Poland: Alicja Szemplińska wins Szansa na Sukces 2020

The Final of the Polish National Selection, Szansa na Suckes 2020 was held today with the three artists who had previously qualified from the elimination heats. The artists had the chance to perform two songs each, a cover of a Eurovision hit and an original song as a candidate entry.

The Eurovision covers were performed first:

• Kasia Dereń – "Satellite" (Germany 2010)
• Alicja Szemplińska – "Euphoria" (Sweden 2012)
• Albert Černý – "Fairytale" (Norway 2009)

After this, the original songs they wish to represent Poland with at Eurovision 2020 were performed:

• Kasia Dereń – "Count On Me"
• Alicja Szemplińska – "Empires"
• Albert Černý – "Lucy"

The winner, and the Polish representative at Eurovision 2020 is Alicja Szemplińska with the song Empires. She won both the jury votes as well as the viewers' SMS votes.

Alicja's song Empires is written by Patryk Kumór, Dominic Buczkowski-Wojtaszek and Laurell Barker.

Szansa na Sukces 2020 – Result

1. Alicja Szemplińska – "Empires" (10 points)
2. Albert Černý & Lake Malawi – "Lucy" (6 points)
3. Kasia Dereń – "Count on me" (2 points)

Alicja Szemplińska

Alicja Szemplińska participated in vocal classes at a local community center and sang in a church choir when she was child. She took part in many competitions, festivals and vocal reviews. At the age of 12, she enrolled in professional singing lessons.

In 2016 she took part in the Polish TVP2 program “Hit, Hit, Hurray!”. She reached the final in which she won, gaining the greatest support of viewers. As a reward, she received an invitation to participate in singing classes with Seth Riggs, vocal trainer of Michael Jackson.

In 2019, she participated in the auditions of the tenth edition of the TVP2 program “The Voice of Poland”. She successfully went through all the elimination rounds and finally reached the final in which she won.

After participating in the program, she released her debut single Prawie My with the music video, which within 10 days of the premiere exceeded the threshold of one million views on YouTube.

Szansa na Sukces 2020

TVP has decided to use the talent show Szansa Na Sukces 2020 as national selection for Eurovision Song Contest 2020. The shows were scheduled on TVP2 on Sundays from 2 February to 23 February 2020, with three recorded Semi-finals and a live Final, all hosted by Artur Orzech:

• 2 February 2020: Semi-final 1 (winner: Kasia Dereń)
• 9 February 2020: Semi-final 2 (winner: Alicja Szemplińska)
• 16 February 2020: Semi-final 3 (winner: Albert Černý)
• 23 February 2020: Final

Each Semi-final had 7 contestants singing cover songs from the Semi-final's theme. A three-person jury selected a finalist from each of the Semi-finals, with no televoting being used. After the three Semi-finals, the jury had the option to award a wildcard to one artist who did not originally qualify to also advance to the final, but didn't use this option.

The jury members were:

• Cleo (Poland 2014)
• Michał Szpak (Poland 2016)
• Gromee (Poland 2018)

At the Final on 23 February 2020, the 3 finalists each performed a Eurovision cover and an original song, which is the winner's Eurovision 2020 song.

The Semi-finals were recorded, while the final was broadcasted live.

Poland in Eurovision Song Contest

Poland has participated 22 times since 1994 where we saw Poland in Eurovision Song Contest for the first time. The debuting year 1994 was also the most succesfull. Here they finished 2nd, and is the best result for Poland so far. They have only finished in Top-10 in three out of the 22 participations. The worst result is from 2011, where they came last in their Semi-final.

Since the introductions of Semi-finals in 2004, Poland has qualified for the Grand Final 6 out of 14 times.