jest ten świat from the repertoire of Czesław Nemen. The jury, which included Czesław Mozil, Kuba Voevodski and Maya Sablewska, decided that the performer was worthy of passing to the next stage of the show. Shpak ended up in a group of performers aged 16-24, led by Voevodsky. On the following programs, he performed the songs Szczęśliwej drogi już czas, Californication, Fever, You Are So Beautiful, Knockin' on Heaven's Door. In the final show, June 5, 2011, he sang "You Are So Beautiful" and a duet with Alexandra Burke - "Hallelujah", eventually finishing in second place. After the end of the show, Shpak takes part in a series of X Factor finalist concerts.
On June 18, 2011 Michal performs at the fourth Orange Warsaw Festival. This was his first performance in front of such a large audience. From September to November, he takes part in the 13th season of the program "Taniec z gwiazdami" (Dancing with the Stars), also aired on TVN. Together with Paulina Bernat, he takes 5th place in the show. At the end of 2011, the singer releases his first EP disc XI of five new songs, produced by Lukasz Targosz and Michal Grymuza, on the Universal Music Poland label. In 2013, he won the All-Polish Festival of Russian Songs, performing the romance Black Eyes. On June 8, 2014 he becomes one of the guests of the third day of the 51st National Festival of Polish Song in Opole, where he performed the song "Jednego serca".
In April 2015, Shpak released the single "Real Hero", which began the promotion of his first full-length studio album. On June 12, his Polish version was published - "Jesteś bohaterem", with which the singer becomes the winner of the "SuperPremiery" competition at the 52nd National Festival of Polish Song in Opole. On October 23, he releases a video clip for the song "Byle być sobą", the second single from the forthcoming album. The very same debut disc, "Byle być sobą", was released on November 13 on the Sony Music label. The disc includes 12 songs in various styles, which primarily reflect the artist's interest in the music of the 80s and 90s, as well as his love for symphonic music. Most of the recordings feature live instruments, and in addition to the usual pop-rock music, violin, viola, cello and double bass can be heard on the disc. The album was produced by Beat Music and mixed and mastered by Coverius Studio in Hamburg.
Michal currently lives in Warsaw, where he received a degree in psychology from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
In 2015, after winning the Opole festival, the singer expressed his desire to take part in the 61st Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in Stockholm in May 2016. On December 21, he released two potential Eurovision entries, both of which were included in his debut album: "Such Is Life" and "Color of Your Life", and asked his fans which one he should take part in the national preselection with. More than 85% of them preferred the second one, which was submitted in the application for TVP. On May 14, 2016, the final of the competition took place. The jury awarded Michal 25th place, but according to the results of the audience vote, he ended up in 3rd place. As a result, Michal took 8th place in the competition.
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When I first saw this miracle, I thought: "What a sweet, but ugly girl." When I heard his voice, I was stunned: not only is it not a girl at all, but quite a guy, he is also an excellent singer. :)
Yes, she promised to continue stories about Polish freaks. Here it is.
Michal Shpak, singer, participant in the Polish version of the TV show " X-factor"For beginner pop singers. 22 years old. Born in a small, unremarkable Polish town called Jaslo.
He grew up in a large family, has 2 sisters and a brother. Before participating in the TV program, he never studied vocals professionally. At school he created his own rock band (and it was the hardest local rock).
The rapid rise of his singing career began, as you might guess, with participation in " X-factor"e"(2011). Michal reached the finals of the TV show, but did not win as voted by the viewers. He took an honorable 2nd place.
He was overtaken by an unremarkable, in my opinion, and even scary man of venerable age (but very brutal), singing something like bard rock (I’m not sure that there is such a musical direction, but in general terms it’s when wild, unwashed guys with beards in the shape of a dead cat gather around the fires and yell heavy songs for life with a guitar in hoarse voices).
Here he is, the winner of the Polish singing talent contest, Genek Leska.
By the way, pay attention to the difference between the audiences of such spectacles in our countries - it was clearly not teenage girls who voted for this uncle, who in Russia give at least 60% of the votes in favor of participants in various musical reality shows. In Poland, Leska's fans are rather single people of both sexes in age.
But! Let's go back to my favorite Shpak.
What is especially impressive in his image is naturalness. The image that the audience sees on stage is not only a stage role. His eccentricity and femininity are evident both in personal communication and in his performances. There is some special magnetism with which he attracts and wins the interlocutors and the audience (which is surprising, because I always considered magnetism as such a sign of heightened masculinity).
Michal came to this outrageous style when he was still a schoolboy.
