Warsaw letter
Blonde hair, glitter around the eyes and scarf with folk patterns ever very far, Nika Jurczuk, 26 -year -old vocalist, and her fellow of the synthesizer, Wiktor Szczygiel, 46, black mustache and earrings, detonate in Poland. This young duo who responds to the sweet name of Sw@da × Niczos attracted thousands of Polish on February 14, winning 24 % of the votes of the public, and was unable to qualify to represent Poland in the Eurovision music competition in May 2025.
Residing in Bialystok, the regional capital of Podlachia, a multicultural region of eastern Poland, the two musicians mix elements of folklore of these border rural lands of Belarus and Lithuania in Afrobeat, Baile Beat Latino or Bounce,, Musical genre of New Orleans in the 1980s. So many inspirations for producer Wiktor Szczygiel, whose father is Colombian, and who grew up in Bialystok.
But what caused the ire of certain viewers is not so much their musical or clothing style as the language conveyed. The duo's song in preselection at Eurovision Lusterka (“Mirror”) is indeed not in Polish but in podlachia language. Or rather, according to linguists, Nika Jurczuk presents a linguistic patchwork strongly inspired by “Podlache”which she claims to be personally.
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Source: Lemonde