Introduction

• Participant(s): Krystian Ochman
• Song: River
  
• Writer(s): Krystian Ochman, Ashley Hicklin
• Composer(s): Krystian Ochman, Adam Wiśniewski, Ashley Hicklin, Mikołaj Trybulec
• Broadcaster: TVP
• Social media:      
  
• Team review: 

There has been a national final in Poland again. Out of ten songs the song “River” received the highest votes, which was a combination of jury and televoting. The lucky winner Krystian Ochman is going to represent his country in Turin. He was already seen as the favourite as he has won “The Voice Poland” in 2020.

Krystian Ochman, who will now be singing by the name Ochman now was born in Melrose, Massachusetts in 1999 (close to Boston). He grew up in the USA, but moved to Katowice for studying music – trumpet and the piano - at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music. Music is taking a big part in Krystian’s life, as his grandfather Wiesław Ochman has been a well-known tenor and his father is playing synthesizer in the band Róże Europy.

With the victory of the “The Voice Poland” Krystian has become popular in Poland and his debut single “Światłocienie” reached gold status. His following songs “Prometeusz”  and "Złodzieje Wyobraźni"  are demonstrating Krystian’s talent at its best.

Even more impressive is his Eurovision song “River”, Krystian’s first song in English. Judged by the official video clip and live performance at the live show in the national final, it seems that Krystian belongs to the big favourites of this year’s ESC. His extraordinary voice with the capacity of very high notes sets him apart. His attitude and charisma is very special and combined with his great voice, this could be a perfect for Poland this year.

The lyrics are touching as well:

Gonna lay my head right down
Let the water carry me away
Just float away
Bury all of my things

History

• Debut: 1994
• Participations: 24
• Victories: 0
• Finals: 14 (6 since 2004)
• Top 10: 3

Poland had its wonderful debut in the year 1994. It’s a true success that the Polish entry “To Nie Ja!” by Edyta Górniak made a great second place from the stand. This has opened a world career for Edyta and she is still one of the biggest stars in Poland. And it proofs that a good song with a good singer could reach everything. This brought a lot of positive attention to Poland. So this year it’s going to be the 24th time for Poland in the ESC already.

In Dublin 1994, Poland and six other debutants opened the borders to the Eastern European countries, a lot of creativity and energy could be brought in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Unfortunately, this strong performance of Poland could not be maintained over all those years until today. Poland’s contributions in the first years were quite extraordinary and special in particular as they have tried to find their position with offbeat compositions. 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 average European music taste. That’s why the Polish entries struggled and still do struggle with the qualification for the Grand Finals recently. Since 2004 Poland only made it six times into the Grand Final. And over all Poland made it in the Top 10 three times. This is statically chance to reach the Top 10 is 13% for Poland. In Stockholm 2016 Michał Szpak could achieve a fabulous 8th place with “The Colour Of Your Life”, he was one of the last countries to be announced the fourth highest points from the public voting. Last year in Rotterdam, the singer RAFAŁ with the song “The Ride” could only reach the 14th place in the semi-final, this was not enough to get into the Grand Final.

After organizing the European Football Championship in 2012 together with Ukraine, Poland could be a good host for the Eurovision Song Contest as well, in 2019 Poland hosted the Junior Eurovision in Gliwice, Silesia and the year after in Warsaw.

The Polish people have developed such a great enthusiasm and it would be well deserved if Poland will host the Eurovision Song Contest one day.

Biggest successes

• 1x 2nd place
  “To Nie Ja!” | Edyta Górniak (Dublin 1994) 
• 1x 7th place
  “Keine Grenzen - Zadnych Granic“ | Ich Troje (Riga 2003) 
• 1x 8th place
  “The Colour Of Your Life” | Michał Szpak (Stockholm 2016) 

Video Nostalgia

• “Sama” | Justyna
  Rank 18, Dublin 1995 
  
• “Przytul Mnie Mocno” | Mietek
  Rank 18, Jerusalem 1999
  
• “For Life” | Isis Gee
  Rank 24, Belgrade 2008
  
  

First Rehearsal