Krystian Ochman – River
Final Thoughts:
I think this one would be somewhere between a 2 and a 3 for me, depending on my mood. Overall, I like the song, but I thought the lead singer was a bit off-key at times. At first, I thought it was going to be a regular ol ballad, but I was very pleased when the tempo picked up after the ~45-second mark. One other thing, the OOOOO OOOOHH AAAAAHH really reminds me of the chorus to Duncan Laurence’s Arcade, which won ESC2019. Since ESC22 is held (if the Ukraine-Russian War does not escalate) in May, I think Krystian will have plenty of time to clean up his vocals, which are not bad to begin with.
Poland in last year’s Eurovision
RAFAL – THE RIDE
Semi-final results: 14th place out of 17 performances (35 total points – 18 national juries and 17 public votes).
Final results: Since he did not place within the top ten in his semifinal heat, he did not qualify for the final.
Since this clip is from the jury show, the home audience got a slightly different presentation of the song. Let me start with the good. I gotta admit that this song is very catchy, and it has crept into many of my running and random playlists. I could totally see this song being used for a cheezy car commercial. As for the performance, I thought Poland did a great job with the dancers and the staging. I love performances that have a lot of movement and utilize a large chunk of the stage (in this case, the two stages). In the version that the folks saw at home, Rafal did not sing that much and relied entirely too much on his backing vocal/playback. He pretty much let the backing vocals do the work while he continuously made a bunch of shoutouts to Europe.
Make some noise, Europe! How are you feeling, Eurovision! Europe, let me hear you. Man, stop shouting out everyone and sing the damn song!!!!
I know ESC is a song contest (not a singing contest, per se), but I think most folks would like to hear a performer’s live vocals. To be perfectly honest, I was a bit surprised that he performed better in the televote compared to others in his heat. I can understand why he received more national jury votes than others in his heat because he actually sang (or came close to singing) in the jury show. Just as an FYI: The jury show and the show that the audience view are held on separate nights.