In 1969 Basia debuted with her local amateur rock band Astry, and performed with them on Polish Festival Of Beat Avangarde in Kalisz. From 1972 to 1974, she was part of the popular Polish female vocal group Alibabki, and in 1977 sang with the rock group Perfect. Settling temporarily in Chicago in 1979, she relocated to the U.K. in 1981. It was there she met Mark Reilly and longtime collaborator Danny White, brother of jazz guitarist Peter White. In 1983, the trio performed as the jazz-pop group Bronze, but later changed their name to Matt Bianco and recorded their debut album Whose Side Are You On (1984). This album included U.K. Top 30 hits "Get Out Of Your Lazy Bed" and "Half a Minute," eventually achieving gold status in Great Britain.

In 1985, she and White left Matt Bianco to launch her solo career. In 1987, her first album Time and Tide was released, selling over one million copies alone in the United States, including the Top 30 hit "Time and Tide" in the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Her sophomore effort, London, Warsaw, New York (1990) repeated that success with sales of more than one million units, and featured another pop Top 30 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, "Cruising for Bruising." This album also topped Billboard's yearly chart of Contemporary Jazz albums, even beating the Grammy-winning album of Quincy Jones. Achieving success beyond the US market, Basia also became a very popular artist in Asia (especially in Japan) and Europe (particularly in France). Her third and most recent studio album, The Sweetest Illusion, was released in 1994 and was a moderate success in the U.S. market, where it sold over half a million copies and globally became another million-seller. Mixed by then-highly sought David Bascombe (who had contributed to Oleta Adams' sparkling debut effort), the project marked the end of a 10-year working relationship with mixmaster Phil Harding and a step into more sophisticated territory. "The Sweetest Illusion" included a #1 hit in the Billboard Dance Club Play chart "Drunk On Love." Her next album Basia on Broadway was a live set recorded at the Neil Simon Theatre in New York, NY released in 1995. In 1996 Basia was featured on Peter White's album Caravan Of Dreams, with vocals on the single "Just Another Day." In 1998, a greatest-hits retrospective album Clear Horizon - The Best of Basia was issued and contained four previously unreleased tracks, including a cover of "Waters of March," written by Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Despite a successful international career and faithful fan base, she dropped out of the industry in 1998 after the release of Clear Horizon. She would later cite the deaths of people close to her (including her own mother) as the reason she "didn't feel like singing". After some persistent efforts by Danny White and Mark Reilly (who had started working together again), she agreed to join a re-formed Matt Bianco. They released the album Matt's Mood in 2004. After touring to promote the album, the group split again.