Beáta Palya, also known as Palya Bea, is a Hungarian folksinger with an international following who made her solo album debut in 2003 and often collaborates with traditional folk groups such as Kárpátia and Folkestra. Born on November 11, 1976, in a village in Hungary, she began singing folk songs as a child and won some talent competitions prior to making her recording debut as the vocalist of Zurgó, a traditional folk group with which she recorded one album, Moldvai Csángó Népzene (1997). In addition, she studied Hungarian folk music tradition, plus Persian and Indian music, as a university student and joined a number of other groups, among them Kárpátia (with whom she recorded the album Zene Moldvából [1998]), Balogh Sándor (Dorombér [2000]), Szoke Szabolcs (Sindbad's Songs [2000]), Sebo Együttes (Rejtelmek [2001]), and Folkestra (Mamikám [2001]). In 2003 Palya made her solo album debut with Ágról-ágra (Tradition in Motion), followed by Álom-álom, Kitalálom in 2004 and Weöres Sándor: Psyché in 2005, the latter featuring the poetry of Hungarian writer Weöres Sándor. In the meantime, she continued collaborating with various traditional folk groups and was featured as a vocalist on the albums Vásár (2004) by Kárpátia, Magyar Népdalok (2005) by Balázs Elemér Group, and Szerelem Hava (2005) by Kiss Ferenc. Well established internationally by this point as one of her country's leading folk music artists, Palya signed a major-label recording deal with Sony Music and hit the upper reaches of the Hungarian charts with the albums Adieu les Complexes (2008) and Egyszálének (2009). ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi