Opole 2023. We know who will perform in the Premier and Debuts competition. The former director spares no criticism

The 60th edition of the National Festival of Polish Song in Opole will last three days and will take place on June 9-11. The artistic director of the jubilee concert is Remigiusz Trawiński, and the musical directors are Zygmunt Kukla and Grzegorz Urban. On the occasion of the jubilee, TVP decided to increase the prize pool for the winners of the Premier competition up to PLN 100,000. However, the list of artists does not show many popular and established musicians. We will be able to listen to the performances of the participants of “The Voice of Poland” or the pre-selection for Eurovision.

This year’s festival will open with the concert “Wielka Gala – Od Opole do Opole”, during which the most important musical events and artists associated with the festival, who are no longer with us, are to be reminded. On the same day, there will also be a concert “Debuts”, which will be prepared in the convention of a talent show, and the young artists will be judged by a four-person jury.

On the second day, the festival will begin with the concert “Premier” directed by Cyprian Ziąbski. After that, the concert will start. “Lead Time” directed by Michał Bandurski. During it, artists who won awards at festivals in Opole will be mentioned. The concert will be enriched with archival film materials.

The third day of the festival will open concert “The whole hall sings with us, or the hits of the Opole audience”, during which the most popular songs from the Opole festival are to be presented. Later, the final concert “But It’s Already Been. It Is. And It Will Be! 60 KFPP OPOLE 2023” will be shown, for which Marek Sierocki and Bolesław Pawica are responsible. The performances are to be accompanied by columns of “O’Polish Festival Chronicle”.

Opole 2023 – list of participants in the Debuts competition:

1. Konrad Baum – “Sam Like You”
2. Magda Bereda – “It suits me personally”
3. Ewa Novel – “At the end of the world”
4. Felivers – “Lipstick”
5. Jan Majewski – “Actually I’m fine”
6. Ada Szulc – “What Now”
7. Martyna Wójcik – laureate of the Enchanted Song Festival
8. Kamil Jachyra – “I love you”, winner of “Chances for Success. Opole 2023”
9. Winner of “Chance for Success. Opole 2023”. Final on May 21, 2023
10. Klaudia Kowalik – “Too little time”, winner of the Opole Eliminations for the Debuts concert.

Opole 2023 – list of participants in the Premier competition:

1. Rafał Brzozowski – “In a hotel room”
2. Sara Chmiel X Gromee – “You and me”
3. Lukasz Drapała – “I’m Still Here”
4. Ivanenko – “Love”
5. Anastasia Maciąg – “Moment”
6. Mezo X Liber – “What are your plans today”
7. Seibert – “Supposedly Yes, Kindly Not”
8. Anna Sokolowska – “You are with me”
9. Tulia and Halina Mlynkova – “Interrupted”
10. Dominik Dudek – “I’m Going”

There are no big stars in Opole this year. The former concert director comments

This year’s composition of both concerts is controversial. Radek Kobiałko, who was a director of Opole festivals for many years, made a comment. He stated that the composition is extremely poor. In addition, he emphasized that TVP did not inform who was on the committee that selected the songs for the concert.

Pisowska, government television published a list of participants in the concert “Premiery”, an event that the Festival of Polish Song in Opole intends to pretend again. Since really few people want to perform at this event, the lineup of performers is so weak, and most of them completely unknown, that TVPiS does not even want to admit who chose them. Or rather bribed, tempting with a prize of PLN 100,000. The composition of the commission is unknown, so we must only assume that the organizers, i.e. the Mayor of Opole and the President of TVPiS, are responsible for such a tragic level. Worse, on the 60th anniversary of the Opole festival, such a disgrace is all the more so – wrote Radek Kobiałko on Facebook.

In addition, he also appealed to the mayor of Opole, Arkadiusz Wiśniewski, not to agree to the festival in this form. It is worth mentioning that in 2017 he protested against the actions of the national broadcaster. At that time, the June date of the festival was canceled, and the then president, Jacek Kurski, decided to “transfer the Opole festival to Kielce”. Eventually, the event took place in September, although without the participation of many artists who had earlier decided to boycott it.

“Among the Premier, a singer with 355 followers on Instagram”

The Internet portal asked Radek Kobiałka to comment on the composition of this year’s Premier concert. The director noticed that most of the top artists now want nothing to do with the Opole festival, and also stated that the artists from the list are more suitable for the Debuts concert than the Premier.

Premieres 2023, fakes of the Opole festival, if they take place at all, which is not at all certain, will be filled mostly by performers who should rather be in Debuts. We have five debuting participants of the program “The Voice of Poland”, who probably could not refuse, because they have signed pacts with TVP. A singer who is followed by 355 people on Instagram and a mandatory set of TVP, i.e. Gromee and Rafał Brzozowski, who could really let go of taking another place in every TVP concert. Especially since he will sing a reheated chop from the 2022 album, which went unnoticed. In this set, only Halina Mlynkova and Tulia can represent a certain level, but also on the basis of trust, because we do not know their songs. And the sure candidates for the win are Mezo & Liber, who have returned from many years of show business hibernation and maybe that’s why they don’t quite know where they landed – said Radek Kobiałko in an interview with Plotek.