It’s the Eurovision down season, and don’t you for a second think we’re going to stop speculating, arguing, and pushing our heated opinions. Our latest series looked at the national finals of Eurovision, and discussing how we would reform the national finals of Eurovision. This time we’re creating national finals from scratch; continuing with Poland.
In part eleven of this series Daniel, Angus, and Kittens discuss how they’d create a national final for Poland.
This was written prior to the announcement that a Polish national final would return for 2025.
Do we think that they will return to a national final, and would we want that?
Daniel
Poland are more likely than most to return to a national final format, especially considering they held some sort of weird proto internal national final this year. I won’t pretend I’ve been wowed by any recent editions of Tu bije serce Europy! Wybieramy hit na Eurowizję! but I’d welcome a return.
Angus
There clearly is a desire from the broadcaster to do at least a semi-public selection, and potentially a proper national final again too. Do I want that? The only good things about TbsE!WhnE! are the jokes about the name and the camp classic that is Ahlena’s “Booty”. Yet I would welcome back a Polish NF, as it would either provide that kind of amusement or turn out to be an actually good event.
Kittens
Extremely likely country to return to a NF, given their history and that things seem to be slightly less volatile than previous. I don’t think there’s any harm of it happening – they certainly seemed to have plenty of applicants last year, and they seem to not have an issue with quality.
What would our dream national final look like?
Daniel
I’d bring back Tu bije serce Europy! Wybieramy hit na Eurowizję!, but with some changes.
Please, if only just to shut up the screeching Jann fans who insist that he would’ve won Eurovision when he would’ve really ended maybe 15th place at best, do something about the jury. I think something another country does that would suit Poland very well is a public vote to decide jury members like they have in Ukraine’s Vidbir. Have a best of both worlds where there is input from actual music professionals, but they’re actually accountable and less corrupt. You know I’m always banging the drum of raw jury totals and a proportional televote, so no surprise I’d want this implemented in Poland too.
Angus
The points system was bad, the interval acts awful, and the artists performed as if they had never seen a microphone in their life. With my griping out of the way, a few things were decidedly okay about their old format. One night, a handful of songs, and for the most part just getting on with it is the way to go I think. A wider range of music, especially from the excellent Polish rock and indie scenes, would go a long way to improving the NF. But yeah, those are my usual notes for most NFs, because the basic format of TbsE!WhnE! was fine. The issue was fully in the execution. Daniel’s proposal to have the jury members being partially or wholly selected by a public vote could also be a fun addition.
Kittens
I’d normally advocate for keeping it simple, but it’s Poland, they’ve done it before, they know what they’re doing. So a nice two Semi-Final to a Final, 8 songs per Semi-Final, and then down to about 8 final participants, 50% televote 50% jury. I don’t think they’ve got much of an issue with music coming in, but a nice varied selection would be nice, with a mix of bigger stars and upcoming talent. I don’t think it would take much for them to put a final together – and they could end up pulling something pretty good together without too much effort.
Poland’s Eurovision Journey
In 1994, Poland made their debut at the Eurovision Song Contest represented by Edyta Górniak with the song “To nie ja!” and placed 2nd, Poland’s best result at the contest to date. Since then, Poland has participated 26 times, qualifying for the Grand Final 16 times.
Poland selected Luna and “The Tower” to represent them at Eurovision 2024. She received 35 points in the televote, placing twelfth in the first semifinal.
What do you think about our reforms? As always, let us know what you think by commenting down below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and Bluesky for all the latest Eurovision news!
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Photo Credit: Sarah Louise Bennett / EBU
Tim J