The Polish song was revealed on March 12th, via the TVP youtube channel. A few days earlier it has been revealed that TVP were internally selecting a new artist - not rolling over their 2020 selection - and internally selecting the song. Going to Eurovision is Rafał Brzozowski with "The ride"
The video is very stylised, something which would be something easily replicable with video screens. Rafał starts in a car pulling up outside a dimly lit nightclub he is then joined by some smartly dressed male dancers who follow him inside. The interior is dark and full of brightly coloured neon signs, mostly with names of cities and places on them. Part way through he is then joined by female dancers with long ponytails and wearing pink trouser suits. There is a lot of gestural choreography from Rafał and lots of very sharp cuts in the video which creates the movement rather than if coming from him himself.
The song is an 80s style up-tempo song with a steady beat and synthesised backing track. This is a very straightforward song which goes verse/chorus/verse/chorus which takes us to just over the 2 minute mark. Here there is a short bridge with basically works as a mini verse before ending with a final chorus. The bridge is rather non-descript and could do with more aural clues to make it stand out, ideally letting the backing track fizzle out to make the pow back to the end chorus more noticeable.
Rafał did not start out to be a singer as he initially studied as a PE teacher. He was also an active wrestler until a spinal injury put a stop on this. His musical break came with participation in the long running talent show "Szansa na sukces" which led to him to perform with the groups Emigranci and Mono. In 2011 he entered "The Voice Poland" being eliminated just before the final but this led him to release a slew of singles and albums all in Polish. Away from singing, he has participated in Dance with the Stars Poland, presented the Polish versions of Wheel of Fortune, Name that Tune and The Voice Seniors. In terms of Eurovision, he came second in the preselection show of 2017 and presented Junior Eurovision in 2020 in its altered format.
I actually don't think this is a bad song but did need plenty of listens before bedding in. The tempo of the song works well afor the radio and the tune is rather easy to remember. My main reservations centre around Rafał's performance. First the vocals are quite embedded in the mix and I fear it is going to be hard to replicate this live even with pre-recorded vocals. Also the fact that Rafał does so little dancing and moving to a song that is rather danceable suggests he can't. Unless he styles himself as some sort of mannequin or robot I am not sure how this is going to work. Also the glasses look might not go down well with the televoters as we generally like to see all of peoples faces. Like many Polish entries, this might squeak through with a bit of diaspora support.
ARTIST - Rafał Brzozowski
SONG - The ride
WRITING CREDITS - Thomas Karlsson, Johan Mauritzson, Joakim Övrenius, Clara Rubensson
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