Introduction

Flying on the waves of success – Poland has made a respectable 14th place in Copenhagen last year. That’s why the Polish broadcaster TVP has decided to determine a singer for the ESC in Vienna internally.
Monika Kuszyńska was born in Łódź, Poland in 1980. She has been discovered by Robert Janson, who founded the rock band „Various Manx“, she was immidiately invited to become the lead singer of the band. Together they have been recording four albums. In 2003 the band has been in the national final with the rock song “Sonny”. Unfortunately, the band had a bad car accident in 2006 and Monika has been paralyzed since then and is bound to a wheel chair, luckily everybody from the band survived. The band broke up and Monika made a long pause. In 2012 she released her first solo album “Ocalona” and reached the top 40 album charts. For her charity work for disabled people she was even awarded the President of Poland with the “Golden Cross Of Merit”.

The song “In The Name Of Love” is a typical ESC ballad, but not the music Monika is popular for which is rock music. The song will be performed in English. Therefore the country association is irrelevant, this song could come from any country. The beautiful voice is not only matching with rock music it also suits to a ballad like this. Due to an overhang of ballads this year it will be difficult to stand out of the others. There is no clear climax in this song and it’s repeating after a while. That’s why Poland has not an easy job this year. Good luck Monika!

History

Debut: 1994
Participations: 18
Finals: 11
Top 10: 2
Chance for Top 10: 11%

Poland had its debut in 1994 in the Eurovision Song Contest. Together with six other debutants, the year of 1994 was the year of new countries. It’s a truly success that the Polish entry “To Nie Ja!” by Edyta Górniak made a wonderful second place from the stand. Unfortunately, this strong performance could not be maintained over all those years. Over all those years, Poland’s contributions were quite extraordinary and special in particular in the first years. The effort of the Polish composers and performers to develop Poland as a new highlight in the ESC has paid off. But some of the songs might have been too complicated for the general European taste. That’s why the Polish entries do struggle with the qualification for the Grand Finals recently. Since 2004 Poland only made it three times into the Grand Final, last year Donatan & Cleo could qualify with “My Slowianie” and a very special mixed performance.

After organizing the European Football Championship in 2012 together with the Ukraine, Poland could be a good host for the Eurovision Song Contest as well. The Polish people have developed such a great enthusiasm and it would be well deserved if Poland will host it one day.