14 December – I’m a grain of sand in a sand glass

You must remember those debut performances that mark out a country from the rest. Like Serbia winning at their first attempt as an independent nation. Or Switzerland being the only other country to win on a debut. So after them, the next best debut performance came from Poland in 1994. We had such high hopes.

To be fair, Poland has made the last four Grand Finals, which is an achievement in this cut-throat 21st Century. They’ve now had 20 entries, and today’s birthday girl Anna Maria Jopek has the distinction of her country’s fourth-best finish. She was in Dublin with a song that definitely definitely wasn’t inspired by the Beatles’ Norwegian Wood. It came 11th.

Anna Maria is 47 today.

Wszystkiego najlepszego, Anna Maria!