14 December – Above me, heaven, an orchard in front green apples’ smell and taste

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 its fair share of Grand Finals, which is an achievement in this cut-throat 21st Century. They’ve now had 24 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 52 today.

Wszystkiego najlepszego, Anna Maria!