Prior to the 2021 contest, Poland had participated in the contest seven times: In 2003 and 2004, Poland finished in last place, and they decided not to participate from 2005 to 2015.[2] The country returned in 2016. Olivia Wieczorek was selected to represent the nation that year with the song "Nie zapomnij". Olivia finished in 11th place out of 17 entries with 60 points. In 2017, Alicja Rega was selected to represent Poland with the song "Mój dom". She finished 8th out of 16 entries with 138 points.[3] In both 2018 and 2019, Poland won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest with Roksana Węgiel and Viki Gabor respectively, becoming the first country to win the contest two years in a row. In 2021, Sara James competed for Poland with the song "Somebody" which ended up in 2nd place out of 19 entries with 218 points, being 6 points short of winning the competition.[4]
Before Junior Eurovision
Szansa na sukces
Polish broadcaster TVP once again selected the Polish representative through a special edition of the television programme Szansa na sukces (transl. A Chance of Success) under the name Szansa na sukces. Eurowizja Junior 2022. The same procedure was also used for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest from 2019 to 2021, and in 2020 for the Eurovision Song Contest. All shows were hosted by Aleksander Sikora [pl], who also hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019, and broadcast on TVP2.[5]Szansa na sukces once again consisted of four shows: three Heats broadcast on 4 September, 11 September and 18 September, and a final on 25 September. Seven singers, as determined after the auditions held 14 and 15 May in Warsaw, performed songs that were drawn randomly in each Heat, with one (traditionally, another finalist might be picked as a wildcard with the Golden Ticket) qualifying for the final as determined by a jury of artists.[6][7]
Shows
Heat 1
The first Heat was broadcast on 4 September 2022.[8] The topic of the episode was "international hits".[5] A honourable mention and the winner were determined by a jury panel consisting of: Cleo (singer, Polish representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014), Sara James (singer, runner-up in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021) and Marek Sierocki (Polish commentator of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest).[5] For the first time in the history of the show, the ability to pick a Golden Ticket finalist was used to select Laura Bączkiewicz as the second finalist of the episode.
The final took place on 25 September 2022. In the first round, all contestants performed songs from the Heat they took part in. Two artists qualified to the second round based on a 50/50 combination of votes from a jury and public vote. In the second round, the artists performed original songs and the winner was selected solely by the jury, consisting of three members: Konrad Smuga (director of Polish performances at Junior Eurovision), Grzegorz Urban (music director of Szansa na Sukces), and Anna Cyzowska-Andura (director of the TVP Entertainment Agency). Another panel consisting of Rafał Brzozowski (co-host of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020, Polish representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021), Viki Gabor (winner of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019) and Marek Sierocki (Polish commentator of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest) provided feedback in regards to the songs during the show, but had no voting power. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Viki Gabor performed her new single "Barbie" as the interval act.
After the opening ceremony, which took place on 5 December 2022, it was announced that Poland would perform second on 11 December 2022, following the Netherlands and preceding Kazakhstan.[13]
Voting
The same voting system that was introduced in the 2017 edition was used, where the results were determined by 50% online voting and 50% jury voting. Every country had a national jury that consisted of three music industry professionals and two children aged between 10 and 15 who were citizens of the country they represented. The rankings of those jurors were combined to make an overall top ten.[14]
The online voting consisted of two phases. The first phase of the online voting began on 9 December 2022 when a recap of all the rehearsal performances was shown on the contest's website Junioreurovision.tv before the viewers could vote. After this, voters also had the option to watch longer one-minute clips from each participant's rehearsal. This first round of voting ended on Sunday 11 December at 15:59 CET. The second phase of the online voting took place during the live show and began right after the last performance and was open for 15 minutes. International viewers were able vote for three songs.[15] They were also able to vote for their own country's song. These votes were then turned into points which were determined by the percentage of votes received. For example, if a song received 10% of the votes, it received 10% of the available points.
^Viewers were able to vote via SMS and both the jury and public distributed points based on overall ranking as follows: 8 points to the second ranked performer, 10 points to the first ranked performer. However, in case of a tie, the jury vote would take preference, making it impossible for the televote to affect the jury's verdict, and served rather as a support poll. Both parties awarded Laura Bączkiewicz their 10 points.