🇵🇱 Meet the TES Team : Janek

Before we get sucked into all things Eurovision and Junior Eurovision, we wanted to give our readers the opportunity to get to know the team a bit!

Hello everyone!

My name is Janek and I am the newest addition to the TES team! I am (unfortunately) from Poland, living in a town just below Warsaw. I am currently a Master’s student in Chemistry, finishing my first year. Besides Eurovision, I am very passionate about MMORPGs, Pokemon, japanese gacha games, discovering new music, musical theatre, and books (mainly YA or fantasy books). I am also a very passionate advocate and activist for equal rights.

Name: Jan Taudul (but please call me Janek)

Age: 22

Pronouns: He/They

You are able to follow Jan on the following social media accounts:

• Instagram: @pallad99
• Twitter: @banquettenma

How did I get into the Eurovision Song Contest?

I do not have any childhood memories of the contest besides hearing some more popular songs on the radio (the one that comes to my mind is our debut entry from 1994). The first time I heard about the contest were from random anime AMV edits with ESC songs used in the background. But my final push to follow the contest was in 2014 when we came back from a short hiatus. I heard that “My Słowianie” was chosen to represent us (which already was a very popular song) so of course, it piqued my interest. Seeing Conchita win the contest made me realize how amazing the contest is and wanted to delve into it.

What point did I consider myself as a Eurofan?

I joined the Eurovision fandom after the 2016 contest through the Tumblr part of the fandom. I have met a lot of people that time, to whom I talk to this day. We started making our own versions of the contest and joining these made me realize “wow, I am a part of an amazing community”. Now every year we watch and comment on the NFs and live shows together.

How has my life changed since becoming an Eurofan?

I think the most important thing is that I learned a lot about other countries and cultures. Educating myself on important matters that we do not learn in school or from our family members. I broadened my horizons by discovering a lot of new music and started having urges to learn too many languages.

What are my favorite Eurovision Songs and countries?

My Eurovision countries trifecta is: France, Italy, and Ukraine. They usually send songs that are hitting all my music taste boxes. They always lean onto their mother language and deliver quality. My music taste is very wide but I tend to mostly love ballads in the country’s mother language or dance Europop anthems. These 5 songs are among my all-time favorite songs:

• 🇸🇪 Sweden (2022) Cornelia Jakobs with “Hold Me Closer”
• 🇪🇪 Estonia (2012) Ott Lepland with “Kuula”
• 🇫🇷 France (2021 Barbara Pravi with “Voila”
• 🇳🇴 Norway (2019) KEiiNO with “Spirit in the Sky”
• 🇮🇹 Italy (1997) Jalisse with “Fiumi di parole”

What are my favorite national final songs?

I always love watching countries’ national finals to learn more about certain music scenes. My favorite National Finals are Sanremo and UMK. Here are some of my all-time favorites:

• 🇫🇮 Younghearted with “Sun Numero” (UMK 2022)
• 🇫🇮 Mikael Saari with “On it Goes” (UMK 2016)
• 🇮🇹 Madame with “Voce” (Sanremo 2021)
• 🇸🇪 Dotter with “Bulletproof” (Melodifestivalen 2020)
• 🇫🇮 Erika Vikman with “Cicciolina” (UMK 2020)

What are you looking forward the most to in the next Eurovision season?

With Ukraine’s victory I want a lot of countries to take a risk and come back to their national sounds. Take more risk and send songs that are genuine and authentic. Other thing I am looking forward is how my country will choose their entry and who will represent us. Hoping for a great result for us next year after Ochman finally bringing us back to the final last month.

What do you think of Janek’s favourite songs? Want to learn more about our team? Let us know in the comments below or on social media. Don’t forget to follow ‘THAT Eurovision Site’ over at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.