Poland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with the song "Keine Grenzen – Żadnych granic" written by André Franke,
Joachim Horn-Bernges
Joachim Horn-Bernges is a German songwriter and music producer who has competed in the '' Eurovision Song Contest'' several times and for different countries. In 1989 he competed for both Germany and Austria.Eurovision Song Contest - Joachim Horn ...
,
Michał Wiśniewski
Michał Krystian Wiśniewski (born 9 September 1972 in Łódź) is a Polish pop vocalist, leader of the pop group Ich Troje,''Gazeta_Wyborcza''/ref>_who_sang_for_Poland_at_the_2003_Eurovision_Song_Contest.html" ;"title="Gazeta_Wyborcza''.html" ; ...
and
Jacek Łągwa. The song was performed by the band
Ich Troje
Ich Troje ("The Three of Them") is a Polish pop band. Ich Troje was founded in 1996 by songwriter Michał Wiśniewski and composer Jacek Łągwa. Since 2000, Ich Troje has been one of the most successful Polish groups. They have sold more than 1.5 ...
. The Polish broadcaster
Telewizja Polska
Telewizja Polska S.A. (; "Polish Television"; TVP), also known in English as the public Polish Television is a Polish state media corporation. It is the largest Polish television network, although viewership has been declining in the 2010s.
Sinc ...
(TVP) returned to the Eurovision Song Contest after a one-year absence following their withdrawal in
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
as one of the bottom six countries in the
2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
contest. TVP organised the national final ''Krajowe Eliminacje do Konkursu Piosenki Eurowizji 2003'' in order to select the Polish entry for the 2003 contest in
Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...
,
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
. The national final took place on 25 January 2003 and featured fourteen entries. "Keine Grenzen – Żadnych granic" performed by Ich Troje was selected as the winner after gaining 31.8% of the public vote.
Poland competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 24 May 2003. Performing during the show in position 20, Poland placed seventh out of the 26 participating countries, scoring 90 points.
Background
Prior to the 2003 Contest, Poland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest seven times since its first entry in
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
. Poland's highest placement in the contest, to this point, has been second place, which the nation achieved with its debut entry in
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
with the song "
To nie ja!
"To nie ja!" (; "It wasn't me!"; often rendered without the exclamation mark) was the entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1994, performed in Polish by Edyta Górniak. This marked Poland's debut at the contest, and consequently the first time th ...
" performed by
Edyta Górniak
Edyta Anna Górniak (; born 14 November 1972) is a Polish pop singer with a career spanning 3 decades. Górniak started as a musical theatre actress in 1990. She performed in the most popular musical in Polish history, the Tony Award-nominated ...
.
The Polish national broadcaster,
Telewizja Polska
Telewizja Polska S.A. (; "Polish Television"; TVP), also known in English as the public Polish Television is a Polish state media corporation. It is the largest Polish television network, although viewership has been declining in the 2010s.
Sinc ...
(TVP), broadcasts the event within Poland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. TVP confirmed Poland's participation in the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest on 19 September 2002.
Since 1994, the broadcaster opted to internally select their entries. However, along with their participation confirmation, TVP announced that the Polish entry for the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest would be selected via a national final for the first time.
Before Eurovision
Krajowe Eliminacje do Konkursu Piosenki Eurowizji 2003
''Krajowe Eliminacje do Konkursu Piosenki Eurowizji 2003'' was the national final organised by TVP in order to select the Polish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2003. The show took place on 25 January 2003 at the Studio 5 of TVP in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
, hosted by
Artur Orzech
Artur Dariusz Orzech (born 22 February 1964, in Jelenia Góra) is a Polish journalist, radio and television presenter and music broadcaster.
After graduating from ''IV Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Adama Mickiewicza w Warszawie'' in 1983 with an ...
. Public televoting exclusively selected the winner. The show was broadcast on
TVP1
TVP1 (TVP Jeden, ''Program I Telewizji Polskiej'', ''"Jedynka"'') is the main public television channel of TVP (Telewizja Polska S.A.), Poland's national television broadcaster. It was the first Polish channel to be broadcast and remains one ...
and
TVP Polonia
TVP Polonia (formerly known as TV Polonia) is the international channel of the Telewizja Polska (TVP). The channel is co-funded by the TVP and the Polish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and broadcasts from the TVP headquarters in Warsaw.
TVP Polon ...
as well as via radio on
Radio Eska
Radio Eska is a commercial radio station in Poland. The radio has organized Polish awards ceremony Eska Music Awards since 2002.
External linksRadio Eska webpage
Radio stations in Poland
Mass media in Warsaw
Radio stations established i ...
. The national final was watched by 7.27 million viewers in Poland with a market share of 46%.
