Poland made their Eurovision Song Contest debut in 1994 in Dublin, represented by Edyta Górniak, with the song "To nie ja!" which was chosen internally by broadcaster TVP. Poland's first Eurovision participation is noted for being the most successful ever by a nation completely new to the contest, but also for the storm of controversy which broke out around Górniak's dress rehearsal performance.
Before Eurovision
Internal selection
TVP announced Edyta Górniak as the first ever Polish entrant at the Eurovision Song Contest 1994 with the song "To nie ja!".
There was no free-language rule in operation at the time, and the furor erupted at the dress rehearsal when Górniak sung the second half of "To nie ja!" in English. Although the Polish delegation were unaware that they had done anything wrong, and had always intended the song to be performed entirely in Polish on the night of the final, there was immediate uproar as the dress rehearsal performance was the one watched and voted on by the national juries. Other participants felt that by singing partly in English, Górniak had given herself an unfair advantage. Six national delegations formally petitioned for Poland to be disqualified; however Eurovision rules required a majority of delegations (13 in this case) to complain before the European Broadcasting Union could examine the case for disqualification, so Poland was allowed to remain. Many wondered why this had become such an issue when the previous year's Croatian entry had included choruses sung entirely in English both in the dress rehearsal and the televised final without any objections being raised – it was then pointed out that the language rules did allow for short phrases of up to eight words in a non-official language of the country and the Croatian song had only used six ("Don't ever cry, never say goodbye"), albeit repeated several times. Also the 1994 German entry included the phrase "Shake it, take it, make it all right", which was permissible.
On the night of the final Górniak performed 24th in the running order, following Russia and preceding France. Dressed very simply in a short white dress and flat-heeled shoes, she gave a powerful performance of the dramatic ballad and received a very enthusiastic audience response. At the close of the voting "To nie ja!" had received 166 points – including five maximum 12s from Austria, Estonia, France, Lithuania and the UK – placing Poland second of the 25 entries. The Polish jury awarded its 12 points to Hungary.[1] This was, and still is as of 2019, Poland's best placing at the contest.
Poland
Hungary
Russia
Ireland
Germany
France
Cyprus
Iceland
United Kingdom
Greece
Portugal