Song of the Day – Today we go to back to 1995 and look at the second ever Polish Eurovision entry. After Edita Gorniak’s great second place the previous year, Justyna Steczkowska was sent to Dublin to repeat the success. She rose to fame when she won the contest Szansa na sukces with the song “Buenos Aires”. Her Eurovision entry “Sama” (“Alone”) is a quite unusual ballad, with dissonances and vocal acrobatics by Justyna (her voice has a range of 4 octaves). In the lyrics, she sings that she feels like “a little flea” when the “world is angry with [her]“. The song ends with her singing that she feels as if “God didn’t love little fleas”.
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As i’ve already said on another article, I’m left all alone on this. I simply can’t stand this song
Btw, I’ve never made a list of my least fav countries in the ESC, but in that case, Poland, I’m sorry to say, would be in it
It’s not a bad song, but it doesn’t get me like 1994/1996/1997 which I adore.
Hola Luis
Poland 94 is totally overrated imo. 96 is ok i guess.
I can see why people may not like Poland 95 (hi, Oxi). I like this unusual song (in ESC terms) and it is my 95 nº 6. Denmark, Cyprus and Norway had the best songs on offer; the Danish song should have won, imo.
Hi Shevek
I’m a fan of Norway and Denmark 95 too. Never got the hype over Cyprus that year tbh. Imho, 1995 was one of the best years for the Nordic countries; three of them in my top 10:
01.NORWAY: Secret Garden- Nocturne
02.SPAIN: Anabel Conde- Vuelve Conmigo
03.SWEDEN: Jan Johansen- Se På Mej
04.DENMARK: Aud Wilken- Fra Mols Til Skagen
05.FRANCE: Nathalie Santamaria- Il Me Donne Rendez-vous
06.Israel 07.Malta 08.Belgium 09.Cyprus 10.Hungary
just missing out: Ireland, Greece
can’t stand: Poland, United Kingdom
*three of them in my top 4!!!
Spain and Sweden complete my top 5, Oxi. Sweden’s last two very good songs came in 95 and 98.
As much as I like the winner and think it’s a beautiful song, there’s the whole most instrumental part that divides me regarding its victory…
My favorites that year were Denmark and Greece.
This is one of my favorite songs ever in Eurovision. A masterpiece, very clever composition sung by one of the most gifted singers ever to appear on a Eurovision stage.
Great composition, good execution, this one should have done much better than Edyta (the top 3 of 94 opened up the 95 contest and all did really bad, unfairly, while Germany and Poland were both super overrated in 94)… 95 is a great contest but I tend to disagree with fans favorite or the results (Spain or Croatia are not in my top 10)… Norway is an undoubtful winner to me and Bosnia is my runner-up. Poland should be around top 5!
Poland 94 : OVERRATED indeed !
Poland 95 : Weird not in a good way.Not necessarily bad.At least it shows some character.
Poland 96 : My most favorite Polish song but what a BAD vocal performance !!!
Poland 97 : The most decent effort overall ( song , vocals , presentation ).
Poland 98 : Boring and indifferent…Nice musical bridge though !
Poland 99 : It’s ok , although it does follow the 94 Polish footsteps.
That concludes my trip back to Poland and eurovision in 90′s
Poland 1996 a bad vocal performance? Certainly not …
It was quite weak vocally…
Bullshit. Sorry!
And of course you couldn’t bepolite…it is our opinion to believe that Poland 1996 has some weak vocals. Such an attitude shows the emptiness of your personal life…Poor little thing it is summer! Take a break from your deskptop. Is your life so empty my dear? Well why am I asking. The heavy spamming explains everything…
I love this song. So different and beautiful.
The singer is able to transmit the feeling of the song wonderfully.
Buuut, I also have to be honest and say that the live looks weird with her moving her hands so much.
One of my favorites esc songs ever too.
We have only recently discussed this song and thus everyone here knows that I absolutely adore it. Together with Denmark and Cyprus, Poland constitutes my 1995 top 3. To complete my top 5: Anabel Conde gave a fantastic live performance, and thus Spain’s 2nd place was well deserved although ‘Vuelve conmigo’ is a tad generic. Anabel made it soar live and was extremely charming too. That second when her strap slipped.
Finally, I love Sweden too although the live performance was a bit underwhelming, and thus Jan beats BiH for the last place in my top 5. Finally, both Ireland and Norway are ludicrously overrated imo, both regarding the result and their popularity among fans.
I like that song!!
Germany FINALLY got medal at Olympics – Britta Heidmann silver in fencing!!
Yes, finally … and thank God! Our media were already beginning to get nasty …
Maybe it’s just a slow start for Germany..or first were set disciplines where Germany didn’t have high hopes, maybe later will be even better than expected! I hope Kerber wins medal!!!!
Let’s hope so. I expect Germany to collect many medals in rowing, canoe, kayak and equestrian sports. On the other hand, our media always mainly concentrate on swimming and athletics, and swimming results have been a huge disappointment so far.
