The 29th artist in our Who Is series for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 is ALICJA from Poland.
Alicja Szemplińska, known by her stage name ALICJA, was born on 29th April 2002 in Ciechanów in north central Poland. She rose to fame after winning the tenth season of The Voice of Poland in 2019. The following year, she competed in and won Poland’s Eurovision selection show Szansa na sukces with her song “Empires”. She was due to compete at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam. However, the contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
ALICJA returned to the Polish selection in 2023 with her song “New Home”. She finished in 6th place in the final. A year later, she released her first studio album “Nie wracam”, and has released several singles since.
Earlier this year, ALICJA was selected to represent Poland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 after winning Finał krajowych kwalifikacji with her song “Pray”. The song was written by ALICJA herself, alongside Sinclair Alan Malcolm and Weronika Gabryelczyk.
ALICJA will perform in slot 14 in the first semi-final on May 12.
Poland debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 alongside a number of other Eastern European countries. Their debut year saw their best result to date in the contest, as Edyta Górniak finished in 2nd place with her song “To nie ja!”. Following this, Poland failed to repeat this initial success, only managing to achieve a top 10 finish on two other occasions since their debut. Since their return in 2014, they have been considerably more successful in the contest, having qualified for the final 7 times out of 11 attempts.
