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Poland POLAND 2021 - RAFAŁ - The Ride

How do you rate this entry?

  • 12

    11 6.1%
  • 10

    11 6.1%
  • 8

    14 7.8%
  • 7

    13 7.2%
  • 6

    19 10.6%
  • 5

    26 14.4%
  • 4

    20 11.1%
  • 3

    25 13.9%
  • 2

    9 5.0%
  • 1

    7 3.9%
  • 0

    25 13.9%

  • Total voters
    180

escYOUnited

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1,355
flag-800.png



Lights, beaming down the rainy street
All the faces that I meet tell me I'm wrong
Ride, staring at the neon signs
Making up a storyline, gotta hold on
Not lost, even in the death of night
I can make it out alright
Just let me go
Yeah, I, I will make it through somehow
Let me figure out what is in and out

So baby, hold on for the ride of your life
High above ground, living it now
I'm gonna take you to the end of the line
Taking that fight, make it alright
It doesn't matter if I stumble and fall
I'll make it through, I'll never touch the ground
So baby, hold on for the ride of your life
Hold on real tight, make it alright

Hard, I won't give my heart and soul
I am going for the glow, no looking back
I'm gonna rise high up in the atmosphere
I ain't got no time to fear
Follow my tracks

Not lost, following the neon lights
Shooting through the summer skies
Just let me go
Yeah I, I will make it through somehow
Let me figure out what is in and out

So baby, hold on for the ride of your life
High above ground, living it now
I'm gonna take you to the end of the line
Taking that fight, make it alright
It doesn't matter if I stumble and fall
I'll make it through, I'll never touch the ground
So baby, hold on for the ride of your life
Hold on real tight, make it alright

I'm gonna take all the world tonight (Oh-woah-oh-oh)
Not gonna ask, gonna take what's mine (Oh-woah-oh-oh)
So hold on tight, baby, let's get high (Oh-woah-oh-oh)
High above the ground
Ride, staring at the neon signs
Let me figure out what is in and out

So baby, hold on for the ride of your life
High above ground, living it now
I'm gonna take you to the end of the line
Taking that fight, make it alright
It doesn't matter if I stumble and fall
I'll make it through, I'll never touch the ground
So baby, hold on for the ride of your life
Hold on real tight, make it alright​
 
Last edited by a moderator:

tararaaam

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Pfff why didn’t each delegation get the vaccine? It shouldn’t be so many vaccines after all.
 

HayashiM

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Pfff why didn’t each delegation get the vaccine? It shouldn’t be so many vaccines after all.
It needs 2 weeks to actually take effect, so each delegation would need to get vaccinated back at home, where different rules apply. In :cz: you currently need to either have your BMI > 53, have diabetes, be over 40 years old, or know a doctor who'll call you and "apply some remainder of the vaccine that would otherwise had to be thrown away" in the evening. No official exceptions, not even for sportsmen. It's similar in other countries as well I suppose.
 

tararaaam

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It needs 2 weeks to actually take effect, so each delegation would need to get vaccinated back at home, where different rules apply. In :cz: you currently need to either have your BMI > 53, have diabetes, be over 40 years old, or know a doctor who'll call you and "apply some remainder of the vaccine that would otherwise had to be thrown away" in the evening. No official exceptions, not even for sportsmen. It's similar in other countries as well I suppose.
Well, I know, it is the same in Denmark, but I do think that if we are talking about 20-30 people, it’s not even a big deal, considering its nonexistent effect to the vaccination calendar…
 

HayashiM

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Well, I know, it is the same in Denmark, but I do think that if we are talking about 20-30 people, it’s not even a big deal, considering its nonexistent effect to the vaccination calendar…
I agree, but try explaining that to 39 different governments :D Some could agree, some most certainly wouldn't.
 

Grinch

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Posts
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Some are really disappointed with the Polish broadcaster for throwing Alicia under the bus. Some countries gave the opportunity to their 2020 acts to compete again and these acts just didn't win again (The Mamas, Aksel). Some artists didn't want to come back straight away (Tom Leeb, Ben Dolic, Ulrikke, "officially" Little Big). But Denmark and Poland are the two broadcasters who really treated their 2020 artists like shit (+Belarus, but that's yet another slightly different case). Denmark said "your new song is not even good enought to try in our 2021 nf" to Ben&Tan, while as I understand things, the Polish broadcaster just did not communicate with Alicia for months, only to eventually claim "we want to send something uptempo and you do not fit" quite close to the deadline. Some of us find that upsetting.

That, plus of course many of us don't really find The Ride to be all that special. Vocally speaking, it's one of the least demanding songs in the competition. Plus I like me some good 80's vibes, but more along the lines of Raylee's Hero, rather than this.

