POLAND

The Polish song was unveiled on March 8^th as the video and song were released online. Back in February it was announced vocal group Tulia was going to represent the country. Their song is called "Fire of Love (Pali się)".

The video for the song in black and white and follows the four members of the group getting ready for a performance in a rural hall. They are dressed in traditional costume, although a little bit more demure what the outfits seen in 2015! The people watching are all generally quite old and are dressed in large hats, coats with shawls and scarves. There is also a fire engine crew in attendance When the girls are on stage they are quite static, almost emotionless. Although the audience looks slightly disinterested and bored by the show they end up getting a standing ovation and everybody looks happier. The girls then leave and the fire engine crew also leaves.

The sound is rather unusual to the ears as it is slightly genre bending. The group unites rock and pop production values with traditional folk singing. At first it can seem quite shouty and full on but in some ways it does have a certain charm Most of the song is in Polish apart from the start and the end. The piece starts with the ‘Fire of love’ hook line, in English followed by the first verse, half English half Polish and a rendition of the chorus. We then have another verse and chorus in quick succession and yet we have only just passed half way on the clock. We have another verse/chorus cycle followed closely by another chorus, this time in English which takes us to the finish.

The full Polish version of ‘Pali się’ had actually been around for quite a while but when this was released again as the entry the English bits had been added in. I personally think this is a little bit nonsensical. Firstly, because I don’t think the style of singing particularly fits in well with the language and secondly, their style of singing is so booming and bawling you can barely tell which bits are in which language. I am also concerned that their performance style might be a little bit lacking. From the research I have done they just kind of stand and sing and that might come across as lifeless, cold or just boring. No amount of lighting or video cues would rectify that.

I appreciate the effort and unusualness of the entry but think that this might be a little bit too full on and different for the Eurovision audience to fully digest. But as we all know, if this pulls together the wide diaspora and gets them voting, anything is possible.

ARTIST –  Tulia

SONG –  Fire of Love (Pali się)

MUSIC -  Nadia Dalin

LYRICS - Sonia Krasny, Allan Rich, Jud Friedmann