"Can Poland put together back-to-back strong finishes for the first time ever?<!--more-->
Country: Poland
Song Title: "Flashlight"
Artist: Kasia Moś
First Semi-Final: Position #11
Last year's entry: “Color of Your Life” — Michał Szpak (8th Place)
Last year's Polish entry was a big hit with Eurovision viewers, surprisingly so (at least for me). Only Russia and Ukraine earned more points from the televoting portion of the contest, and Michał Szpak earned a top-ten finish despite an extremely poor showing -- seven points total -- with the juries. Only two other times has Poland managed such a strong finish; 2014's memorable "My Słowianie" had delightful staging, but ended up in 14th place. Can Kasia Moś get to the Grand Final and buck Poland's trend of being just sporadically decent?
Ben wasn't very impressed with this song in the First Listen round of reviews, and I have to agree. I love me a dramatic Eurovision ballad, but "Flashlight" promises more than it actually delivers. I think I get what the songwriters were going for, but when you're limited to three minutes onstage, your slow burn can't take a full sixty seconds to produce any flame at all. Musically speaking, the chorus is the strongest and most interesting part of this track, and I wish they could scrap the rest and rebuild. We're way too late for that, though, and based on live performances, I don't see much help coming in the form of amazing stagecraft.
The general viewing audience seems to be similarly unenthralled with this track; only five countries from the first semi-final have fewer YouTube views. Odds makers have this song sitting on the bubble, but that's been a significantly downward trend over the last couple of weeks, and I wouldn't be surprised to see that continue. Kasia Moś has two direct competitors: Albania and Georgia. Neither seem like particularly strong contenders at this point((Although Georgia is somehow in first place with the odds makers? And I am having a hard time seeing how that's anything but a mistake?)) but we're in pretty solid agreement that both of those are better entries than this one. Add to that the general strength of this semi-final, and I just don't see a path to the Grand Final for Poland.