The Fryderyk Awards: Aural recognition

The Fryderyk Awards, Poland's most prestigious musical distinction, were presented last week. The event was divided into "popular" and "classical" music, and held simultaneously in two separate venues, Fabryka Trzciny and the Basilica of the Silesian Fathers, respectively.

Katarzyna Nosowska, the lead singer of Hey, took home the most statuettes at the ceremony. She took five awards for her first solo album, "UniSexBlues," including Song of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year. Hey's "MTV Unplugged" album received three awards, including Rock/Metal Album of the Year.

Male Vocalist of the Year was won by Tomasz Lipnicki, while Raz, Dwa, Trzy took the Group of the Year award. Among the classical awards, Paweł Szymański was named Composer of the Year and Piotr Wojtasik received both Jazz Musician of the Year and Jazz Album of the Year for his album "Circle."

The Fryderyk Awards are given by the Polish Phonographic Academy, an association of around 800 artists, industry professionals and music journalists, which nominates artists and selects the winners. Unlike other awards ceremonies, the outcome of the Fryderyks is not dependent on the artists' popularity.

However, this year's edition of the Fryderyks did present the first interactive award - the New Face of Music Award - allowing people to vote for the winner. The award went to the group Feel.

This year marked the 14th edition of the awards, and the first time they have been televised live in eight years. For a period lasting several years the gala experienced a drop in stature - the ceremonies were held in less prestigious venues, without TV coverage.

"When the Fryderyks began 14 years ago, Polish music was really good. Later there was a kind of drop in quality. Now the quality of our music is growing again," said Marek Niedźwiedzki, a music journalist.

"The Fryderyk Awards are really important for Polish music," said Niedźwiedzki. "They safeguard the quality of our music," he concluded.

For more information, log on http://www.fryderyk2008.pl/