Sexy Medieval Knight Meets Dancing Priests: Poland 2026

Poland rarely does anything quietly, and that energy runs through everything here, from politics to pop performance. 

Poland’s Eurovision 2026 choice feels like a statement. Alicja returns after a long, bumpy arc: winning The Voice in Poland, being selected for the cancelled Eurovision 2020, missing the 2021 slot, and coming back again in 2023 before finally landing the job for 2026. That “unfinished business” narrative matters in Eurovision. 

Then we get into the performance itself, because Prey is not subtle. We talk costume, staging, and the wonderfully strange imagery in the official video. If you’ve got thoughts on the staging, the symbolism, or whether Prey should be aiming higher, subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a review.

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Transcript

Greetings And What’s Coming

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Bonjour, Guten Tag, Pre Hello, and welcome back to the Despoir Podcast. Get ready, as this episode, we take a little cheeky look at Poland and who they are sending to the big stage. Now, how do we sum up the last 12 months for Poland held a presidential election in the middle of last year? And yes, it delivered exactly the kind of tidy conclusion you'd expect from modern politics. Look, kind of two sides coming together to form government. This sets up political cohabitation. Not the cute kind where you split rent and argue about dishes, but the kind where you've got a pro-EU government led by Donald Tusk on one side, and a right-leading president with veto powers on the other, which shockingly produces frequent clashes, vetoed laws, blocked appointments, and a nice steady hum of institutional tension layered onto a long-running rule of law crisis that keeps Poland's democracy and legal system in the permanent. This is fine, this is fine, temperature zone. And because Poland never does anything halfway, the electorate is sharply split between a pro-EU liberal vote and conservative nationalist voters. So the country can enjoy the global trend of two camps yelling across the street from each other. But Poland is not just fearing attacks from within. It is always fearing them from outward as well. With Poland rapidly expanding its military expenditure, it is now approximately 5% of the country's GDP. Basically, long-term security concerns, you know, the sequel that never stops getting green lit, and the lingering feeling of being economically strong but politically strained. Poland has a great spreadsheet attached to a chaotic group project that will either come together in a glorious act or means a failing F for everyone involved. Poland has come together to select Alicia with her song Parade. Alicia was born on the 29th of April 2002. So which musical contest was she on? Well, she won season 10 of The Voice in Poland in 2019. In 2020, she was then selected to be Poland's Eurovision representative at the ill-fated Eurovision 2020, which was of course cancelled. She expressed her desire to return in 2021. However, Poland went with Rafael Brazolski instead. She made another attempt in 2023, returning to the national final with her song New Home. Unfortunately, this team she only came sixth. But in Eurovision math, that is not a loss. It is story development. And now in 2026, she has come back again and she has won the opportunity to represent Poland on the Eurovision stage. She will be singing Prey, which fits perfectly for Eurovision, because if you've ever watched the green room count, you know eventually everyone up there prays. Let's see if Poland is an absolute guarantee or if they will be praying for mercy. Now, watching the official music video of the performance of Prey, the first thing we have to comment about is the costume. I don't know why she has chosen to dress as a sexy medieval knight, complete with breastplate and a vampire shield with what looks like Catholic priests walking against the wind in the background. Interesting decisions made so far for Poland. Let's see if this pays off. Let's pray this pays off. Oh, this is a great song. Is this a winner? No, but this is soulful. It is fantastic. Ironically, she is better, her voice seems to be better at the really challenging notes and slips down a notch at the more sort of rapping, talking bit. But it's me just being nitpicky. Ah, this is great, and I don't mind. And I think the dancing Catholic priest in the background, fantastic. That's gonna get you despois from Italy straight away. Weird bit of trivia. Do you know what's really popular in Italy? Nun and priest porn. I okay, they're not making porn for nuns and priests, and they're not actually nuns and priests in it. It's just pornography where someone is dressed up as a nun or a priest. I don't create the news, I just tell you the news. Poland, this is fantastic. I think you're definitely gonna go through to the grand final. You're not gonna win it, but let's just put you straight through. Gate is open, off you trot.