Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009


Poland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, as confirmed by Polish broadcaster Telewizja Polska. TVP continued to use the Piosenka dla Europy contest to select the Polish representative for the 2009 contest in Moscow. The 2009 edition of the contest was held on 14 February, with the winner decided by jury and televoting. The winner was Lidia Kopania with "I Don't Wanna Leave", represented Poland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in May 2009.

Before Eurovision

Possible withdrawal

After coming 24th in the 2008 contest, talks within TVP suggested that Poland may withdraw from the 2009 contest. However, they indicated that their decision on withdrawal would be based on changes, if any, to the current voting system. TVP also suggested to the European Broadcasting Union, the contest's organisers, that an international jury should be put into use in the next contest, such as the one used in the Eurovision Dance Contest. TVP's spokeswoman, Aneta Wrona, indicated that Poland's decision would not be affected by the then-ongoing war in South Ossetia. TVP's decision might also have been affected by Poland's win in the Eurovision Dance Contest 2008, and Poland being the possible host of the next edition.
After the EBU revealed a new voting system for the final of the 2009 contest, introducing a mixture of televoting and jury voting, TVP officially confirmed their participation in Moscow.

Piosenka dla Europy 2009

TVP confirmed that they will use the Piosenka dla Europy contest to select the Polish representative for the 2009 contest, which was planned to be held on 20 or 21 February 2009. However, this date was changed to 14 February 2019, purely for "commercial reasons".

Competing entries

TVP opened a submission period for interested artists and songwriters to submit their entries until 16 January 2009. However, TVP requires a minimum of one single or album to have been released per artists. Alternatively, artists must have competed in professional song contests or music festivals at a national level or have a working contract with a record label or a professional concert agency. 122 entries were received by TVP, 87 of which came from within Poland. An eight-member selection committee selected around seven entries from the received submissions, which will be joined by up to five artists internally selected by TVP, bringing the total number of competing entries to a maximum of 12. The selection committee consisted of Zuzanna Łapicka, Paweł Sztompke, Piotr Baron, Tomasz Miara, Dariusz Maciborek, Tomasz Deszczyński, Malgorzata Kosturkiewicz and Piotr Klatt. The 12 selected entries were announced on 23 January 2009.
TVP later had to disqualify Katarzyna Skrzynecka's "Amazing", composed by Jud Friedman and Allan Rich, after it was revealed it had been performed in October 2007 on Taniec z Gwiazdami, the Polish version of Dancing with the Stars. Mikromusic's "Kardamon i pieprz" was also later disqualified for the same reasons. The draw for the running order was held on 28 January 2009.

Final

The final was held at the TVP Headquarters in Warsaw on 14 February 2009, hosted by Radek Brzózka and Paulina Chylewska. The winner was Lidia Kopania with "I Don't Wanna Leave". The song was the favourite in the televote, and came second in the jury vote. During the show, the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 winner Ruslana and last year's Polish entry Isis Gee performed.
3.8 million have been reported to have watched the contest, constituting a 28% audience share, being the most watched show that night.
DrawArtistSong 'Lyrics / Music JuryTelevoteTotalPlace
1Stachursky"I nie mów nic" 'Daniel Maczura, Jacek Laszczok 1569
2Det Betales"Jacqueline"Leif Melander, Peter Nord, Knut Oyvind Hagen 31410
3Man Meadow"Love Is Gonna Get You", Andreas Rickstrand 2796
4Dali"Everyday"Viktar Rudenka, Aliaksandar Liutych, Igor Znyk 6287
5IRA"Dobry czas" 'Artur Gadowski, Wojciech Byrski 74115
6Artur Chamski"Kilka słów" 'Paweł Rurak Sokal, Andrzej Ignatowski 58134
7Marco Bocchino & Ola Szwed"All My Life"Marco Bocchino 810182
8Tigrita Project"Mon chocolat" 'Klaudia Baszniak Kozłowska 4378
9Renton"I'm Not Sure"Marek Karwowski, Paweł Szupiluk, Mariusz Gajewski, Łukasz Różycki 126182
10Lidia Kopania"I Don't Wanna Leave"Alex Geringos, Bernd Klimpel 1012221'''

Promotion

After winning Piosenka dla Europy, Kopania visited some of the competing countries at Eurovision to promote her Eurovision entry. Kopania performed "I Don't Wanna Leave" during the Latvian national final on 28 February, as well as during the Ukrainian national final on 8 March. She has also been lined up to perform during the UK Eurovision Preview Party on 17 April in London, United Kingdom and the Eurovision Promo Concert in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on 18 April.

At Eurovision

Poland had competed in the second semi-final of the 2009 Contest, held on 14 May 2009,performed 5th, after Serbia and before Norway she ended 12th with 43 points failing to qualify to the Grand Final.
The televotes were converted into points, as shown in the points column.
DrawCountryTelevotePoints
11,0770
21,7463
32300
48200
5 Poland——
64,92610
71,1710
81,3140
91,5131
104170
113920
1216,34712
131,5752
142,5824
152,6425
162,9006
173,8277
184,0288
191,0250

Final voting
Poland's televoting for the grand final were as follows:
The televotes were then converted into points, as shown in the televote points column. As the 50/50 rule had also been re-introduced a jury of 5 professionals in music from Poland also voted. These votes were then combined and converted into the point system as shown in the final column.

Points awarded by Poland[Eurovision [Song Contest 2009]]

Semi-final 2

Final

12 points10 points8 points7 points6 points

  • 5 points4 points3 points2 points1 point