Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022

Eurovision Song Contest 2022
Country	Poland
National selection
Selection process	Tu bije serce Europy! Wybieramy hit na Eurowizję
Selection date(s)	19 February 2022
Selected entrant	Ochman
Selected song	"River"
Selected songwriter(s)	Krystian Ochman Ashley Hicklin Adam Wiśniewski Mikołaj Trybulec
Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2021 • 2022

Poland is scheduled to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy, with "River" performed by Ochman. The Polish broadcaster Telewizja Polska (TVP) first announced in September 2021 that the Polish entry for the 2022 contest would be chosen through an internal selection. However, the broadcaster later decided to organise the national final Tu bije serce Europy! Wybieramy hit na Eurowizję in order to select the Polish entry. The national final took place on 19 February 2022 and featured ten entries.

Background[]

Prior to the 2022 Contest, Poland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-three times since its first entry in 1994.^[1] Poland's highest placement in the contest, to this point, has been second place, which the nation achieved with its debut entry in 1994 with the song "To nie ja!" performed by Edyta Górniak. Poland has only reached the top ten on two other occasions, when Ich Troje performing the song "Keine Grenzen – Żadnych granic" finished seventh in 2003, and when Michał Szpak performing the song "Color of Your Life" finished eighth in 2016. Between 2005 and 2011, Poland failed to qualify from the semi-final round six out of seven years with only their 2008 entry, "For Life" performed by Isis Gee, managing to take the nation to the final during that period. After once again failing to qualify to the final in 2011, the country withdrew from the contest throughout 2013. Since returning to the contest in 2014, Poland managed to qualify to the final each year before failing to qualify to the final between 2018 and 2021, the latter with their entry "The Ride" performed by Rafał Brzozowski.

The Polish national broadcaster, Telewizja Polska (TVP), broadcasts the event within Poland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. TVP confirmed Poland's participation in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest on 29 August 2021.^[2] The broadcaster opted to internally select the Polish entry for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest, a selection procedure that was to be continued for their 2022 entry. The selected entry was scheduled to be presented by 2 January 2022, which was later delayed to 15 January 2022.^[3] However, on 14 January 2022, TVP announced that the Polish entry would be selected via a national final; the last time the Polish entry was selected via a national final was in 2020.

Before Eurovision[]

Tu bije serce Europy! Wybieramy hit na Eurowizję[]

Tu bije serce Europy! Wybieramy hit na Eurowizję ("The heart of Europe beats here! We choose the hit for Eurovision") was the national final organised by TVP in order to select the Polish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022.^[4][5] The show took place on 19 February 2022 at the Studios 4 and 5 of TVP in Warsaw, hosted by 2021 Polish Eurovision entrant Rafał Brzozowski, Ida Nowakowska and  [pl] with  [pl] and  [pl] serving as backstage hosts.^[6][7] The show was broadcast on TVP2 and TVP Polonia as well as streamed online at the broadcaster's website tvp.pl.^[7][8]

Competing entries[]

TVP opened a submission period for interested artists and songwriters to submit their entries between 20 September 2021 and 20 November 2021.^[9] The broadcaster received 150 submissions at the closing of the deadline. A five-member selection committee selected ten entries from the received submissions to compete in the national final. The selection committee consisted of  [pl] (singer), Krystian Kruczkowski (programme director of TVP), Marcin Kusy (president of the Polish Radio Program I),  [pl] (musician and composer) and  [pl] (Eurovision commentator, music journalist and artistic director).^[10][11] The selected entries were announced on 14 January 2022 during the TVP2 programme Pytanie na śniadanie. Among the competing artists was Lidia Kopania, who represented Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.^[12]

Final[]

The televised final took place on 19 February 2022. Ten entries competed and the winner was selected over two rounds of voting.^[13][14] In the first round, the top three as determined by a 50/50 combination of votes from a five-member professional jury and a public vote advanced to the second round, the superfinal, during which the winner, "River" performed by Ochman, was determined by the public and jury vote. Ochman was the winner of the public vote while Daria was the winner of the jury vote.^[15] The jury consisted of  [pl], Krystian Kruczkowski, Marcin Kusy,  [pl] and  [pl].^[11] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 for Azerbaijan Ell and Nikki, former Polish Eurovision entrants Justyna Steczkowska (1995), Blue Café (2004), Kasia Moś (2017) and Rafał Brzozowski (2021), and former Polish Junior Eurovision entrants Viki Gabor (2019) and Sara James (2021) performed as the interval acts.^[16]

OGAE Poland voting[]

On the day of the final, members of the OGAE Poland fanclub association members voted for their favourite of the selection. 131 OGAE members took part in the voting.^[17]

At Eurovision[]

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 25 January 2022, an allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Poland has been placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 12 May 2022, and has been scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.^[18]

References[]