Competing entries
TVP opened a submission period for interested artists and songwriters to submit their entries between 19 September 2002 and 15 November 2002.
The broadcaster received 43 submissions at the closing of the deadline. A six-member selection committee selected fifteen entries from the received submissions to compete in the national final. The selection committee consisted of
Janusz Kosiński (journalist), Zygmunt Kukla (conductor, composer), Leszek Kumański (TV director, screenwriter and producer), Marek Sierocki (Head of Entertainment of TVP1 and artistic directors of the
Opole Festival
The National Festival of Polish Song in Opole ( pl, Krajowy Festiwal Piosenki Polskiej w Opolu, KFPP) is an annual music festival in Opole, Poland. Together with the Sopot Festival it is one of the two most important music festivals in Poland. Th ...
and
Sopot Festival
The Sopot International Song Festival or Sopot Festival (later called ''Sopot Music Festival Grand Prix'', ''Sopot Top of the Top Festival'' from 2012–13 and ''Polsat Sopot Festival'' in 2014) is an annual international song contest held in So ...
), Hirek Wrona (journalist) and Piotr Klatt (musician, songwriter, journalist and music producer at TVP). The selected entries were announced on 30 November 2002. On 11 December 2002, "Pierwszy raz", written by
Piotr Rubik
Piotr Rubik (Polish pronunciation: ; born 3 September 1968 in Warsaw) is a Polish composer of symphonic pop music for orchestra, film and theatre as well as conductor, music producer and vocalist. He gained nationwide popularity in the mid-2000s ...
and Jolanta Literska and to have been performed by Georgina Tarasiuk, was disqualified from the national final due to the singer not being aged at least 16 on the day of the Eurovision Song Contest 2003.
Final
The televised final took place on 25 January 2003. Fourteen entries competed and the winner, "Keine Grenzen – Żadnych granic" performed by
Ich Troje
Ich Troje ("The Three of Them") is a Polish pop band. Ich Troje was founded in 1996 by songwriter Michał Wiśniewski and composer Jacek Łągwa. Since 2000, Ich Troje has been one of the most successful Polish groups. They have sold more than 1.5 ...
, was determined entirely by a public vote. In addition to the performances of the competing entries,
1994 Polish Eurovision entrant Edyta Górniak
Edyta Anna Górniak (; born 14 November 1972) is a Polish pop singer with a career spanning 3 decades. Górniak started as a musical theatre actress in 1990. She performed in the most popular musical in Polish history, the Tony Award-nominated ...
opened the show with her new single "
Impossible
Impossible, Imposible or Impossibles may refer to:
Music
* ''ImPossible'' (album), a 2016 album by Divinity Roxx
* ''The Impossible'' (album)
Groups
* The Impossibles (American band), a 1990s indie-ska group from Austin, Texas
* The Impossibl ...
", while the band Bajm performed as the interval act.
Controversy
Following the Polish national final, it was revealed that approximately 300,000 votes were submitted by the public with less than 25% being successfully transmitted and registered during the 15-minute voting window, due to the system operated by the telecom provider being overwhelmed by the high influx of votes. Following media and public inquiries, TVP published the voting percentage of the top three entries with the addition of the delayed votes on 27 January, which revealed that the results remain unchanged despite the margin between the top two entries being shortened. Unconfirmed reports also suggested that Varius Manx, Bracia Cugowscy and Ha-Dwa-O had placed fourth to sixth, respectively.
At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the bottom ten countries in the
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
contest competed in the final on 24 May 2003.
On 29 November 2002, a special allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Poland was set to perform in position 20, following the entry from
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and before the entry from
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
. Poland finished in seventh place with 70 points.
The show was broadcast in Poland on
TVP1
TVP1 (TVP Jeden, ''Program I Telewizji Polskiej'', ''"Jedynka"'') is the main public television channel of TVP (Telewizja Polska S.A.), Poland's national television broadcaster. It was the first Polish channel to be broadcast and remains one ...
and
TVP Polonia
TVP Polonia (formerly known as TV Polonia) is the international channel of the Telewizja Polska (TVP). The channel is co-funded by the TVP and the Polish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and broadcasts from the TVP headquarters in Warsaw.
TVP Polon ...
with commentary by
Artur Orzech
Artur Dariusz Orzech (born 22 February 1964, in Jelenia Góra) is a Polish journalist, radio and television presenter and music broadcaster.
After graduating from ''IV Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Adama Mickiewicza w Warszawie'' in 1983 with an ...
. The Polish spokesperson, who announced the Polish votes during the final, was Maciej Orłoś.
Voting
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Poland and awarded by Poland in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Belgium in the contest.
ESC History - Poland 2003
/ref>
References
{{Eurovision Song Contest 2003
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003
Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...
Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...