Blue Café are a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 musical group with jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 and Latin influences. The band was formed in Łódź in 1998 and had three consecutive hit singles in Poland in 2002-03. They were nominated in the category Best Polish Act at the 2003 MTV Europe Awards

MTV Europe Music Awards 2003

The UK hosted the Europe Music Award’s for the second time in 2003. Host Christina Aguilera changed costumes a whopping 12 times and opened the show in a Nun's habit...

, and are also known internationally for their participation in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...

.

Band members

The original line-up of the band was leader, composer, arranger and keyboardist Paweł Rurak-Sokal, singer Tatiana Okupnik

Tatiana Okupnik

Tatiana Okupnik vel Tatiana is a Polish singer, composer and songwriter. She has a characteristic, unique voice timbre. Musically she collaborated e.g...

, Viola Danel (guitar), Sebastian Kasprowicz (guitar), Marcin Markuszewski (bass), Łukasz Moszczyński (drums), Piotr Sławiński (trumpet) and Michał Niewiadomski (trombone).

History

Their first single "Español" was released in 2001, with album Fanaberia following in late 2002.

Blue Café submitted "You May Be in Love", a track from Fanaberia, to the 2003 Polish Eurovision Song Contest selection, where it made the final, finishing in third place. It subsequently topped the Polish chart when released as a single. The following year, the band took part in the Eurovision selection again with "Love Song", a Latin-flavoured track from their second album Demi-sec. In a close televoting and SMS result, "Love Song" emerged the winner, earning Blue Café the Polish ticket for the 49th Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Song Contest 2004

The Eurovision Song Contest 2004, was the 49th Contest and it was held in the Abdi İpekçi Arena in Istanbul, Turkey. This was the first occasion in which the contest was held in Turkey after they had won the competition in 2003 with Sertab Erener singing "Everyway That I Can"...

. 2004 was the year in which a pre-qualifying semi-final was introduced to Eurovision; however, Ich Troje

Ich Troje

Ich Troje is a Polish pop band.Former members are Magdalena Pokora , Justyna Majkowska , Elli Mücke and Ania Wisniewska ....

's top 10 finish for Poland the previous year meant that Blue Café gained automatic entry to the final, which was held in Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

 on 15 May. Five members - Okupnik, Rurak-Sokal, Sławiński, Niewiadomski and newcomer Piotr Grąbkowski - appeared on stage on the night of the contest, when "Love Song" finished in a rather disappointing 17th place of 24 entries.

Okupnik decided to leave the band in 2005, and was replaced as lead singer by Dominika Gawęda. The band's fourth and most recent album, Four Seasons, was released in 2008.

Albums

• 2002: Fanaberia (#3)
• 2003: Demi-sec (#3)
• 2006: Ovosho (#10)
• 2008: Four Seasons (#4)
• 2011: DaDa

Singles

• 2001: "Español"
• 2002: "Łap mnie bejbe"
• 2002: "I'll Be Waiting"
• 2002: "Kochamy siebie..."
• 2003: "You May Be in Love"
• 2003: "Do nieba, do piekła"
• 2004: "Love Song"
• 2004: "Złość"
• 2006: "Baby, Baby"
• 2006: "My Road"
• 2007: "Another Girl"
• 2008: "Czas nie będzie czekał"
• 2008: "Niewiele mam"
• 2008: "Girl in Red"
• 2011: "DaDa"
• 2011: "Buena" #1 (Airplay Charts)

External links

• Official Site in Polish