Poland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song "Follow My Heart" written by André Franke, Michał Wiśniewski, Jacek Łągwa and Real McCoy. The song was performed by the band Ich Troje featuring Real McCoy. The Polish broadcaster Telewizja Polska (TVP) organised the national final Piosenka dla Europy 2006 in order to select the Polish entry for the 2006 contest in Athens, Greece. The national final took place on 28 February 2006 and featured fifteen entries. "Follow My Heart" performed by Ich Troje featuring Real McCoy was selected as the winner after gaining the most points following the combination of votes from a six-member jury panel and a public vote.
Poland competed in the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 18 May 2006. Performing in position 12, "Follow My Heart" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Poland placed eleventh out of the 23 participating countries in the semi-final with 70 points.
Background
Prior to the 2006 Contest, Poland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest ten times since its first entry in 1994. 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. In 2005, Poland failed to qualify from the semi-final round with their entry "Czarna dziewczyna" performed by Ivan and Delfin.
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 2006 Eurovision Song Contest on 11 November 2005. In 2003 and 2004, 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. The broadcaster opted to internally select the 2005 entry, however, along with their participation confirmation, TVP announced that the Polish entry for the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest would be selected via a national final.
Before Eurovision
Piosenka dla Europy 2006
Piosenka dla Europy 2006 was the national final organised by TVP in order to select the Polish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. The show took place on 28 January 2006 at the Studio 5 of TVP in Warsaw, hosted by Artur Orzech and Agnieszka Szulim. A combination of public televoting and jury voting selected the winner. The show was broadcast on TVP1 and TVP Polonia as well as streamed online at the broadcaster's website tvp.pl. The national final was watched by over 5 million viewers in Poland with a market share of 36%.
Competing entries
TVP opened a submission period for interested artists and songwriters to submit their entries between 11 November 2005 and 10 December 2005. The broadcaster received 112 submissions at the closing of the deadline. An eleven-member selection committee selected fifteen entries from the received submissions to compete in the national final. The selection committee consisted of Piotr Klatt (journalist and musician, managing editor at TVP1), Janusz Kosiński (editor and music journalist), Tomasz Deszczyński (President of OGAE Poland), Kamil Górecki (member of OGAE Poland), Bartek Jastrzębowski (television director), Zygmunt Kukla (conductor, music director of the Opole Festival and Sopot Festival), Paweł Rurak Sokal (member of the 2004 Polish Eurovision entrant Blue Cafe), Robert Sankowski (music journalist), Maria Szabłowska (music journalist at TVP and Polish Radio), Bogdan Olewicz (composer) and Andrzej Witkowski (editor for the Opole Festival and Sopot Festival). The selected entries were announced on 20 December 2006. Among the competing artists was the band Ich Troje, which represented Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2003.