Love Song (Blue Café Song)

Poland was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 with the song "Love Song", composed by Paweł Rurak-Sokal, with lyrics by Tatiana Okupnik, and performed by the band Blue Café. The Polish participating broadcaster, (TVP), organised the national final in order to select its entry for the contest. The national final took place on 24 January 2004 and featured fifteen entries. "Love Song" performed by Blue Café was selected as the winner after gaining the most votes from the public with 57,125 votes.

As one of ten highest placed finishers in the Poland directly qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 15 May 2004. Performing in position 19, Poland placed seventeenth out of the 24 participating countries with 27 points.

Background

Prior to the 2004 Contest, (TVP) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Poland eight times since its first entry in . Its highest placement in the contest, to this point, has been second place, achieved with its debut entry with the song "" performed by Edyta Górniak. It has only, thus far, reached the top ten on one other occasion, when "" performed by Ich Troje finished seventh .

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, TVP organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster confirmed its participation in the 2004 contest on 6 September 2003. In 2003, TVP organised a televised national final for the first time that featured a competition among several artists and songs in order to select its entry, a selection procedure that continued for its 2004 entry.

Before Eurovision

was the national final organised by TVP in order to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004. The show took place on 24 January 2004 at the Studio 5 of TVP in Warsaw, hosted by Tomasz Kammel and Magdalena Mołek. Public televoting exclusively selected the winner. The show was broadcast on TVP1 and TVP Polonia as well as streamed online at the broadcaster's website ''tvp.pl''. The national final was watched by 6.5 million viewers in Poland with a market share of 39.5%.

Competing entries

TVP opened a submission period for interested artists and songwriters to submit their entries between 6 September 2003 and 5 November 2003. The broadcaster received 73 submissions at the closing of the deadline. A seven-member selection committee selected nine entries from the received submissions to compete in the national final. The selection committee consisted of Marek Sierocki (music journalist and artistic directors of the Opole Festival and Sopot Festival), Janusz Kosiński (journalist), Hirek Wrona (journalist), Zygmunt Kukla (conductor, composer), Piotr Metz (programme director of Radio Eska), Piotr Klatt (musician, songwriter, journalist and music producer at TVP) and Bartosz Jastrzębowski (director). The selected entries were announced on 6 November 2003.

Final

The televised final took place on 24 January 2004. Fifteen entries competed and the winner, "Love Song" performed by Blue Café, was determined entirely by a public vote. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, singer In-Grid and Sertab Erener (who won Eurovision for ) performed as the interval acts.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country, the " Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) and the ten highest placed finishers in the are required to qualify from the semi-final in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from the semi-final progress to the final. As Poland finished seventh in the 2003 contest, the nation automatically qualified to compete in the final on 15 May 2004. On 23 March 2004, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Poland was set to perform in position 19 in the final, following the entry from and before the entry from the . Poland placed seventeenth in the final, scoring 27 points.

Only the final was broadcast in Poland on TVP1 and TVP Polonia with commentary by Artur Orzech. 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 grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to in the final of the contest.

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2004

2004
Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004
Eurovision
Eurovision