WOW! Thank you so much for explaining xheart When Alicja didn't participate this year, I simply assumed she didn't want to.
It was quite disrespectful of Polish broadcaster, it's something Belarus would do (they did tho, in a very different way).

Still, Rafal doesn't deserve the hate (like/dislike ratio of his videos & humiliating comments) he's been getting.
 

Trece

Han Hazretleri
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Posts
23,040
80s synth pop is something i hate with passion so Poland and Denmark are not listenable for me. Other 80s stylized entries are only stylized while these two are like came from these times.
 

crashworld

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According to our delegation, the quarantine will last at least for 5 days (if PCR test returns positive).

Virtual hugs to all Polish Eurofans, you didn't deserve this.

7yc8Mc0.gif

To be honest, with the hatred Rafal and TVP got, I won't be surprised if the Poles don't care about whether they are participating in the actual contest.
 

mauve

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Hope that he is okay to perform - at least he is in semi 2, so plenty of time to get the negative test result back. Just hope that no other delegations are affected by the same strain. xpray
Well, I read somewhere that Iceland is staying in the same hotel as Poland. Let's hope that everything is fine.
 

AlekS

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Eurovision officials allowed to use the 2nd rehearsal footage instead of live on tape video.
No official info yet if he can perform live in the semi.
 

crashworld

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Eurovision officials allowed to use the 2nd rehearsal footage instead of live on tape video.
No official info yet if he can perform live in the semi.

It must been really nerve-wrecking for Rafal. Regardless whether his song is chanceless, I believe he would still want to have that moment on stage "live".
 

Leydan

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I guess at least Montaigne wont be alone in missing the chance to perform live. It's a shame for him but it's a precaution that has to be taken, if not it could sweep across the entire contest.
 

Schlagerman1

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Any news from polish media (or else) about what the tests ended in result for the polish team? I fear they might be positive, since one in Icelands delegation (who shares the same hotel) also got a positive test today. :(
 

simonPL

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But Rafał had covid like 2 months ago? It is almost imposible to have it once again in such short time. I hope he will perform, in other case TVP will have an explaination of possible poor results - "because of covid". I want him on the stage, he told us that Europe is crazy about his song, he will be internationally recognised etc, so I want Rafał live to prove me wrong.

Speaking of "why people in Poland hate this entry" (I would say - just dislike it or make fun of it), I think we need to have a little bit bigger picture and see that TVP is those days, @Grinch.

In 2016 Margaret was internally choosen to represent Poland on ESC (according to Polish sites like dziennik-eurowizyjny.pl) but new head of TVP (Jacek Kurski) was like "hola! hola! we need a natonal final, let people decide!". The same guy in 2021 decided not to do a national final and TVP rejected Alicja's new song (tbh, I am not a fan of this idea that 2020 singer should be chosen in 2021 no matter what) and they selected Rafał, who is a very cringy host of their tv-shows and has idk 2? 3? radio hits from 10 years ago.

They spent a lot of money for production of a music video and as we can see - our staging (finally!), BUT everything looks a little bit cheap and song is just weak. Rafał gave some cocky interviews and he said things like Europe loves it, radio stations in Poland are wowed by this hit single (I checked - it never entered to the top100 of PL Radio Airplay), Alicja is young, she can wait and he is just amazing choice. I tried to be neutral at least, but it is really hard to support him when he loves himself so much.

After selection, main evening news program of TVP1 prepared an reportage about "ridiculous hatred" that our poor Rafał suffers. They asked random people on the streets what they think about Rafał (he's nice, he can sing, blablabla) and they said that Eurofans from Europe are crazy about this choise. You can check one of my previous posts from March I guess, because I posted that propaganda-video with summary in English. ;)

In the biggest picture, you need to know that TVP is national brodcaster but it is totally possesed by our government. Jacek Kurski (head of TVP) is a former politician (not very good tho) and he is very well known because of his low incentives. This is more like government TV (especialy when it comes to news section) than public broadcaster. People calling it TVPiS (PiS = Prawo i sprawiedliwość = Law and justice party) and everything about TVPiS is a hot topic on the internet. So when his music video or rehersals videos are on #1 place on daily YT chart in Poland, people who don't like TVP/don't like this singer/don't like song/wanted Alicja/don't like eurovision in general... they just can see it and vote "thumbs down", because of all those contexts.

As I said - for me it is hard to keep my fingers crossed for him, because I can't support such cocky singer who represents nothing imo. I don't vote down under Polish videos anyway. I just don't want Poland to withdraw next year I am curious about TVP's reaction when Poland stays in semis.

And this is not true that "The Ride" is poorly received only by Poles, because in every single ranking it is on the bottom positions (odds, ogae, eurofans voting etc.).

