I know the budget is tight and all that but when you try to copy Albania’s backing singers from last year at least put in a better effort

Albania

Poland

ESC Ireland would like to extend its condolences to our Polish readers following the tragic air crash which claimed the lives of President Lech Kaczynski and many other senior Polish politicians in Russia this morning. The above video is Sama, the 1995 Eurovision entry from Poland; a haunting ballad with a traditional air that reflects the sombre mood in Poland today.

Solidarno??

This Sunday March 14th where Vukašin Braji? will present his song “Munja I Grom” or “Thunder & Lightning“ in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

As part of the show there will be a veritable plethora of other artists performing on the night including our own Niamh Kavanagh.

Others include Feminnem for Croatia “Lako Je Sve“,

Macedonian entry “Jas Ja Imam Silata” sung by Gjoko Taneski,

“Legenda” by Marcin Mrozi?ski for Poland as well as the Serbian entry, which will be decided on the Saturday beforehand, March 13th.

Seems like RTE is out for blood this year, seeing as how they wouldn’t let Sinaed Mulvey go on any tour last year.

Edyta Gorniak while remaining one of Polands most popular pop artist is a prime example of how beauty and immense vocal talent doesn’t always guarantee success.  Her career to date is a topsy turvy mix of hits and misses with the latter overshadowing the former. 

Polands first entry into the Eurovision was in 1994 and Edyta was chosen to represent her country.  The song was a beautiful power ballad called ‘To nie ja’ which while not a direct translation was released in English as ‘Once in a lifetime’.   She placed second which was the highest first time entry in Eurovision history and remained so until Serbia’s first entry as an independent country ‘Molitva’ which went on to win the Eurovision in 2007.  However there was a lot of controversy surrounding the song at the time and many Eurovision fans including myself feel she should have won, lets face it ‘Rock n Roll Kids’ was sweet but forgettable.  During the dress rehearsal Edyta broke the then rules by singing her song in English.  Until 1997 it used be the dress rehearsals which were shown to the Juries.  6 countries demanded that Poland be disqualified but the rules stated that 13 would have to complain before they would consider disqualification.  It has been suggested for those reasons Poland could not be seen to win.  Either way ‘To nie ja’ went on to be the biggest hit in Poland of 1994.  She signed up to EMI and released her first studio album from which emerged ‘Dotyk’ that went on to be the biggest radio hit of 1995.  It’s the move to English speaking albums was where it all seemed to go wrong.  On paper she should have been an instant success.  Her vocal range is amongst the greats such as Celine, Mariah, Whitney and Lara, her beauty is model-esque and Chris Neil the producer responsible for Celine Dion international success was launching her, yet single releases of ‘When you come back to me’ and ‘One and one’ had dismal commercial success.  ‘One and one’ did become a hit but not for her.  Dance DJ Robert Miles took the song and used the vocal of British singer Maria Nayler.  Another song off her English Album ‘Perfect Moment’ was used as the kick off to celeb turned singer Martine McCutcheon music career and proved to be her biggest hit.  Again Martine’s like Maria’s vocal range isn’t a patch on Edyta’s so why hadn’t success come her way.  It would seem to be a combination of luck and timing.  In 2002 she was dropped by EMI.  In 2003 she released another English album ‘Invisible’ under a new label Virgin Germany however sales for that also proved dismal and the record label dropped her.  I have that album and while her singing remains top notch the problem lay with mediocre songs.  Her voice needs power ballads or dance tracks yet a lot of the songs on the album were caught between both never reaching any sort of potential for the singer.   Since then she has sporadically continued to release songs, those in English flopping, and those in Polish doing reasonably well in Poland.  From 2007-2009 she has been part of the Polish Jury for a type of Pop Idol program.    She has recently announced she will release her 5^th studio album in 2010.  Lets hope this time, timing and luck are all on her side because talent was never in question.  Edyta has already been our hit of the day so to see her live performance at the Eurovision look back to January 22^nd.

The show in Poland kicks off at 20.15 CET in TVP1, and lasts until 21.55. The running-order is as follows:

1. Leszcze – Weekend
2. Dziewczyny – Cash Box
3. Iwona Wegrowska – Uwieziona
4. Marcin Mrozinski – Legenda
5. Aneta Figiel – Mysl O Tobie
6. Nefer – Chcialem Zostac Sam!
7. ZoSia – To, Co Czuje (Jak Ptak)
8. Anna Cyzon – Love Me
9. Sonic Lake – There Is A Way
10. VIR – Sunrise

You can view the final through ESCTV

The Polish public broadcaster announced earlier today that Marcin Mrozinski is the last wildcard of the country’s selection for Eurovision 2010, Krajowe Eliminacje. He will be hoping to represent Poland in Oslo with the song Legenda.

With Marcin Mrozinski’s nomination, the line-up for the Polish national selection is as follows (according to the running order drawn by TVP):

1. Leszcze -Weekend
2. Dziewczyny - Cash box
3. Iwona Wegrowska - Uwieziona
4. Marcin Mrozinski – Legenda
5. Aneta Figiel – Mysl o tobie
6. Nefer – Chcialem zostac sam
7. ZoSia - To, co czuje (Jak ptak)
8. Anna Cyzon – Love me
9. Sonic Lake – There is a way
10. Vir- Sunrise

Marcin Mrozinski will sing the song Legenda at the 2010 Polish national selection for Eurovision. Listen to it below:

We’re going back in time for the Hit of the Day today with one of the best debut entrants ever.

The year is 1994 and Eurovision is back in Ireland for the second year in a row. Eurovision has opened up the former Iron Curtain and Hungary, Russia and Poland are all to debut on the Eurovision stage in the Point Theatre in Dublin. Oh and a little Irish song and dance number planned for the interval act called Riverdance is causing a bit of a stir too.

The former Soviet countries are going down a storm in Dublin during rehearsals with all three tipped to do well. Then in the final dress rehearsal the morning of the live show, drama and controversy strike. Edyta Gorniak, the girl with the big voice from Poland sings the last verse and chorus of her entry To Nie Ja! in English.

At the time there is no free language rule in Eurovision and all hell breaks lose. As the voting juries had been watching the rehearsal via satellite, rival delegations are clamoring to have the Poles disqualified. RTÉ are desperate to avoid the embarrassment of disqualifying one of the brand new former Soviet countries hours before the broadcast. Indeed, RTÉ are very much in danger of losing both Edyta (Song 24) and the French entry Je Suis Un Vrai Garcon (Song 25) as France’s answer to Bjork, Mina Morato is pulling a major strop and threatening to walk for reasons not really understood even by herself.

Finally, EBU scrutineer Christine Marchal-Oritz rules that though Edyta had broken the rules she will be allowed compete without censure. Nina calms down and the 1994 contest ends on a high with two fantastic but contrasting entries leading into the world debut for Riverdance.

Edyta ends up second to the runaway home victors Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan with Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids. But without this last minute controversy, could she have taken ESC to Warsaw in 1995? We’ll never know.

And for an extra special bonus, here’s Nina’s Je Suis Un Vrai Garcon in all it’s Gallic madness!