Poland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with the song "Jestem" written and performed by Magdalena Tul. The Polish broadcaster Telewizja Polska (TVP) organised the national final Krajowe Eliminacje 2011 in order to select the Polish entry for the 2011 contest in Düsseldorf, Germany. The national final took place on 14 February 2011 and featured ten entries. "Jestem" performed by Magdalena Tul was selected as the winner after gaining the most votes from the public with 59,984 votes.
Poland was drawn to compete in the first semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 10 May 2011. Performing as the opening entry for the show in position 1, "Jestem" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Poland placed nineteenth (last) out of the 19 participating countries in the semi-final with 18 points.
Background
Prior to the 2011 contest, Poland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifteen times since its first entry in . Poland's highest placement in the contest, to this point, has been second place, which the nation achieved with its debut entry in 1994 with the song "To nie ja!" performed by Edyta Górniak. Poland has only, thus far, reached the top ten on one other occasion, when Ich Troje performing the song "Keine Grenzen – Żadnych granic" finished seventh in 2003. Between 2005 and 2010, Poland failed to qualify from the semi-final round five out of six years with only their 2008 entry, "For Life" performed by Isis Gee, managing to take the nation to the final during that period. They once again failed to qualify to the final in 2010 with their entry "Legenda" performed by Marcin Mroziński.
The Polish national broadcaster, Telewizja Polska (TVP), broadcasts the event within Poland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. TVP confirmed Poland's participation in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest on 3 November 2010. Since 2006, TVP organised televised national finals that featured a competition among several artists and songs in order to select the Polish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, a selection procedure that continued for their 2011 entry.
Before Eurovision
Krajowe Eliminacje 2011
Krajowe Eliminacje 2011 was the national final organised by TVP in order to select the Polish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. The show took place on 14 February 2011 at the TVP Headquarters in Warsaw, hosted by Odeta Moro-Figurska and Krzysztof Kasowski. Public televoting exclusively selected the winner. The show was broadcast on TVP1, TVP HD and TVP Polonia as well as streamed online at the broadcaster's website tvp.pl.
Competing entries
TVP opened a submission period for interested artists and songwriters to submit their entries between 3 November 2010 and 21 December 2010. Only Polish artists and songwriters were eligible to compete. An eight-member selection committee selected five entries from the received submissions to compete in the national final, while TVP selected an additional six entries to compete as wildcards. The selection committee consisted of Piotr Klatt (musician, songwriter, journalist, music producer at TVP and artistic director of the Opole Festival), Maria Szabłowska (music journalist at TVP and Polish Radio), Krzysztof Szewczyk (music journalist at TVP and Polish Radio), Pawel Sztompke (journalist, music critic and editorial director of music at Polish Radio), Marek Sierocki (music journalist and artistic directors of the Opole Festival and Sopot Festival), Artur Orzech (Eurovision commentator, radio and television journalist and presenter), Mikołaj Dobrowolski (Assistant Head of Delegation for Poland at the Eurovision Song Contest) and Tomasz Deszczyński (President of OGAE Poland). The selected entries from the submission period were announced on 29 December 2010, while the wildcards were announced between 18 and 21 January 2011. On 18 January, "Control", written by Mateusz Krautwurst and to have been performed by the Positive, was disqualified from the national final as the song had been released before 1 September 2010.
Final
The televised final took place on 14 February 2011. Ten entries competed and the winner, "Jestem" performed by Magdalena Tul, was determined entirely by a public vote. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the band K.A.S.A. opened the show, while singers Juliusz Nyk, Patrycja Markowska and Stachursky, and the bands Blenders, Chemia and Renton performed as the interval acts.