Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest
Telewizja Polska (TVP) is a full member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) since 1 January 1993, thus eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest since then.Poland was almost disqualified that year though; there was no free-language rule in operation at the time, and a furor erupted at the dress rehearsal when Górniak sung the second half of "To nie ja!"The qualifying stage was not televised or recorded, and national juries audited the studio versions of all competition proposals and awarded them points.Poland competed in the 1997 competition with the song "Ale jestem", the first uptempo Polish entry, which was performed by Anna Maria Jopek.They performed the song "To takie proste" in the final of the competition, finishing 17th of 25 entrants, receiving 19 points.Due to the low results over previous five years, Poland did not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000.For the 2003 contest Poland organized its first public selection for Eurovision entry; Ich Troje and some of the biggest Polish music acts, such as Wilki, Blue Café and Varius Manx, participated in the pre-selection, it was no surprise when the group Ich Troje won the public vote ahead of Blue Café, placing 7th of 26 countries in the final.In 2005 TVP went back to an internal selection, picking "Czarna dziewczyna", a multilingual song performed in Polish and Russian.Even then, its song ("For Life", sung by Isis Gee) only qualified as a jury wildcard and placed a lowly 24th in the final, ahead of only United Kingdom.Members of the Polish OGAE have said at their annual convention that they would like Edyta Górniak to represent Poland for a second time.For years it was unknown if Górniak would enter Eurovision again,[1] until when in 2016 she made a second attempt at representing her country in the contest, placing third in the national final.The Polish broadcaster stated that having to organize the European Football Championship 2012 (hosted by Poland and Ukraine) was a major factor in their non-participation.[3] TVP, the Polish national broadcaster has confirmed on 5 December 2013 that Poland will return to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014.She was the first ever Eurovision participant to sit in a wheelchair during her performance, due to the fact that she was paralyzed after being involved in a serious car accident in 2006.Edyta Górniak and some of the biggest Polish music acts, such as Margaret, Natalia Szroeder took part in the competition with Michał Szpak winning it.[7] Alicja Szemplińska won the national final with the song "Empires", winning both the public and the jury vote.On 12 March 2021 during the TVP2 programme Pytanie na śniadanie it was announced that Rafał Brzozowski would represent the country with the song "The Ride".