At only 21, Klemntyna already has a quite interesting and inspiring story of her life to share with the world. A Warsaw-native inspired by Michael Jackson, she started singing, dancing and performing at the age of 12. It was specifically Jackson’s song featuring Paul McCartney, “The Girl Is Mine”, that sparked her passion for singing and marked the beginning of her life-long journey. It didn’t take long (though it did take a lot of practice, determination and self- perseverance) when Klemntyna started to place in local singing contests, participate in music festivals and even appeared briefly in The Voice of Poland at the age of 16. Having always been inspired by R&B / Soul powerhouse vocalists, as well as 80s/90s/00s pop culture, Klemntyna studied music and performance by watching and following music legends, such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Beyoncé or Mariah Carey. In her senior year of high school she was accepted to study at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering with a partial scholarship. In order to raise the remaining funds for NYU, she took a gap year during which she gained experience in the areas of education and arts/entertainment. Her activity over the gap year has given her an opportunity to attend NYU in her freshman year and consequently Klemntyna moved to New York to start studying at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, where she became interested in the application of technology in music and entertainment. During her freshman year she was also exceptionally involved in the university life: as a cheerleader in the official NYU Cheer team, vocalist in the NYU Cleftomaniacs acapella group, as well as a member of NYU Student Alumni Council or other NYU entertainment organizations. Still, music, and more particularly creating it herself and expressing herself through singing and performing have always been Klemntyna’s main priorities, and despite the demanding workload, she has not abstained from progressing in music. During her freshman year, she advanced as the winner of departmental eliminations of the university-wide talent show NYU UltraViolet Live. Consequently, her time at Tandon made her realize how passionate about music she really is, and how important it is for her to pursue it professionally. Because of her high GPA, as well as previous achievements in music (both at NYU and before), towards the end of her first year, she was admitted as one of exceptionally few transfer students to the small and exclusive music program at NYU Tisch School of Arts, Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music.
However, because of financial reasons, she was forced to take a break from NYU and consequently moved to London. As part of her search for funds, as well as music promotion, she recorded a cover of “No Tears Left To Cry” with the champion in beatbox, Dharni, which became an online viral and in total was viewed over 100k times on various platforms. She has also promoted her campaign, reached and met dozens of people, leaders in music, business and technology, and has received positive feedback for her activity and talent. Finally, she began working on her original music in the summer of 2018 with her hometown friend. While in London, she started collaborating with an LA-based producer, Bruno, who contacted her via Instagram in October 2018 (the two have in fact never met in real life, but found each other through mutual friends). The collaboration resulted in Klemntyna recording dozens of songs on her laptop in her bedroom in London and sending it over to Bruno in LA for production work. Their first single was released on April 5th 2019 and became Klemntyna’s debut single.
“Halfway Thru” talks about the young artist’s challenges and the resulting ups and downs. It was written by her at 12am in her bedroom and it is a record of the recent events from her life. “The song is an expression of a complete loss and anxiety. I’m unsure about what is going on with me and my life, even though I’ve always kept track of everything in my life (and I think that a lot of people still get that impression). But in reality I’m just extremely lost and not being myself, my usual self. It feels like I’m changing and starting to really experience what life is about. So I’m asking for guidance with the hope of seeing that I’m halfway thru something that’s the most difficult for me at the moment.” The emotions in the song are expressed through powerful and sweet, 90s-R&B-divas-inspired vocals. At the same time, the song sound-wise is clearly inspired by classic late 90s / early 00s RB. The simplicity of melody mixed with the strong, highly- flexible vocals (over which Klemntyna has a particularly strong control) result in the song being a strong debut of the promising young artist, who plans to release more music within 2 months since her first release. She describes her style as highly 80s/90s pop/r&b-influenced with a little bit of fresh sound of contemporary and urban r&b, as well as contemporary jazz and hip-hop. Because of her worldly experience thus far, Klemntyna aspires to merge her European origins, London’s rock vibe and Polish simplicity and sweetness in vocals with the American modernity and innovation, as well as the deep r&b and pop culture. Having always looked up to legendary musicians and personalities within the music industry, Klemntyna aspires to cultivate the importance of personality, talent and musical creativity within the global music industry, at the same time creating highly-relatable music, catchy yet deep lyrics expressing self-reflections on life, people and human relationships. Some of Klemntyna’s biggest inspirations are Beyoncé, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Aaliyah, Mac Miller, Jorja Smith, Billie Eilish or Jay Z. She is also inspired by jazz instrumentalists and performers, such as Esperanza Spalding, Viktoria Tolstoy, Jakob Bro and Jonathan Kreisberg.
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