He’s the charismatic frontman that first entered the Eurovision foray about one year ago. Now, after representing the Czech Republic with Lake Malawi in 2019, Albert Černý is trying his luck in Poland.
Filming for the season premiere of Szansa na Sukces 2020 took place on 19 January, with the remaining two heats set to be recorded in the coming days. Several local outlets, including eurowizja.org, have revealed both the list of candidates and the themes for each show.
The Czech star grew up in the town of Trinec which is located on the Czech-Polish border. It is only a two-hour drive to Krakow compared to four hours to Prague. Lake Malawi have toured Poland extensively and even performed at the 2019 Sopot Festival.
Szansa na Sukces 2020 Contestants
- Patryk Skoczyński (Episode 1)
- Emilia Sanecka (Episode 1)
- Sisters Szlachta (Episode 1)
- Kasia Dereń (Episode 1)
- Amelia Andryszczyk (Episode 1)
- Sargis Davtyan (Episode 1)
- Maja Hyży (Episode 1)
- Basia Gąsienica Giewont
- Adrian Makar
- Aleksandra Nykiel
- Saszan
- Alicja Szemplińska
- Paulina Czapla
- Nick Sinckler
- Patricia Kazadi
- Marek Kaliszuk
- Albert Černy
- Weronika Curyło
- Stashka
- Norbert Legieć
- Bartosz Kurkiewicz
Aside from Albert, other established acts include Patryk Skoczyński and Kasia Dereń from The Voice, Sisters Szlachta and Sargis Davtyan from regular editions of Szansa na Sukces and Maja Hyży who competed in the Polish national final in 2018.
Szansa na Sukces 2020: Episode Themes
Episode One — 2 February: ABBA hits
Contestants must tackle the timeless classics of ABBA. The group famously got its international break upon winning Eurovision 1974 for Sweden. “Voulez-Vous”, “Mamma Mia” and “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” are set to be among the hits performed.
Episode Two — 9 February: Eurovision hits
The next episode will see acts turn their focus to evergreen tracks from Eurovision itself. It is expected that we’ll hear a version of Edyta Górniak’s “To nie ja!” which placed second at Eurovision 1994 — Poland’s most successful entry to date.
Episode Three — 16 February: Beatles Hits
The last heat is completely removed from the world of Eurovision. Instead, the final batch of candidates will put their spin on legendary hits from The Beatles. “Help!”, “Twist and Shout” and “Please Please Me” are among the songs set to be covered.
Episode Four — 24 February: Grand Final
By this stage, only three acts will remain — one winner from each preceding episode. All three will be required to perform two songs — one cover and their song for Eurovision. The winner of this episode will sing for Poland at Eurovision 2020.
Poland’s Eurovision 2020 national selection
While some countries have ditched their national final and opted to internally select their entry for Eurovision 2020, Poland is doing the opposite. Broadcaster TVP is using the long-running talent show Szansa na Sukces (A Chance For Success) to select its entry for Rotterdam.
The show will be run in the classic Szansa na Sukces format. Each week, around six or seven acts will compete in three semi-finals.
A three-person jury will vote on the performances — they are Cleo (Eurovision 2014), Michal Szpak (Eurovision 2016) and (Gromee Eurovision 2018). There will be no televote in the semi-finals. The three acts who have each won their semi-final will go through to the grand final.
At the live grand final, the three finalists will each perform a cover as well as an original song which will be their intended entry for Eurovision. The winner will be decided by a mix of jury vote and public televote.
If this format sounds familiar, it is! Last year, TVP revived Szansa na Sukces to use as the national selection for Poland’s Junior Eurovision 2019 act. Given that series winner Viki Gabor went on to win JESC with her song “Superhero”, it’s understandable that TVP would want to stick with a successful format.
TVP Chairman Jacek Kurski previously praised Poland’s Junior Eurovision selection process. He hinted at using a similar format for also selecting their Eurovision act.
What do you think of the line-up? Should Albert represent Poland? Let us know in the comments.
I could see Poland being a powerhouse at Eurovision in the coming years after their victory in jesc and now this great show. Maybe the new Sweden of the east. Or the 90s Ireland of the 20s?
Good Luck anyways!
Weronika Cury?o
Alicja Szempinska
Kasia Deren
Sergis Davtyan
To have they the best Voice
Good luck Poland
I think that nobody expected Albert in Szansa na Sukces. Maybe Lake Malawi wants to gain popularity in Poland and it’s another step (after performance in Sopot Top Of the Top Festival) to it. I’m glad that Alicja Szemplinska is also a participant because her voice is really great. She has a strong fanbase after The Voice of Poland and many people would see her as the next Polish representative. But I see a ‘danger’ in this – assuming that she will be in the final, I’m afraid that people will be massively voting for her, even if her song… Read more »
Y’all just skipping Natalia Nykiel over there, I’m rooting for her she is amazingly talented.
Maybe because it’s Aleksandra Nykiel. Different person
Saszan also competed in the 2018 preselection with “Nie chce Ciebie mniej”. Kasia Deren was one of the backing vocals for polish entry in 2018. Alicja Szemplinska won most recent edition of ‘The Voice of Poland’, Weronika Curylo was runner-up in the 7th season of this program. Many other acts are also known from other talent shows. Patricia Kazadi is really well-known artists in Poland – she hosted for example ‘You Can Dance’.
