Nathan Picot:
Daria – Paranoia (Poland)
When it was announced that TVP were doing an internal selection rather than a national final, there were tonnes of rumours flying about regarding who would represent them. The frontrunner was a song called Paranoia. A very contemporary radio friendly song that had all the hallmarks of a good result for Poland.
But then they decided to at the last minute hold a national final and eventually lost to a song that quite frankly has aged like milk. This is in contrast to Paranoia whom still feels very much fresh, modern and contemporary. Daria to her credit improved her vocals from TV appearances before the national final to that of the national final. The staging was very slick and she even included vocal runs that were very good! Upon reflection had the song qualified and I have no doubt that it would have done seeing as Daria was and continues to be a very popular artist in the country and among the diaspora it would have stood out a lot more in the running order as it would have been the only uptempo pop girl in that second half and would have broken up that Sweden, Australia, UK and Poland run in the final that we eventually got. Especially after the quite frankly laughable staging and visual effects they ended up putting on River.
I also think the juries would have been more receptive to Paranoia over River as the biggest criticism of River was that it was a pretty basic song in lyrics and production. Paranoia has a better production and also lyrical content and would have looked far slicker in the staging department. All in all I have to say justice for Daria who was snubbed not once but twice and I hope she has a long a and successful career in Poland and across Eastern Europe.
Click through to the next page, below the emojis, to see what Micheál Linden has chosen!