THE RAFAL has a great opportunity to take us down and win the contest, so please covid-19 go away and let him perform!

PS: There was a rumor that Rafał is a choice of Jacek Kurski's wife. :D But TVP negatived that news.
 

burrito

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But Rafał had covid like 2 months ago? It is almost imposible to have it once again in such short time. I hope he will perform, in other case TVP will have an explaination of possible poor results - "because of covid". I want him on the stage, he told us that Europe is crazy about his song, he will be internationally recognised etc, so I want Rafał live to prove me wrong.

Speaking of "why people in Poland hate this entry" (I would say - just dislike it or make fun of it), I think we need to have a little bit bigger picture and see that TVP is those days, @Grinch.

In 2016 Margaret was internally choosen to represent Poland on ESC (according to Polish sites like dziennik-eurowizyjny.pl) but new head of TVP (Jacek Kurski) was like "hola! hola! we need a natonal final, let people decide!". The same guy in 2021 decided not to do a national final and TVP rejected Alicja's new song (tbh, I am not a fan of this idea that 2020 singer should be chosen in 2021 no matter what) and they selected Rafał, who is a very cringy host of their tv-shows and has idk 2? 3? radio hits from 10 years ago.

They spent a lot of money for production of a music video and as we can see - our staging (finally!), BUT everything looks a little bit cheap and song is just weak. Rafał gave some cocky interviews and he said things like Europe loves it, radio stations in Poland are wowed by this hit single (I checked - it never entered to the top100 of PL Radio Airplay), Alicja is young, she can wait and he is just amazing choice. I tried to be neutral at least, but it is really hard to support him when he loves himself so much.

After selection, main evening news program of TVP1 prepared an reportage about "ridiculous hatred" that our poor Rafał suffers. They asked random people on the streets what they think about Rafał (he's nice, he can sing, blablabla) and they said that Eurofans from Europe are crazy about this choise. You can check one of my previous posts from March I guess, because I posted that propaganda-video with summary in English. ;)

In the biggest picture, you need to know that TVP is national brodcaster but it is totally possesed by our government. Jacek Kurski (head of TVP) is a former politician (not very good tho) and he is very well known because of his low incentives. This is more like government TV (especialy when it comes to news section) than public broadcaster. People calling it TVPiS (PiS = Prawo i sprawiedliwość = Law and justice party) and everything about TVPiS is a hot topic on the internet. So when his music video or rehersals videos are on #1 place on daily YT chart in Poland, people who don't like TVP/don't like this singer/don't like song/wanted Alicja/don't like eurovision in general... they just can see it and vote "thumbs down", because of all those contexts.

As I said - for me it is hard to keep my fingers crossed for him, because I can't support such cocky singer who represents nothing imo. I don't vote down under Polish videos anyway. I just don't want Poland to withdraw next year I am curious about TVP's reaction when Poland stays in semis.

And this is not true that "The Ride" is poorly received only by Poles, because in every single ranking it is on the bottom positions (odds, ogae, eurofans voting etc.).

THE RAFAL has a great opportunity to take us down and win the contest, so please covid-19 go away and let him perform!

PS: There was a rumor that Rafał is a choice of Jacek Kurski's wife. :D But TVP negatived that news.

100% true, well explained.
I get that the "hate" he gets seems over the top for the non-Polish people, but a lot of us are so fed up with the situation that it's just hard to keep civil. The choice of Rafał was just another power move from them and people can easily see it. Also, the fact that there was that rumour about choosing him because of Kurski's wife preferences says a lot.

That being said, as much as I am not rooting for us this year at all for this and other reasons, I still want him to sing live as well. Let him prove us wrong, that's one thing. The second thing is that, well, allright. I do not like it, I do not agree with the choice and the mysterious way the choice was made and I do consider the song weak with Rafał having that artitficial charisma I dislike. But once he's there, once he's done his preparations and such, he should be able to perform live, because that is exactly what he was sent to Rotterdam for. Neither him, nor Montaigne nor Dadi should have been stripped of that chance once they have been chosen to go.
 

jatojo

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1,901
And this is not true that "The Ride" is poorly received only by Poles, because in every single ranking it is on the bottom positions (odds, ogae, eurofans voting etc.).

True - Rafal is in trouble, and I don't think the live performance will improve his chances much. Personally, I'm a fan of the song (in the studio version) - it's in my Top 5.

When it comes to the covid thing, there must have been errors involved, individually or in the way things were organized. Disappointing. Many international sporting events have been carried through within the last year without cases of infection.
 

Milos-BC

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September 28, 2009
Posts
12,447
Location
Serbia
It doesn't do much for me, unfortunately :( Last year's entry was miles better. I do like the chorus, though....but that's pretty much it. I don't think the song will qualify.

4 points.
 
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