Poland is finally returning power to the people! Today the director of TVP1, Jan Pawlicki, has confirmed via his Twitter account that on March 5 Poland will hold its first national final since 2011.
Koniec z kapturowymi s?dami:) Niech widzowie zdecyduj? kto wyst?pi w konkursie Eurowizji. 5 marca TVP1 zorganizuje koncert eliminacyjny #TVP
— Jan Pawlicki (@Jan_Pawlicki) January 26, 2016
“The end with ‘hood councils’:) Let the viewers decide who will perform at the Eurovision Contest on March 5th. TVP1 will organize qualifying concert #TVP”
Whilst information on the format of the show and the artists competing is yet to be released, recent speculation within Polish media has brought some singers to our attention.
Michal Szpak
Back in December we wrote about the long locked singer, Michal Szpak, and his undying will to represent his country at Eurovision. Polish media claimed that he had two songs in the running – “Such is Life” and “The Colour of Life”. Could we be seeing one of these ballads in Stockholm?
Cleo
After news on Saturday that Donatan had ‘spilt the beans’ about Cleo being TVP’s choice, he’s now chucking those beans all over the floor. This morning he posted on his official Facebook page more information on Cleo’s ‘confirmed’ Eurovision entry.
“You’ll know Cleo’s Eurovision song in February! It will be something special – I think Europe needs something firm and honest like that now! And meanwhile I recommend: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mG5XNhtrok”
Whilst Donatan is known for stirring the pot, the interesting thing is that neither TVP nor Cleo herself have denied Donatan’s words. He uses the words “special,” “firm” and “honest” to describe her ‘selected’ song – indicating that Cleo will be swapping breast implants and milk churners for a piano as she tackles something a bit more serious. He then recommended that we listen to her latest single “Zabiore nas”.
The song is a minimalistic R&B ballad and, coincidently, the song was released after the Eurovision cut-off line. Are we listening to this year’s Polish entry? The song clocks in at 3:31 – a good thirty seconds over the 3 minute limit for Eurovision entries. That said, we’ve seen countless entries cut down and reformed to fit the Eurovision guidelines over the years – Donatan & Cleo’s entry included.
Stashka
Then we have folk-pop singer, Stashka. A few weeks she posted on her official Facebook page that she had a song ready to send to TVP.
“This song brought me success in an international competition [Baltic Song Contest 2014].. I wonder what happens now. This topic is behind me and Eurovision fans say, ask and cheer.. I volunteered. I will tell You later which song I proposed. You will know soon if I get it (opportunity to represent) or not.”
She went on to comment the song is “in English”, “happy” and “full of energy” – a stark contrast to Poland’s previous entry which fell flat in the grand final. After winning the Baltic Song Contest in 2014 with the upbeat pop-folk number “Chce kochac,” could Stashka transfer her victory to an even larger stage?
What do you think? Do you want any of these artists in the Polish national final?
Maybe Hubert Bisto? I remember one time reported some cool songs.
Szpak (Starling) and band Enej (N.A.) are not options for obvious reasons.
Renata Wolkiewicz – polish girl from russian The Voice. Amazing voice.
If it was just a selection between these 3 artist then I’d be delighted.
TOP should do 50-50 voting with a jury of five with maybe a previous winner or someone like Thomas G son.
I hope Poland don’t have more than 5 in a final and I think it would be best to have just a final.
I think keeping it simple increases a countries chances (Unless you’re Sweden)
Or maybe just pick CLEO and have a selection of a few songs.
Remember TVP keep it simple and only let good songs into the final.
Cleo will slay all of them.
Fine, but god forbid you give a 100% of decision to the audience. At least 50-50, with a big and diverse jury.
As a Pole, I must say I’m terrified at the moment. Internal selection worked quite well and I don’t really think the time for national selection has come – Poland is not ready yet. We still have a very twisted way of thinking about Eurovision and will probably make another poor choice.
But of course a tiny part of me is extremely thrilled about this news. I just hope for a respectable line-up without joke acts and with many known artists. Maybe then I’ll be a little bit more calm.
@Sara now now, you never know, maybe they’ll choose only good song to compete… hahaha, jk, we will have disco polo and singing nuns, probably. But still let’s hope for the best.
This is the worst thing that could happened 🙁 Polish people never vote for the right singer 🙁 Poland are not qualifying this year 🙁 🙁 🙁
And I thought Edyta was choosen 🙁 Not my day 🙁
Ewa Farna, Margaret or Krzysztof Iwaneczko. I ???? POLAND
talking about a surprise, huh?
well, at least we can forget about Edyta Gorniak representing Poland (sadly), there’s no way she’s gonna enter the national selection.
@maslo – I AGREE. Cleo appeals to a very wide range of audiences. And if she submitted something even remotely similar to Zabiore Nas I think we may already have a winner. But please no joke acts oh god please. *kokokoko eurospoko*
Okay, I’m from Poland and I have to say I’m surprised. I like the idea of giving the power back to the people, but we often like to vote for gimmicks over some really good songs. So, as long as TVP picks a good and SERIOUS line-up – we’re good.
CLEO can save Poland, because national final in Poland is the worst thing ever