Eurovision fans in Poland won against the Polish television broadcaster TVP in court, which ordered the television broadcaster to disclose the results of the public vote in the controversial 2023 Eurovision national selection, and now, months after the ruling, the results have been published.
The drama continues as preparations for Eurovision 2025 are in full swing across Europe, including in Poland, which has confirmed its participation in the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel and announced that it will select its representative through a national final. However, the turmoil from the Polish national selection in 2023 has not yet subsided. Today, the full public voting results from that controversial national final were officially released, following a request from the Eurovision Fan Club in Poland (OGAE Poland) to the Polish court, which ordered the national broadcaster to publish them in June.
Jann, the winner of the public vote who finished second in the national final, received more than 40% of the public votes, significantly ahead of Poland’s Eurovision 2023 representative Blanka, who received about 13% of the votes.
Legal Intervention and Transparency
The full public voting results were released thanks to the Polish court’s decision that the public votes should be transparent as it is public information. However, the court rejected the Polish fans’ request to also disclose the full jury votes, arguing that this information does not need to be publicly available. The Polish fan club has already announced in response that it will continue to fight this issue and will appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court to order the Polish national broadcaster to disclose the results of all judges in the national final.
הצגת פוסט זה באינסטגרם
Background of the Lawsuit
While all European countries are trying to move past the last contest and look towards next year, Poland is still dealing with the controversies that surrounded their national selection for Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool, where Blanka won with the song “Solo”, ultimately finishing 19th in the final in Britain. This result, as we may recall, angered the public who voted en masse for the favorite Jann and his song “Gladiator”, who competed in the national final, but ultimately it was the jury that prevailed over the public’s will and decided by majority vote that Blanka would be the country’s representative for Eurovision 2023.
Allegations of Corruption and Lack of Transparency
Against the backdrop of criticism of corruption and lack of transparency by TVP (then still under the conservative government that undermined democratic and freedom factors in Poland), public doubts arose regarding the reliability of the national final results. Therefore, the public demanded full publication of the results but was met with indifference and refusal from the national broadcaster. Despite repeated requests from the Eurovision Fan Club in Poland (OGAE Poland), the national broadcaster refused to publish the results. In January, OGAE Poland filed a complaint with the Warsaw Administrative District Court demanding the publication of the detailed results.
The main issue that arose from the case is the fact that the individual rankings of the jury members were never disclosed. The jury chairperson, singer Edyta Górniak, admitted that the prepared scores were given to her by the show’s production in a phone call, so the chairperson could not oversee the results. TVP only stated on this matter that the votes were independently verified by a notary. Suspicions also arose regarding conflicts of interest between the judges and artists participating in the national final competition, including Blanka (the chosen representative).
Poland in Eurovision 2024
“The Tower” is the name of the song performed by singer Luna, who was chosen through an internal selection by the Polish national broadcaster, and represented Poland in the first semi-final of Eurovision 2024. Luna finished 12th in the semi-final with 35 points and did not qualify for the grand final.
Source: eurowizja
Eurovision 2025: This will be Poland’s 27th participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. Poland joined the competition in 1994 and achieved its best result that same year when singer Edyta Górniak reached second place with the song “To nie ja!”.
