Kasia Mos brings suspenseful ballad for Poland on the Eurovision stage
Poland turned out to be the biggest surprise in last year’s Eurovision Song Contest’s result show. After the juries mostly ignored their entry ‘Color Of Your Life’, televoters placed the ballad in third position, giving singer Michal Szpak an 8th spot in the overall result. This year the country hopes to attract more votes from the juries as well. Kasia Mos will represent her country with the suspenseful ballad ‘Flashlight’ after she won the national final back home. Will she be able to sing Poland into the top 10 for a second year in a row?
The good news is that Kasia Mos is a strong performer with a powerful voice who knows how to sell the hell out of her song. ‘Flashlight’ is an intriguing composition with an intense, suspenseful vibe going on. Others compared it to the sound of a James Bond soundtrack, but I’d say it is less bombastic and more mysterious. The whole suspense in the track could make parts of it a bit uncomfortable to listen to, as the composers and producers tried their absolute best to create something as dark and haunting as possible. To be completely honest, for me the track has not much replay value, but in Eurovision all you need is to make a big impression on first listen. It think ‘Flashlight’ has the potential to move people and that could mean the Polish delegation is onto another at least decent result.
UPDATE – Review on first semi final performance:
Kasia Mos gave it her all to sell this song with (sometimes a little too) intense vocals, beautiful styling and enough emotion in her facial expressions, but I have to admit the whole performance left me cold. I would not go as far as to say this was an undeserving qualifier, but I would not have missed it, had it not qualified. Either way, the Polish diaspora around Europe might give her a little push on the scoreboard on Saturday.
UPDATE – Review on final performance and result (22nd):
Poland’s Kasia Mos had the unfortunate second spot in the running order and although she once again gave a decent vocal performance, the suspenseful ballad definitely did not stand out enough to be remembered after all 26 countries performed. Just like last year, Poland did better with televoting than juries, but not nearly enough to come close to the top 10, which would not have been deserved anyway.
Check all Eurovision 2017 reviews: Albania – Armenia – Australia – Austria – Azerbaijan – Belarus – Belgium – Bulgaria – Croatia – Cyprus – Czech Republic – Denmark – Estonia – Finland – France – FYR Macedonia – Georgia – Germany – Greece – Hungary – Iceland – Ireland – Israel – Italy – Latvia – Lithuania – Malta – Moldova – Montenegro – The Netherlands – Norway – Poland – Portugal – Romania – San Marino – Serbia – Slovenia – Spain – Sweden – Switzerland – Ukraine – United Kingdom