Toggie please India has population of 1000000000 and such a small number of medals, so be happy with German results!
Yes, but then India does not do much besides field hockey when it comes to sports … The other day, our commentator said that he hoped that India wouldn’t discover sports like China did because then there would probably only be very few medals left for us …
Hahahaha yeah that’s true… but generally Asia RULES this year! China, South Korea, North Korea and Japan together have a lot of medals! I watch weightlifting and North Korea took 4 medals (2 golds), if they didn’t then China would have got even more medals! LOL
You will play against India in hockey, you are in the same group!
India got one bronze medal yesterday in shooting, the same as Serbia!
Love this masterpiece.
I consider this song an absolute masterpiece and possibly the bravest opening act ever – I remember my shock and my feeling of “what the hell was that!?” when it ended. Certainly by far the best Polish act ever. I explored some other Justyna’s work afterwards (which is something that only few ESC artists made me do so far) and I recommend her “Złota Kolekcja” wholeheartedly!
WOW how impressive was Olympic record of Colombian Figueroa!! :O
I love weightlifting!!! I watch weightlifting all the time at Olympics!
But I do miss my Bulgarian weightlifters! 
They all compete for Azerbaijan now! DAMN! 
1995 provided one of the most worthy winners EVER imo ( along with 2007 and 2012 ) and my second most favorite Greek entry after “Watch My Dance” ( OK I have to admit there’s a tie between Greece 95 and 97 :p )
Such a magical and astonishing song and wonderfully performed by Justyna. In an average year it would have been my clear favourite but in such a strong year as 1995, it’s not in my absolute top. But no one can convince me that 18th place was the right place for this song. Never! Poland surely knew how to deliver these soaring Slavic songs in the 90′s, but due to the lukewarm response from Europe, they changed and started instead to do generic stuff that no one cared about.
I absolutely LOVE Poland 1995. It’s my 2nd place in 1995 (behind Cyprus), and I cannot express how much I love this brave and beautiful composition. Had her vocals been absolutely perfect, she would likely have surpassed Cyprus and been my 1st for 1995. It’s easily in my top 10 songs of the 90s (along with obviously Cyprus 1995 and both Lithuania 1999 and Italy 1992).
Unbelievable how this came 18th whilst Spain was 2nd. Another proof why juries damage the contest. :/
It is also one of my favourite ESC songs.
Hi CC!! :-**
You follow Olympics? Germany won first gold medal today, in equestrian!
Nope, I usually do not. But thanks for information. How are the Serbian sports(wo)men acquitting themselves?
We won one medal till now, bronze in shooting!! I hope we win more medals in shooting, then in waterpolo, volleyball, tennis and swimming!
Good luck!
Oh, I’m sure it would have gone splendidly with the televoters… in another universe.
In this universe, too. For sure better than 18th what I consider a big joke. But everyone is entitled to have their own taste, of course.
I’d already stated (somewhat above) that I consider the song an absolute masterpiece, so we, in fact, agree as to the song – no need to tell me that “everyone is entitled to have their own taste”.
On the other hand, I’m quite convinced that the song would (unfortunately) have hit rock bottom with the average televoter. Furthermore, I believe it’s quite wrong to just say that “juries damage the contest”. On the contrary – the facts suggest that without juries we would have to expect more monsters, ice-skaters and whatnot winning the contest. I don’t like the idea of a contest where people wrap themselves up in cellophane and put a big star on top of their head and think that it might just be enough to win!
But what is wrong with monsters and ice skaters when Europe likes their entries? Do you believe your taste is superior to others’?
Here Lordi is still remembered by young and old alike for bringing some fresh air into a contest that seemingly is occupied by old-fashioned ballads and conventional pop songs (again). ESC also needs diversity, European flavour, some outta the box thinking and appeal to the viewers’ sense of entertainment instead of accomplishing the same old uninspired cheese over and over again.
The placing of ‘Sama’ just shows how ridiculous (and dangerous!) the juries’ opinion of what is bad or good for the contest can be.
I am happy you like ‘Sama’ though.
“Here Lordi is still remembered by young and old alike”
LOL … and I always thought that you lived in Germany … but if you live in a place where Lordi are still rememberd, that place certainly isn’t Germany.
It is. The dispraise ‘deine Mudda spielt E-Gitarre bei Lordi’ always works. Maybe you just *wish* not to think so.
Amazing song, amazing artist, amazing performance. One of the best esc entries ever.
I just managed to listen to a copy of Justyna’s 2012 album “XV,” and all I can say is… woah. I’m blown away by the album. It’s absolutely fantastic.
I agree that “XV” is a fantastic album but “Daj mi chwilę” remains my favourite Justyna album. I really love all Justyna’s work but her 2007 album holds a very special place in my heart, in particular the songs “W przód i w tył” and “To tylko złudzenie (To nie miłość)”.
Well, I’ll definitely try to listen to them soon.
Silver for Serbia in shooting!! YAAAY! BRAVO Ivana!