Poland In The Eurovision Song Contest 2023

Poland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with "Solo" performed by Blanka. The Polish broadcaster (TVP) organised the national final in order to select the Polish entry.

In the second semi-final, Poland qualified for the final on 13 May.

Background

Prior to the 2023 contest, Poland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-four times since its first entry in . Poland's highest placement in the contest, to this point, has been second place, which the nation achieved with its debut entry in with the song "" performed by Edyta Górniak. Poland has only reached the top ten on two other occasions, when Ich Troje performing the song " Keine Grenzen – Żadnych granic" finished seventh in , and when Michał Szpak performing the song " Color of Your Life" finished eighth in . Between 2005 and 2011, Poland failed to qualify from the semi-final round six out of seven years with only their entry, " For Life" performed by Isis Gee, managing to take the nation to the final during that period. After once again failing to qualify to the final in , the country withdrew from the contest throughout 2013. Since returning to the contest in 2014, Poland managed to qualify to the final each year before failing to qualify to the final between and . In , Ochman brought Poland back to the final, eventually finishing 12th with his song "River".

The Polish national broadcaster, (TVP), broadcasts the event within Poland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. The broadcaster opted to select the Polish entry for the 2022 contest during a national selection show titled , a process that was continued for their 2023 entry.

Before Eurovision

''Tu bije serce Europy! Wybieramy hit na Eurowizję!''

("The heart of Europe beats here! We choose the hit for Eurovision!") was the national final organised by TVP in order to select the Polish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. The show was held on 26 February 2023 in the Transcolor Studio in Szeligi, hosted by , Ida Nowakowska and , The show was broadcast on TVP1 and TVP Polonia, as well as online via the platform TVP VOD. The national final was watched, according to the Average Minute Rating, by 1.5 million people with a market share of 10.6%. According to Nielsen Audience Measurement, the show attracted 1.1 million viewers, while the Real Viewership Model reported 1.4 million viewers for the show.

Competing entries

TVP opened a submission period for interested artists and songwriters to submit their entries between 19 September 2022 and 10 February 2023. The broadcaster received 300 submissions at the closing of the deadline. It was recommended for the artists to take part in the process of composing or songwriting of their song. A five-member selection committee consisting of a representative of TVP, a radio personality, a music expert, a journalist and a representative of the Polish Musicians Union selected ten entries from the received submissions to compete in the national final, while TVP reserved the right to select the final finalist (a wildcard) from outside of the submissions. The chosen competing entries were announced on 15 February 2023 during the TVP2 programme ''Pytanie na śniadanie''. Among the competing artists was Alicja Szemplińska, who was due to represent Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 before its cancellation. The competing artists were required to submit a promotional video for their song to TVP by 20 February 2023.

On 23 February, Janusz Daszczyński, journalist and former chairman of TVP, expressed outrage regarding the participation of the song "Booty" by Ahlena in the selection on his Facebook account, claiming that selecting such a song for the national final was "scandalous", and that the lyrics of the song were obscene and not fit for being broadcast on national television. The topic was discussed during a programme council meeting held on the same day, which resulted in Ahlena being asked to change parts of the composition of the song, which the artist complied with.

Final

The final took place on 26 February 2023. Ten entries competed in the national final, with the winner determined by a 50/50 combination of votes from a five-member professional jury and a public vote. In the event of a tie, the tie would be decided in favour of the jury. The jury that voted during the show consisted of chairperson Edyta Górniak (singer, runner-up of the Eurovision Song Contest 1994), as well as Agustin Egurrola (choreographer), Aneta Woźniak (Programme Director of TVP), Marcin Kusy (President of the Polish Radio Program I) and (music journalist and artistic director, commentator of the Eurovision Song Contest in Poland). In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the show was opened by 2021 Greek Eurovision entrant Stefania and 2022 Eurovision winners Kalush Orchestra, while the interval acts included 1994 Polish entrant and jury member Edyta Górniak, 2021 Azerbaijani entrant Efendi, 2022 Polish Eurovision entrant Ochman, as well as former Polish Junior Eurovision entrants Roksana Węgiel and Sara James, who represented the country in and , respectively.

