Today is Independence Day in Poland, which celebrates their anniversary of regaining their sovereignty from the German, Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires at the end of World War I.
In celebration, we explore the career achievements of Poland’s first-ever Junior Eurovision winner, Roksana Węgiel. Taking a look at her fame on The Voice Kids Poland to her win in Minsk at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest and what the future holds for the young star.
The Voice Kids Poland
Roskana was born in Jasło, Poland in January 11, 2005. From a young age she was very into sports, even competing in judo on the international stage. Surprisingly it was judo that got the young talent into singing when she performed karaoke at a Croatian judo camp at just 8-years-old.
Five years later Roksana competed on the inaugural season of The Voice Kids in Poland, which aired in early 2018.
In her audition, she sung Beyoncé's ‘Halo’ and managed to make all three judges turn their chairs. She ended up choosing Edyta Górniak as her coach. Coincidentally, Edyta was Poland’s first representative at the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1994, where she placed second with 'To nie ja!', Poland's best result to date.
Another notable performance during the season was her version of sang Prince's 'Purple Rain'. She went on to win the entire show.
Straight after her win she was signed to Universal Music. In late 2018 she ended up collaborating with Poland's Eurovision royalty, Edyta Górniak, in a song for the Polish version of 'Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation', 'Zatrzymać chwilę'.
Victory at Junior Eurovision
In what was already a big year for the young star, Roksana ended up representing Poland at the 2018 Junior Eurovision, which was held in the Belarussian capital of Minsk.
She was internally selected to represent her country with the song, ‘Anyone I Want To Be’.
After the songs release in November the music video for ‘Anyone I Want To Be’ gained one million views on YouTube within only two weeks. It become the most-watched video of the 2018 Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Roksana became a hot favourite.
She was the last of the 20 acts to perform on the night.
Roksana won the Contest with a score of 215 points, with a 12 point buffer over second-placed France. Her finally tally included 10 points from the Australian jury.
She scored over 150,000 online votes giving her 136 points from the public, and came seventh with the juries with 79 points. That year Australia's Jael with the song 'Champion' won the jury vote with 148 points.
Career post-Junior Eurovision
Despite her young age, Roksana has gone on to develop quite a career for herself since her Junior Eurovision win.
In 2019 she released her self-titled debut album, which peaked at No. 3 on the Polish Album chart and reached platinum. The same year she was awarded the 2019 MTV EMA for Best Polish Act.
She has released seven singles over the past three years, amassing multi-million streams on Spotify. ‘Dobre Jest, Jak Jest’ alone has had over five million streams.
Roksana has also returned to the Junior Eurovision stage in subsequent years. In 2019 she was one of three hosts of the show, alongside Ida Nowakowska and Aleksander Sikora. During the show she reprised her winning entry from the previous year.
Poland took away first place again that year, and ended up hosting it back-to-back in 2020. Roksana was again a feature of proceedings, performing Eurovision-winning track ‘Arcade’ with Duncan Laurence and her Junior Eurovision successor, Viki Gabor.
Will we see her at the Eurovision Song Contest?
We almost saw Roksana at Eurovision in Rotterdam in 2021, but she declined the offer put to her by Polish broadcaster TVP. She has gone on record saying she won't submit a song for Eurovision 2022, but hasn't ruled out a return to Eurovision in the future.
In an interview for eurowizja.org, Roksana said:
“I do not feel ready for adult Eurovision, I will not hide it. I don’t feel it right now, at this point, so for now the idea is gone. Although who knows, maybe in the future? Really, if I decided to participate in adult Eurovision, I would have to come up with a very good number.”
Hopefully one day we do see get to see her at the Eurovision Song Contest. She might be the key ingredient Poland needs to turn their luck around. Time will tell.