Introduction

After two years of missing out, Poland is back in the ESC! This year there was no pre selection made by the Polish broadcaster TVP. Therefore TVP has made an internal selection and chose one of the most hopeful candidates as a representative in Copenhagen: Donatan & Cleo.

The duo is working together since 2013, as Donatan has met Cleo in the X-Factor show. They recorded “My Slowianie” and this song became a smash hit on YouTube with more than 10 million clicks within one week and over 4o million clicks altogether;  as well as in the Polish charts where it reached #2. That’s why TVP chose this entry as Eurovision entry 2014.

Donatan, whose real name is Witold Czamara, was born in Krakow in 1984. He is a musician, music producer and sound engineer. He has a Russian mother and a Polish father; therefore he lived eight years in Russia during his childhood. Donatan started with music producing in 2002 and released his first album in 2007, but he has been creating music for more than 50 albums for various artists. Many of them received gold and platinum status. His album “Equinox” has reached gold and diamond status, Donatan received many music awards.

Cleo, whose real name is Joanna Klepko, was born in Warsaw in 1983. She graduated at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, she is also song writing and painting. Cleo sang in a gospel choir and also won the “Studio Garaz” in the category Rhythm and Blues. In 2013 Cleo participated in the Polish version of X-Factor, where she met Donatan. “The Slavic blond girl with the Polish charm and a black voice," they say about Cleo.

The song “My Slowianie” which means Slavic Girls is an unusual rap song with folkloristic elements. The funny made video clip is plays in a country house in a rural area with lots of attractive young girls all dressed in sexy folkloristic outfits – these might be the most attractive Polish models. The sexual allusions more than dominant in this clip, this will be hard to present something like this on stage in Copenhagen. The Slavic theme will definitely be hitting the Eastern European taste, but this might be too weird for the general European music taste.

History

Participations: 17

Debut: 1994

Biggest successes: 1x 2nd place “To Nie Ja!” by Edyta Górniak in 1994, 1x 7th place “Keine Grenzen - Zadnych Granic” by Ich Troje in 2003

For the 17th time, Poland is taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest this year. They had a great debut in 1994 with Edyta Gorniák and came 2nd immediately. Over all those years, Poland’s contributions were quite extraordinary and special. The effort of the Polish songwriters and delegations to develop Poland as a new highlight in the ESC has paid off. Unfortunately, the success was decreasing in the past years and the best place was the 7th with “Keine Grenzen - Zadnych Granic” by Ich Troje. Probably all the compositions have been too complicated for the general European taste or simply not appealing enough. So the Polish entries have been struggling to qualify for the big final, Poland only made it two times out of eight into the Grand Final.