Prior to the 2021 contest, Poland had participated in the contest seven times: In 2003 and 2004, Poland finished in last place, and they decided not to participate from 2005 to 2015.[1] The country returned in 2016. Olivia Wieczorek was selected to represent the nation that year with the song "Nie zapomnij". Olivia finished in 11th place out of 17 entries with 60 points. In 2017, Alicja Rega was selected to represent Poland with the song "Mój dom". She finished 8th out of 16 entries with 138 points.[2] In both 2018 and 2019, Poland won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest with Roksana Węgiel and Viki Gabor respectively, becoming the first country to win the contest twice in a row. In 2020, Ala Tracz competed for Poland with the song "I'll Be Standing" which ended up in 9th place out of 12 entries with 90 points.
Before Junior Eurovision
Sara James, the winner of Szansa na Sukces. Eurowizja Junior 2021
TVP selected the Polish representative with the television program Szansa na Sukces; the same show was also used for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019 and 2020, and various times for the Eurovision Song Contest.
Szansa na Sukces. Eurowizja Junior 2021
The casting of the show took place on 5 and 6 June,[3] from which twenty-one acts were selected. Like in previous years, the show included three semi-finals, in which a professional jury selected the acts qualified for the final. The winner was decided based on a 50/50 jury and public vote split. The semi-finals were recorded at the end of July and the beginning of August, with the final being broadcast live on 26 September.[4][5][needs update] The show was broadcast on TVP2 and was hosted by Marek Sierocki [pl].[6]
The final was broadcast on 26 September 2021. Three artists competed in the final, and each performed a cover and an original song. The jury consisted of three members: Konrad Smuga (director of Polish performances at Junior Eurovision), Grzegorz Urban (music director of Szansa na Sukces), and Anna Cyzowska-Andura (director of the TVP Entertainment Agency).[12] Another panel, consisting of Roksana Węgiel, Edyta Górniak and Alicja Tracz was also present during the show, but did not have any power over the voting. The winner was 13-year-old Sara Egwu-James, whose song "Somebody" would go on to represent Poland in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021.[13]
After the opening ceremony, which took place on 13 December 2021, it was announced that Poland would perform third on 19 December 2021, following Georgia and preceding Malta.[18]
At the end of the contest, Poland received 218 points, placing 2nd out of 19 participating countries.
Voting
The same voting system that was introduced in the 2017 edition was used, where the results were determined by 50% online voting and 50% jury voting. Every country had a national jury that consisted of three music industry professionals and two children aged between 10 and 15 who were citizens of the country they represented. The rankings of those jurors were combined to make an overall top ten.[19]
The online voting consisted of two phases. The first phase of the online voting began on 17 December 2021 when a recap of all the rehearsal performances was shown on the contest's website Junioreurovision.tv before the viewers could vote. After this, voters also had the option to watch longer one-minute clips from each participant's rehearsal. This first round of voting ended on 17 December at 15:59 CET. The second phase of the online voting took place during the live show and began right after the last performance and was open for 15 minutes. International viewers were able vote for three songs.[20] They were also able to vote for their own country's song. These votes were then turned into points which were determined by the percentage of votes received. For example, if a song received 10% of the votes, it received 10% of the available points.