Does this mean that Lake Malawi are taking a break? Aww that’s sad…..
They were only together during esc.
This is not true. They have been performing as a band for many years.
No :)) They are performing all together. No worries.
Alicja Szemplinska , 2019 The Voice winner – mark my words 😉
I don’t get it !!
The participants have to prepare the original songs themselves(before they entered the competition) or the broadcaster will pair them with songs ?
They don’t need to prepere the song themself
I’m happy with that, really. They are singing covers so juries will learn something about their voices. That’s basically it. It could be Taylor Swift episode and nothing would change. IF someone with amazing voice wins but has doubts about his/her song, they can always help them a little before final. I mean, there’s some time to work on it. If it’s 1-3 songs but no 21. I mean, I’d pick 3 good/ok songs instead of 21 meh ones anytime. Also this way all 3 Eurovision songs will be heard for the first time in same show, so I’d say… Read more »
Could this be Kazadi’s song?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXbcPmLxv3Y
100%
3 minutes long, January 11th 2020
Meh
Well it looks like they were able to pull in some established acts after all…
There is a little mistranslation in the article, “Szlachta Sisters” is a non-translatable term because the word Szlachta is a surname (so Szlachta sisters instead of “Sisters of Nobility”)
I don’t like national finals like this but oh well. Is Albert ethnically Polish or is he just a Czech trying to break into the Polish market?
Albert is Czech and he’s not known to the Polish public, but interestingly he speaks Polish – he went to a Polish school in Trinec (which is just a few kilometers from the Polish border) and even one of “Friend of a Friend” writers – Mikolaj Trybulec – is Polish.
Albert has Polish roots from his Grandmother, speaks perfectly Polish and likes Poland, that’s it.
Cieszyn Silesian dialect is his first language, and it’s a bit like a fusion of Polish and Czech. Throughout the history Tesinsko/Zaolzie has been a border region, hence why there are many Poles living there. There’s even a town – Cesky Tesin/Cieszyn, one part of which is Polish and the other Czech. Ewa Farna, another bilingual singer popular in both countries, comes from the same town as Albert.
Cieszyn Silesian dialect is his first language, and it’s a bit like a fusion of Polish and Czech. Throughout the history Tesinsko/Zaolzie has been a border region, hence there are many Poles living there. There’s even a town – Cesky Tesin/Cieszyn, split in half by a river, one part of which is Polish and the other Czech. Ewa Farna, another bilingual singer popular in both countries, comes from the same town as Albert does.
yeah Ewa is very popular in both countries and in Slovakia too 🙂 I hope she’ll try to do Eurovision one time too (hopefully for Czech Republic 😀 )
Ethnically both Czech-Polish
Well actually “Beatles” did perform on the Eurovision stage… sort of. Anyone remember Sweden 1977?
Paul McCartney launched Mary Hopkin’s career, who represented the UK in 1970, and she was signed to the Apple record label, owned by The Beatles.
Yeah, that’s right! Poor Mary, later on she said she hated her song, she didn’t feel any connection with it and she was basically forced by the BBC executives to go to Eurovision. She actually felt humiliated because she didn’t win the contest – which may sound a bit funny now, when anyone who’d come 2nd for UK would instantly become a national hero and get his or hers own column in Trafalgar Square, but back then she had just released “Those Were The Days”, a huge hit in Europe, and she was defeated by a no-name singer.
Dana (Ireland 1970) hardly became a “no-name” singer!
I mean she was a no-name singer before Eurovision, at least compared to Mary. I believe she was only 19 when she took part.
I don’t like any selection process that presents the contest as a talent show for new acts. It’s a song contest. What have all these Abba/Beatles nights got to with anything? Only four years ago, Edyta herself was competing – now they’re singing her song trying to copy her? Nah. I do like Albert, though.
ABBA = Eurovision 1974 winners
I’m aware of that. The 1974 winner isn’t eligible for 2020.
Doesn’t make the group any less globally iconic than they already are.
I love Abba. My point is that the first three episodes of this show have absolutely nothing with selecting the song that will represent Poland. Only the last episode is relevant, and by that time nobody will care about the actual song, it will have become a popularity contest.
I love Abba. The point I was trying to make is that the first three episodes of this talent show have absolutely nothing to do with selecting the best song to represent Poland.
What matters is the actual final where all the finalists from the heats perform their songs for Eurovision.
It’s just choosing good voices and then giving them (hopefully) good songs, better than KE
I agree. It would be better to have everyone sing their own song and then that’s it. Maybe someone can’t cover ABBA well but has the best original song. It’s silly. But hey! This is a broadcaster that wants ratings and they think this makes good tv
Id rather have their old selection back..
10 songs < 3 decent (or maybe even really good ones like Superhero) ones written especially for Eurovision by Universal writers
He is No name in Poland. Alicja Szemplinska is The hottest name. And she should go to holland. Or Emilia from Daj to g?o?niej. I love hej Voice in Song mama ostrzega?a.
Better no name than being known from disco polo