Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Prior to the 2019 contest, Poland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-one 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 two other occasions, when Ich Troje performing the song "Keine Grenzen – Żadnych granic" finished seventh in 2003, and when Michał Szpak performing the song "Color of Your Life" finished eighth in 2016. 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 each year before failing to qualify to the final in 2018 with their entry "Light Me Up" performed by Gromee featuring Lukas Meijer.

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 2019 Eurovision Song Contest on 4 May 2018.^[2] Between 2016 and 2018, 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. However, on 23 January 2019, TVP announced that the Polish entry for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest would be selected via an internal selection. The last time the Polish entry was selected internally was in 2015.^[3]

TVP announced in January 2019 that the Polish entry for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest would be selected via an internal selection and would be presented in February 2019. The broadcaster opened a submission period for interested artists and songwriters to submit their entries between 23 January 2019 and 5 February 2019.^[3] TVP received 140 submissions at the closing of the deadline, including entries from Lidia Kopania, who represented Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009, and Magdalena Tul, who represented Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011.^[4] A selection committee, which among its members included director Konrad Smuga, reviewed the received submissions and selected the Polish entry.^[5]

On 15 February 2019, it was announced that the group Tulia would represent Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019.^[6] The song "Fire of Love (Pali się)", written by Nadia Dalin, Sonia Krasny, Allan Rich and Jud Friedmann, was presented to the public on 8 March 2019 via the release of the official music video, directed by Anna Zofia Powierża, on the official Eurovision Song Contest's YouTube channel.^[7] A Polish language version of the song, titled "Pali się", was also recorded and released in November 2018, but was edited for the Eurovision Song Contest and featured additional lyrics in English.^[8]

The music video for the Polish version of "Fire of Love (Pali się)" featured a wayside cross but was removed in the music video for the bilingual Eurovision version.^[9][10][11] Following allegations of censorship and discrimination against Christians despite both videos being nearly identical apart from the erasure of the cross, General Director of TVP Jacek Kurski called for the record company Universal Music Polska to restore the original version of the music video.^[12] Tulia's management later stated in an interview that the cross was removed due to European Broadcasting Union (EBU) restrictions on the promotion of political institutions, and that they themselves were not responsible for the editing of the video. However, a figure of John of Nepomuk is still visible in the background of the music video for the Eurovision version.^[13]

Tulia made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Fire of Love (Pali się)" as the Polish Eurovision entry. On 6 April, Tulia performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Marlayne.^[14] On 14 April, Tulia 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.^[15] Tulia also performed during the Eurovision Spain Pre-Party, which was held at the Sala La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain on 19 and 20 April.^[16]