The Fryderyk is the most important annual Polish music award for the modern Polish popular music industry. It’s presented in April, and is comparable to the American Grammy award. The Fryderyk was officially created in 1994 by the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry (Związek Producentów Audio-Video, ZPAV). Presented for the first time in 1995, its name refers to the original spelling of Polish composer Frederic Chopin’s first name, Fryderyk Chopin.
The Fryderyk statuette was designed and produced by Dorota Dziekiewicz-Pilich, and modeled after the artist’s husband, Marcin Pillich, a Polish sound engineer. The statuette is reminiscent of the Academy Awards’ “Oscar,” but with wings, arms stretched backwards, and wearing headphones.
Voting is anonymous and takes place in two rounds: in the first, ZPAV members may nominate five artists in each category, in the second, members may vote for one candidate in each category. There are three main classifications for awards: popular music, classical music, and jazz, and 34 sub categories, including best album of the year, group of the year, best male and female vocalist, debut of the year, and composer of the year. Each member of ZPAV may only vote only under the classification to which they belong, but artists may be nominated under multiple categories.
The Fryderyk also awards for best foreign album of the year. Previous winners include Pink Floyd, Queen, Rolling Stones, Prince, Coldplay, and Foo Fighters.
Polish artists who have the most awards and nominations for the award include:
- Kasia Nosowska (of Hey ): 21 awards and 53 nominations
- Grzegorz Ciechowski (of Republika ): 11 awards, 24 nominations
- Kayah: 8 awards, 32 nominations
- Grzegorz Turnau: 8 awards, 19 nominations
- Myslovitz: 7 awards, 30 nominations
- One, Two, Three : 7 awards, 17 nominations
- Ania Dąbrowska: 7 awards, 15 nominations
A clip from Fryderyk ’97 (In English and Polish):
Rappers “Kaliber” receiving their Fryderyk for Album of the Year:
