Poland 2025: Justyna Steczkowska with ‘GAJA’

After a 30 year gap, Justyna is back for Poland and more enthusiastic than ever with her song ‘GAJA’, an entry worthy of being in all caps if ever there was one.

Poland's stagings in the recent contest have a bit of a reputation to them in being some of the more excessive of recent years, bringing a level of chaos to the stage The Joker would be proud of. For once however they have selected a song that plays into that with Gaja. Justyna needs to be applauded to be able to bring this energy past 50, but a bit of a breather would be recommended to any artist here with the choreography and vocals demanding. She’s supported a lot here but that needs to be less obvious for me and I’d like to see that swing ditched or improved, it’s quite anticlimactic, especially compared to Erika Vikman's riding of a giant mic. Pyro, tighter choreography, camera angles and an improved bridge visual gimmick should all be on Poland's shortlist and would make this a standout, attention grabbing show.

The comparison being made is to Wild Dances (Ukraine ‘04) and I think that's fair, this would have been a real winning contender in the 2000s before the juries were re-introduced and tastes kind of moved on. I wonder if it could come full circle again and now appear fresh or if there's any nostalgia for those years among part of voting crowd. I think the appropriate recent example would be Moldova's Sugar from 2022 which did better than expected finishing in midtable. Swap the Kirkorov support for that with Poland's usual diaspora boost and this could achieve similar or even better with more of an identity to it with it's ethnic touches.

Poland last year was one of my worst predictions, but I will double down and say the diaspora will come for this. Justyna is far better known than Luna and this has passed a good audience test in the national final.

The semi final draw for Poland is not ideal in the first half of semi 1 however with Ukraine's guaranteed 12 points the biggest positive. This should be qualifying, particularly if we get a majority from the first half, but I can’t say it’s a certainty. In the final I see few juries awarding this much unless greatly tightened up from the national final and this could be loitering in the bottom 5. A televote of 100~ might then be realistic. Outside chance of a top 10 but I've been saying that for quite a few.

Personal Rating: 15/20

Staging Potential: 17/20

Televote Potential: 15/20

Jury Potential: 5/20

Track Record: 13/20

Total Rating: 65/100

Early Prediction: Semi 1 6th-10th, 13th-17th in the final.