Today we find ourselves in Easter Europe. Tulia is a Polish folk music group. The band was formed in 2017, in Szcezcin, Poland. Tulia began as a vocal quartet. The four singers are Joanna Sinkiewicz, Dominika Siepka, Patrycja Nowicka and Tulia Biczak, whose name was chosen as the name of the band. They received major attention in Poland in 2017, after sharing a cover of Depeche Mode’s song “Enjoy the Silence” on YouTube.
In 2017 they recorded and uploaded their own version of Enjoy the Silence which in the same month was published on band’s fanpage. In November 2017, Tulia band was officially formed. In February 2018, they realised an official video to the song. It scored over 11 million views on YouTube In the same month they presented a video clip to their cover of “Nieznajomy” by Dawid Podsiadio.
In May 2018, they released their first album, called Tulia and distributed by Universal, which includes a number of original songs, as well as covers of Polish and international artists. The album went platinum in Poland, selling more than 30,000 copies from the date of release. On 9 June 2018 they performed their song “Jeszcze Cię nie ma” at the Krajowy Festival. They received three statuettes: judges’ prize, public’s prize and a special prize from ZAiKS. In November 2018 Tulia (deluxe edition) was released in which their new original songs were added.
The group use the white voice singing technique, which is a contemporary name, used usually in Eastern Europe, for the traditional singing style. alternative names for the traditional folk technique of singing are: open voice, full voice, natural voice. The technique is based on an open throat and free volume with a bright colour. It uses all types of registers depending on many factors. Sometimes it is close to a controlled screaming or simply calling. Nowadays, a “revival” of folk singing made this style universal, equal and de facto flat. Field work shows that the style is more complex than just singing “on nose” and loud. It depends mainly on the country/region, speech, voice color, sound, solo or polyphonic singing and individual expression of a singer.
In February 2019, it was announced that Tulia had been chosen by Polish public TV broadcaster TVP to represent Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019.] The selected song was Fire of Love. Before the contest they took part in several promoting parties. On 14 May 2019, they performed 4th in the running order in the first semi-final and placed 11th with 120 points, missing the final by 2 points.
Tulia Biczak is the oldest member of the band. She studied culture. Dominika Siepka studied pre-school education. Apart from continuing singing, she would like to become a teacher. Patrycja Nowicka finished her music school in the violin class. She is now concentrated on singing but sometimes she plays violin at live concerts. Joanna Sinkiewicz is studying cosmetology and classical. Sadly she left the group in August 2019 due to personal reasons and health issues.
