Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016

Prior to the 2016 contest, Poland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eighteen times since its first entry in 1994.^[1] Poland's highest placement in the contest, to this point, has been second place, which the nation achieved with its debut entry in 1994 with the song "To nie ja!" performed by Edyta Górniak. Poland has only, thus far, reached the top ten on one other occasion, when Ich Troje performing the song "Keine Grenzen – Żadnych granic" finished seventh in 2003. Between 2005 and 2011, Poland failed to qualify from the semi-final round six out of seven years with only their 2008 entry, "For Life" performed by Isis Gee, managing to take the nation to the final during that period. After once again failing to qualify to the final in 2011, the country withdrew from the contest during 2012 and 2013. Since returning to the contest in 2014, Poland managed to qualify to the final with both their 2014 entry, "My Słowianie - We Are Slavic" performed by Donatan and Cleo, and their 2015 entry "In the Name of Love" performed by Monika Kuszyńska.

The Polish national broadcaster, Telewizja Polska (TVP), broadcasts the event within Poland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. TVP confirmed Poland's participation in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest on 10 October 2015.^[2] Between 2006 and 2011, TVP organised televised national finals that featured a competition among several artists and songs in order to select the Polish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. After returning to the contest in 2014 following their two-year absence, the broadcaster opted to internally select both the 2014 and 2015 entries.^[3] In October 2015, TVP announced that the Polish entry for the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest would be selected via an internal selection and would be presented in February 2016.^[3] However, on 26 January 2016, the director of TVP1, Jan Pawlicki, announced that the Polish entry would be selected via a national final; the last time the Polish entry was selected via a national final was in 2011.^[4]

After the winner of the 2015 Polish parliamentary election, Law and Justice party, proposed a new media law, doubts regarding the country's participation in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest were reported across international media outlets.^[5][6] The new law was widely perceived as the government's way of limiting freedom of the press as well as putting the media, such as the Polish national broadcaster Telewizja Polska, under government control with further concerns surrounding the issue stemming from the wider Polish Constitutional Court crisis.^[6] Based on the reported information, news outlets speculated that Poland would be expelled from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) over the freedom of the press concerns and therefore would be unable to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest without full EBU membership.^[5] On 15 January 2016, the EBU denied that Poland's participation in the 2016 contest was in question.^[7]

Krajowe Eliminacje 2016 was the national final organised by TVP in order to select the Polish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. The show took place on 5 March 2016 at the TVP Headquarters in Warsaw, hosted by Artur Orzech.^[8] Public televoting exclusively selected the winner.^[9] The show was broadcast on TVP1 and TVP Polonia as well as streamed online at the broadcaster's website eurowizja.tvp.pl.^[8][10] The national final was watched by 2.38 million viewers in Poland.^[11]

TVP opened a submission period for interested artists and songwriters to submit their entries between 28 January 2016 and 8 February 2016.^[12] The broadcaster received 88 submissions at the closing of the deadline. A five-member selection committee selected nine entries from the received submissions to compete in the national final. The selection committee consisted of Anna Will (Polish Radio), Artur Orzech (Eurovision commentator, radio and television journalist and presenter), Zygmunt Kukla (conductor, composer), Robert Janowski (singer, composer, TV host and actor) and Waldemar Skowroński (journalist).^[12][13] The selected entries were announced on 16 February 2016 during the TVP1 programme Świat się kręci, hosted by Artur Orzech.^[14] Among the competing artists was Edyta Górniak, who represented Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994. "My Universe", performed by Napoli, was the runner-up in the 2016 Belarusian Eurovision national final. Between 23 February and 4 March, each competing artist presented their entry with a live performance during broadcasts of Świat się kręci.^[15] The competing artists were required to submit a promotional video for their song to TVP by 1 March 2016.^[12]

The televised final took place on 5 March 2016. Nine entries competed and the winner, "Color of Your Life" performed by Michał Szpak, was determined entirely by a public vote.^[16][17] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2015 Polish Eurovision entrant Monika Kuszyńska opened the show with her Eurovision song "In the Name of Love", while 2001 Polish Eurovision entrant Andrzej Piaseczny performed as the interval act.^[18]

Michał Szpak made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Color of Your Life" as the Polish Eurovision entry. On 9 April, Szpak performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Hera Björk.^[19] Between 11 and 13 April, Michał Szpak took part in promotional activities in Tel Aviv, Israel and performed during the Israel Calling event held at the Ha'teatron venue.^[20] On 17 April, Szpak performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell.^[21]