Note - the singer was born and raised in a small, dark and rather gopovaty place. For long hair, painted eyes and manicure, he was repeatedly beaten by locals. And yet this did not break the craving for beauty in the teenager (as he understands it, of course). I respect him for his courage and perseverance. :)
So he was, as they say, "before". Photo from a school album, here the future singer is 14 years old.
And after". The cover of his debut album titled "XI" (2011).
His first television performance literally blew up the audience. The spectators in the hall greeted the exit of the next participant with a howl. Yes, and the members of the jury were, to put it mildly, amazed when they heard that the timid skinny "girl" in a red jacket was called Michal.
Curiously, contrary to the current fashion for androgyny in modeling and show business, women are often more wary of the singer than men. Either they are afraid to lose in an unequal battle for the title of "fair sex", or they feel an instinctive disgust for deliberately non-masculine singer.
For example, Maya Sablevskaya, a music producer and image maker, one of the jury members of the X-factor program, was very outraged by the extravagant appearance of Michal Shpak and even sharply insisted that he take off his "woman's trinkets" before the test.
The male part of the jury, however, came to the aid of the embarrassed singer. Cuba Vojewoodsky, chairman of the jury, a journalist, a well-known showman in Poland, even asked the audience for indulgence towards the speaker, promising that if he turns out to be a "stranger" in singing, he will go straight to where he came from.
Third member of the jury Cheslav Mozil, a singer and composer, preferred to remain silent at first, inserting into the general skirmish only the remark that the participant's "women's trinkets" did not bother him at all. And during the performance, he only looked with loving eyes at the talented young singer. :)
(Each of the members of the jury, by the way, is an odious person in his own way, it would be worth telling about them in more detail; maybe in the future I will write a separate note.)
What can we say about what hubbub arose after Michal Szpak sang. His deep, colorful voice, crazy-vibrating energy that electrifies the hall, the passion with which he gives himself to the performance to the drop, the bright talent of the vocalist - all this won the audience and the jury from the very first seconds.
Even the harsh Maya Sablevskaya had to soften up and give the go-ahead for the weirdo to participate in the next stages of the competition. And the chairman of the jury, Kuba Voievudsky, bluntly stated that in his rich home music library, only one single disc was missing - the album, in fact, by Shpak.
Well, here it is, a recording of that speech:
The tabloids, of course, regularly strut about the singer's sexuality and mental health. The most popular version of the origins of his outrageousness is, perhaps, the story of the childhood psychological trauma of Michal, who, as he himself admits, as a 10-year-old boy, suffered from a lack of attention from his mother (she left the children with her father and went abroad to work) .
At the same time, my mother has always been and remains a model of elegance and spiritual beauty for a popular singer.
During the musical reality show, a team of specialists worked on the image of Michal, led, in fact, by Cuba Vojevudsky.
Of course, they left the young man the opportunity to attract immodest looks on the street and amaze the public, but they greatly changed the overall stylistic coloring of his image.
From a feminine freak, a kind of Polish analogue of Lady Gaga in trousers, Michal Szpak outwardly turned into, rather, a gothic rocker. Now on stage he looks less like a transvestite, more like an androgynous and relaxed version of Marilyn Manson.
However, in life he remained almost the same. He often travels home, fools around with friends and sisters, devotes a lot of time to his family, helps to support and educate the younger ones. Stardom, perhaps, has not spoiled him yet, in personal communication Michal is the same open and friendly guy (is he a boy?), As several years ago, before he woke up famous.
Currently, his main dream is to buy his own big house in Poland and move all members of his family there: his mother and older sister from Italy, where they are now forced to earn a living, and his younger brother and sister with their father from Jasla.
Now he receives numerous job offers from buffoonery theaters and travesty shows around the world. However, Michal Szpak himself does not want to earn a living solely by his extravagance. He sees himself as a professional singer, whose appearance only complements his unusual image, but is by no means his main advantage.
Yes, feminine habits and gestures are his hallmark. It is difficult to judge how much this is the result of deviations in the psyche or a thoughtful, consciously accepted image. I rather lean towards the first option. However, no matter what prompted him to such experiments with appearance, in reality he is surprisingly lively, sunny, talented and charming person.
I wouldn’t say that I became a fan of his music (although his voice is really unusual - goosebumps, especially if you listen not to the recording, but personally, they run all over the body in furious herds), but definitely this person hooked me to the living with his cheerfulness, burning eyes , the will to win not only in the singing competition, but in general in any of his life endeavors.
When I learn to do any business with the same passion, dedication and a radiant look, I will, perhaps, be truly happy. :)
PS. The photos are not mine, taken from various sources. I'm too lazy to make links on purpose, but if necessary I can search.
