Poland 2026: Alicja with ‘Pray’
2020’s Alicja will feature at the contest finally having won the most chaotic National Final of the year:
I don’t know what it is about staging songs about praying in national finals but the track record isn’t great. This is a muddled staging which is already verging on the meme of Poland throwing way too many distractions at a performance but it kind of fits this song that is really lacking in an identity or groove, feeling like three seperate entries smashed together.
Alicja convinces best towards the start where this is more of a by the numbers gospel track before diverting into RnB territory. These are genres that can work together but really don’t here, at least for me. Wider, the reception to this hasn’t been the best with this pulling up few trees and a 33% of the Televote from 8 in Poland is fairly average or dare I say poor considering the opposition and Alicja having been set to participate in 2020. I know this isn’t a great review for her to not read and as a backhanded compliment I think she can do a lot better than this and is an artist with potential who is yet to find a strong outlet or style.
Overall, there’s just not a lot to excite here. It’s a semi final where Poland is also exceptionally weaker than usual in terms of support. Belgium and Germany bring some diaspora backing but there’s no UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Iceland, Ukraine and neighbours Lithuania are very unreliable looking at the recent voting. This is very, very vulnerable on the Televote and I don't foresee big jury support - nice vocal moments here and there just shouldn't be enough, even with the opposition level.
I hadn’t studied this one much or seen a whole lot of discussion (in itself a bad sign) but this feels in a lot more trouble than most might realise. Provisional NQ and requires a glowup to enter contention.
Personal Rating: 2/20
Televote Potential: 5/20
Jury Potential: 6/20
Staging Potential: 6/20
Track Record: 10/20
Overall Rating: 29/100
Early Prediction: Semi One 12th-15th
Volatility Factor - 1/5. Another where I can’t see much deviation upwards or forks in the road to change the course of this.