Poland: Michal Szpak Wins!

Dobry wieczór Europa! Tonight another final took place, and this time the turn had come to Poland, for them to select their next Eurovision participant. This year, after 2 years with internal selections, since Poland returned to the contest in 2014, the public had a word on who would represent the country.

Background

Margeret Performing "Cool Me Down" — Margeret Performing “Cool Me Down”

At the beginning of the year, a big question was raised about Poland’s participation for this years song contest, to be held in Stockholm.

Due to a new media law in Poland, after the Polish parliamentary election in 2015, then doubts around the country’s participation was in serious question, would Poland be able to participate? The new law states, that it limits the freedom of the press, hereby the Polish broadcaster and EBU member TVP, under government control.

However, the EBU announced via. Twitter, that Poland would in fact take part in the contest in Stockholm, so participation was secured.

Originally it was announced by TVP, that another internal selection would take place, and the announcement of the artist would take place in February, but this was denied by the new director of TVP, Jan Pawlicki.

Instead, a national selection would be held, and song submission was opened from the 28th of January to 8th of February. In total, 88 songs were sent in, and among them were the Edyta Gorniak(Represented Poland in 1994) & NAPOLI, who took part in the Belarusian final, earlier this year, with the same song.

The Show & Voting

The show was opened by last years Polish artist, Monika Kuszynska, who performed her Eurovision song “In The Name Of Love” in a Polish version.

Hereafter, the 9 competing songs took to stage, to perform their song in the following order:

Taraka – “In The Rain”
NAPOLI – “My Universe”
Natalia Szroeder – “Lustra”
Dorota Osińska – “Universal”
Kasia Moś – “Addiction”
Ola Gintrowska – “Missing”
Michal Szpak – “Colour of Your Life”
Margeret – “Cool Me Down”
Edyta Gorniak – “Grateful”

Hereafter, the public was given the chance to vote for their favorite, since the winner would be decided by 100% televote, while the 2001 Polish singer, Andrzej Piaseczny performed.

The Winner

The winner was hereby announced, starting with announcing the results, from third to first place. The 2 favorites of the show being Edyta Gorniak and Margeret, to win the show. However, since they were announced first, and placed respectively on 3rd and 2nd, then Michal Szpak managed to climb victorious, and therefor get the rights to represent Poland in Stockholm.