These are the words that made the star. How Blanka convinced Poland

It started badly. In the pre-selections for Eurovision, the audience’s favorite was Jann with the song – but Blanka was the Polish representative. In the jury’s ranking, she took first place (Jann only fourth), TVP did not reveal the exact data on the viewers’ vote. The verdict was booed online. It was said that Jann had a much better chance of a good Eurovision result, Blanka can’t sing, and TVP deliberately made people angry. It was reminded that Blanka sat next to the son of the jury president after the performance, and in the past she worked with another juror, Agustin Egurrola. There were rumors that Jann’s loss was decided by the judge’s vote, who did not like the artist’s stage costume. Or that the whole competition was fixed – this was supposed to be evidenced by the hour of publication of the text about the win on the TVP website. It was written. Viewers from abroad were urged not to vote for Poland. And then something twitched.

Our baby, its kajna krejza

“Solo” is a typical holiday dance number, which is always plentiful at Eurovision. where Blanka dances in a bikini and lies on the car, evokes certain associations with the German Viva from twenty years ago. The text from the series “I loved you, you hurt me, today I don’t want you anymore, look what you’ve lost” is also not particularly deep. However, neither the melody nor the message brought fame to the song, only the first verse – “babe, it’s kind of crazy”. In Blanca’s interpretation, it reads “bejba, its kajna krejza”. These are the words that made the star.

The performance from Blanka’s pre-selection was first included as part of hate-watching (it’s about watching things you hate on purpose in order to mock and criticize them). The odd-sounding “baby” was a great target for taunting. But then the classic internet process happened in a flash: something that was initially considered embarrassing became cool, fun and “ours”. “Bejba” has become a meme. Today on TikTok there are videos with compilations of moments where Blanka sings only this one word. Nearly 2.5 million hits were made by a video in which the author, Ewablo, tries to present a phonetically perfect imitation of “bejba”. The video generated by AI, in which Andrzej Duda bans phrases from Blanka’s song, has also spread widely. “I forbid their use. There will be a gulag in Sosnowiec for such people,” the president announces in a serious tone. Just keep on like this and “bejba” will become the Youth Word of the Year.

And what did Blanca do in this situation? The smartest thing possible. That is, she hugged “bejba” to her heart.

Eurovision princess

“It says bejba” – Blanka told a journalist at Eurovision a week ago, demonstrating a choker made of crystals forming the word “babe”. Let’s consider this a harbinger of what she showed a few days later on the turquoise Eurovision carpet. The singer appeared in green, on which BEJBA was written in capital letters. As she reported with a TVP reporter, she came up with the idea for the inscription herself.

Creation was appreciated. On TikTok, there were comments like: “It’s nice that she has such a distance to herself”, “I must admit that she bought me with her attitude to baby”, “She knows what the opinion is and how they laugh at baby, so respect”. Today, under the films with Blanka, there is relatively little whining that Jann was supposed to go to Eurovision, and not this “TVP-ish talentless”. A sample of recent opinions: “I’m starting to like her”, “She’s pretty cool”, “Maybe we won’t win, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for her”, “We all laugh and challenge, and the truth is that our babe is the most popular in this Eurovision”. Blanka – just for her humor, distance and not turning up her nose – is convinced even by some of Jann’s fans. There are also numerous usual fan comments: #teamBlanka, #teamBejba, hearts, “slay queen”. This is a vector change that perhaps the singer herself did not dare to dream about a few weeks ago.

Not just baby

But one slogan, even the most meme, is not everything. Let’s think about what else could have influenced the sudden improvement of attitude towards Blanca. First of all: the videos from the Eurovision rehearsals did a great job. According to viewers, the singer’s stage performance – sound, choreography, costume – at rehearsals in Liverpool makes a much better impression than . Admittedly, her February performance was razed to the ground, so the malicious would say that the only possible way was up. But the changes made were honestly appreciated. “Our baby made a transformation”, “babe went glow up” – I read on TikTok. “The girl works hard to make the performance successful”, “I really see how much work Blanka put into improving singing and dancing” – these are the comments on YouTube.

Second: after two months, the theories about the fights and Blanka’s connections with TVP died down. A 23-year-old girl who once sang on New Year’s Eve of Dreams is not associated with a national television official. Especially against the background of the representation from previous years – in 2021 TVP for Eurovision, its presenter and favorite of the president. Especially the distance to herself shown by Blanka is very non-television-Polish. Would – let’s say – Brzozowski be able to process a joke about himself so that it would be accepted on TikTok?

What’s more, you don’t have to love TVP to like Blanka. Under the posted on YouTube, people hurl thunder not at the singer, but at the station – for her beloved filters and overlays. I quote: “Blanka says that they want to make a non-exaggerated performance, while TVP fails with a thousand overlays and effects.” “No overlays, no filters during Blanka’s solo dance. It must be perfectly visible because it’s wonderful.” “It’s a pity that so much of Blanka’s work is needed to cover everything with such kitsch.”

Third (maybe less important, but grain for grain and a scoop will be collected): Blanka is doing well in Liverpool. It turned out that our homely-sounding “bejba” does not mean that the Polish woman does not know English and it will be a shame. On the contrary. Interviews with Eurovision presenters showed that Blanka speaks English fluently and freely. This did not go unnoticed by Polish viewers. What a relief: you don’t have to plug your ears to hear a compatriot trying to string together two sentences in a foreign language.

And fourth: popularity helped. Perhaps at first it was filmed by mocking Polish viewers – but the facts are that according to April, the clip of the Polish representative was the second most watched performance from the pre-selection. On Spotify, “Solo” already has over 10 million plays – it is the fifth most played song from this year’s edition of the competition. (When I type “bejba” instead of “solo” in the Spotify search engine, the right song is displayed anyway.) On TikTok, people from abroad also write about the fact that “bejba” is cool. Our Polish meme was accepted in Europe.

According to bookmakers, Blanka has a good chance of making it to Saturday’s final. If it succeeds, the beyba star will shine even brighter. If not – the Internet will probably be flooded with comments about what a great show Jann would make if TVP gave him a chance. One thing is certain: in terms of image, Blanka showed a spectacular turn anyway. It’s not some pseudo-Ariana Grande out of nowhere anymore. This is our baby.