Controversy

During the jury voting sequence, booing could be heard throughout the audience. Following the final of the selection, accusations were made against TVP and the jury of alleged deals with winner Blanka, who had been heavily promoted by the broadcaster beforehand. In addition, viewers accused the jury of intentionally lowering the score of the audience's favourite, Jann, in favor of the eventual winner, which caused demands for the results to be annulled. It was alleged that Blanka and Allan Krupa, son of Edyta Górniak (chairman of the jury), knew each other personally, which Krupa later denied. The votes of jury member Agustin Egurrola were also questioned due to the fact that Blanka used dancers from the dance group Volt, owned by Egurrola, in her performance, leading to allegations of cronyism. The amount of impact the jury had on the result also caused outrage, as it had been reported by multiple sites that the viewers cast three times as many votes for Jann than runner-up Blanka. Shortly prior to the show, TVP changed the format of the results sequence, which was originally supposed to be held in a similar way to the 2022 one with two voting rounds and proportional rankings, and then changing the results sequence once again during the live broadcast to include the reveal of overall scores of all artists exclusively, instead of revealing the detailed televoting result as planned, which was reportedly done in order to reduce the public outrage by not officially announcing the winner of the public vote. Due to public pressure, the televoting ranking was revealed a day after the final.

Following the final, two petitions appeared in which Internet users demanded a change of representative. The two petitions gained over 87,000 votes combined. Five major Polish fan portals, namely ''Eurowizja.org'' jointly with the Polish OGAE fanclub, ''Dziennik Eurowizyjny'', ''Dobry Wieczór Europo'', ''Misja Eurowizja'' and ''Let's Talk About ESC'', petitioned TVP for the publication of the number of votes cast for individual participants, which, together with the issue of the allegations of fixing the results, would be examined by an "independent external company". The media also protested the lack of transparency in the presentation of the results. An official appeal was sent to TVP on 2 March, urging the broadcaster to respond on the matter. TVP issued a statement on 9 March, claiming that it "complied with the voting rules in accordance with the regulations" and that the voting was "supervised by a notary present during the final".

In June 2023, following the Eurovision Song Contest, Polish fan media once again requested TVP to publish the split results of the national final, which was again denied. On 17 July, an official complaint was filed regarding the matter to the Voivodeship Administrative Court of Warsaw.

Promotion

In order to promote "Solo" as the Polish entry for the 2023 contest, Blanka embarked on a promotional tour throughout Europe. She was set to perform during the Moldovan national final ''2023'' as a guest, however, her flight to the event was cancelled. Kicking off her international promotional activities on 10 March 2023 performing at the ''Melfest WKND'' in Stockholm, she then travelled to Barcelona to attend the Eurovision pre-party held on 25 March 2023, then to Tel Aviv on 3 April, where she performed at ''Israel Calling'' in Hangar 11, and to Madrid on 8 April 2023, where she performed at the ''PrePartyES'' in Sala La Riviera. She was also due to make appearances at the ''Eurovision in Concert 2023'' at Amsterdam's AFAS Live on 15 April 2023 and the ''London Eurovision Party'' at London's ''Here at Outernet'' venue on 16 April, but withdrew from them due to illness.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the " Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Poland has been placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 11 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.

Once all the competing songs for the 2023 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Poland was set to perform in position 9, following the entry from and before the entry from .

At the end of the show, Poland was announced as a qualifier for the final.

Voting

Points awarded to Poland

Points awarded by Poland

Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the Polish jury:
* Grzegorz Urban
* Marcin Kusy
* Zygmunt Kukla
* Kamila Sowińska
* Agnieszka Wilczynska

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References

{{reflist

{{Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest
{{Eurovision Song Contest 2023

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023
2023
Eurovision