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Letter from Poland :: The Color of Disappointment

PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea 19.05.2016 11:28
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Why did Poland not do as well as fans had expected at the recent Eurovision song contest in Sweden?
Michał Szpak. Photo: Facebook.com/Michał SzpakMichał Szpak. Photo: Facebook.com/Michał Szpak

Michał Szpak was Poland’s official candidate for the Eurovision song contest with a "Color of your Life".

The 25 year old musician stole the hearts of music fans around the world, because for the second time ever, Australia took part in the competition. Now before you start saying “hey hey hey” Australia in a Eurovision competition? We won’t be going into that, but the Australians not only gave a great show, but were billed to WIN the competition! In fact the country which DID WIN the competition, Ukraine, and bronze medalist Russia are not part of the European Union, but are geographically on continental Europe.

The song which won: 1944, sung by Ukraine’s Jamala is a ballad pregnant with historic and political allegories relating to the stormy relations between Ukraine and Russia in the past and present. The Ukrainian crisis -- which is only hinted to in the song, was a jab at Russia, which is accused of waging a war in the east of Ukraine. The crisis was also the reason why, in 2015, Ukraine stepped down from the competition. So any way you look at it, from not competing one year, to come out as top dog the following year is an accomplishment in my book.

Sailing on winds of political and historical fervour, Ukraine’s Jamala won this year’s competition, firing up TV viewers from Stockholm to Sydney to back her song.

Because it cannot be denied at this point that the Eurovision competition has become an extremely political affair, with neighbouring countries, and political allies voting for each other to hopefully step on the podium.

So where does that place Poland?

Szpak’s song, while lacking the intricate choreography of the other contestants generally went down very well with the experts. It is not surprising, therefore that Szpak placed 8th overall, a jaw-dropping jump from last year’s 23rg place.

Therefore, why did Poland do so well, in the face of intense competition? Was it the strong expat base of Poles scattered around the continent who let their fingers vote by dialling in the code of the Polish contestant in the televoting system.

In fact, the BBC recently ran a very interesting article on what they called the “migrant effect” of the Eurovision.

It paid particular attention to the chasm between the audience votes and those of the professional juries in the case of Poland.

The Polish song “received just seven votes from the national juries - which are made up of people in the music business - but a whacking 222 votes from telephone voters,” the BBC wrote.

Audiences from Austria and Belgium gave Poland the maximum 12 points to Poland. Meanwhile, 10 points, the second highest, were given by televoters in Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

As you might have realised, these are countries where Poles have made a home, and a significant impact in the local communities. When this part of the voting had finished, Poland was in third place.

However, only jury members from Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Montenegro, and Norway voted for Poland, and they only gave Szpak’s heartfelt song a mere three, two and one point respectively.

"Now this is extraordinary," BBC Eurovision commentator Graham Norton said. "Poland just got seven from the jury vote and look at them now - they are going to get a massive percentage of the phone vote. Euro-nerds are going to have a field day analysing those votes."

And they sure have. And not only the pundits took the liberty of commenting.

Michał Szpak told Polish Radio after the contest: “I am satisfied most with the response of the public because it’s for them that I sing. I thank all those who voted for me, thank you Poland, I love you all… third place in the audience vote, as I said, this is most important to me... Wow.”

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