The revamped Polish talent show Szansa na sukces is heading towards its third and final semi-final this Sunday. But ahead of the show, there have been a few changes behind the scenes. Poland‘s broadcaster TVP has made some amendments to the official show rules.
As reported by Polish Eurovision site Eurowizja.org, the broadcaster has published an updated version of the show rules with some notable changes.
One of the most significant rules involves the citizenship requirement of the competing singers. The rules previously required that the contestants had to be citizens or residents of Poland. This requirement has now been removed.
This may be related to the involvement of Lake Malawi frontman Albert Černý. While he grew up in a Czech town near the Polish border, attended a Polish school and speaks Polish fluently, the singer is still a citizen of the Czech Republic. The rule change means he is now free to compete in the upcoming third semi-final of Szansa na sukces.
The jury’s decision is final
The rules are also now clear that the results of the semi-finals are decided by the jury alone. In what is a fairly standard clause in contests, the jury’s decisions are now “final and not subject to appeal”.
This change follows criticism from fans following the second semi-final. Some fans felt that the jury had favoured The Voice of Poland winner Alicja Szemplińska. In the Eurovision-themed episode, Alicja was givenEdyta Górniak’s 1994 Eurovision runner-up “To nie ja!”, while other contestants were given much older songs like “Dschinghis Khan”, “Congratulations” and “Save Your Kisses for Me”.
Szansa na sukces 2020 continues
There are also changes for the grand final. Contests will now perform two songs. The first song will be chosen for the contestants by the show’s producers and will be a previous Eurovision entry. The second contestant’s second song will be their potential entry for Eurovision 2020.
The third semi-final of Szansa na sukces will take place this Sunday, 16 February. The seven contestants — including Lake Malawi’s Albert Černý — will perform pop classics from the Beatles’ songbook.
The winner of the episode will go on to join previous semi-final winners Kasia Dereń and Alicja Szemplińska at the grand final on 23 February. The winner of the show — and therefore Poland’s entry for Eurovision 2020 — will be selected by a combination of jury vote and televote.
Interesting facts about golden ticket:
– New rules say that in final, there may be “the forth finalist”. In other words, there will be at most 1 person who gets it. Maybe noone will.
– Also, only people eligible to represent Poland in ESC can get said ticket. I’m saying that because each finalist AND people who got honorable mention has to sign up contract saying that they agree to represent Poland if they’re choosen. So it strongly implies that if anyone gets it, it will be someone who got honorable mention during their semi final.
Paulina Czapla or Weronika Curylo? ?
No idea xd Personally I’d choose Weronika out of current 3 possibilities
Good luck for all finalist ” Szansa na sukces “
I think people are making a big deal out of nothing. The problem is they waited this long to announce the rule changes. However, the TV people must have had this in mind more than a month ago because when the line-up of artists was announced weeks ago Albert was already on the 3rd show and of course everybody knows who he is (Czech). Also he posted on his Instagram weeks ago that he was learning Beatles songs so if there was no clarity that he was going to participate, why would he have spent all this time to learn… Read more »
People to wait better on song
Indifferently that will to sing
Maybe to be Kasia Deren, Alicja Szemplinska Nick Sinckler or albert
Good luck Poland
I think this national selection doesn’t make any sense. Maybe the song isn’t meant for them, so if it sounds bad in a way they’ll be eliminated because of a song which doesn’t suit them.
Same goes for X Factor Malta, Georgian Idol and any show with a similar format.
agreed, talent shows are nonsensical selections for the eurovision. this ain’t the 2000s
yes but for me it’s like internal selection but you can watch it from TV, it’s obvious that favourite of TVP will go to Eurovision, all that covers or whatever are there for viewership
I mean, I appreciate they’re trying to come up with something “own” but I don’t think it’s the best way. I hope they change it next year. Szansa na Sukces is cool format for generally unknown people who try to get popular but not as preselections for song contest.
It doesn’t really seem fair to change the rules when the competition is already on. And I the previous rules stated that the winner must be a Polish citizen/living in Poland, how was Albert even accepted as a contestant in the first place? Honestly it all seems staged and they probably had their favorites from the start.
they have wanted Albert just because he was on Eurovision, viewership it’s all that matters for them
Polands rulebook is a little weird i would say. Its very common in eastern countries that they change the rules when the show is going on. Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland it have happened in. I think thats a bad thing. the rules should be 100% solid before.
I agree, our broadcaster it’s just unprofessional, They have made rules last minute (I think that they have copied most of the rules from a Junior version of Szansa na sukces) and then they realised that some of these rules are irrevelant. They’re so annoying cause they can’t do anything properly even for once.
i feel bad for the artists. They put in a lot of work. Imagine in Melfest if they said: No this year only one goes to the final in the heats instead of 2, one week before ;). Would have been 10 pages in the papers here
I feel bad for the artists too but how singing covers is putting a lot of work? Only finalists put a lot of work into actual eurovision song
To be fair, it’s not like any of these changes is really meaningful. It basically says “Yes, if Albert wins, he’s able to represent us” and “No, we won’t change results because people don’t like it”. These things were kinda obvious to think about it. Only weird thing about it is that they haven’t included these points from the get go.
I guess Eurovision fans will watch this 3rd episode rather than the others because of Albert 🙂 I heard that performers didn’t do well with The Beatles’ song whole they actually can sing. It is due to bad choice of songs. So, the final result may be surprising
I don’t understand these national selections that leave the actual song – the most important thing – until the very end.
because not everyone has the right to sing their entry, some are too amateur for that
:-/
So do they actually force Albert Cerny to represent them or what? Strange that they changed the rule only before the third semifinal…
Or Nick Sincler also in Semi 3
a unknown who is irrelevant here
when we know Albert Cerny has won semi 3
Nick’s living in Poland for 13 years already and speaks Polish as well. So he could submit his candidature under old rules
no they don’t force anyone and I’m sure that either Alicja or Kasia will represent us
I think that Albert won’t even win a semifinal
he will, lol he’s up against nobodies