Poland on Stage

  After two years of absence, Poland returned the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014 with a notable performance of the song “My Slowanie” by the musical duo Donatan and Cleo (Jiandani, 2014). In this blog post I will do an analysis on the performance of this song at the Eurovision 2014 finals in Copenhagen, Denmark. The performance that Donatan and Cleo put on at the 2014 Eurovision was full of representations of Pan-Slavism, nationalism, and Polish essentialism. In order to fully understand what that means and how that is, one first has to look at Poland’s own identity, as well as the identities of both Cleo and Donatan in this context.

        It’s no secret that the nation of Poland has gone through an alarming amount of hardship in its history, and that that hardship has shaped it into what it is today. Given its past, it is unsurprising to learn that Poland has a notable lack of diversity. The nation was one of the hardest hit by the Holocaust, with around 17% of its population being killed, including 3 million Polish Jews (Easton, 2019). This alongside earlier and later events like the Partitions and their treatment by the Russians under the Warsaw Pact, has greatly changed the populations of Poland, and ideas of Polish identity. The nation is unsurprisingly majority Polish, a Slavic group, and majority Catholic. Poland’s tendency towards Catholicism is for some a point of national pride, and a trait that has been combined with aspects of the nation’s history to create Poland’s nickname, “The Christ of Europe” (Klajn, 2018).  

The treatment that Poland has received in the past has created a level of resentment between Poles and what they consider to be the West. This has resulted in a culture of self-deprecation, where Poles joke about their own misfortune and shortcoming, but simultaneously resent the negative image they are given on the international stage. This has created a unique sense of “self-othering” amongst the Polish people, with aspects of their identity being considered positive and negative at the same time (Klajn, 2018). This idea is essential in understanding what exactly is going on in “My Slowanie.” Equally important in this understanding is the history behind the duo that made this song, Donatan and Cleo. 

“My Slowanie,” which translates to “Slavic Girls'' in English, was written by the Polish artist Joanna Klepko —who also goes by the stage name Cleo— and produced by Polish rapper Witold Czamara, also known as Donatan (Eurovision, 2014). While Donatan has been a famous music producer in Poland for a number of years and, having released an authorial album that reached gold in 2012. Despite his popularity, Donatan has been accused by a number of groups in Poland for supposedly preaching Pan-Slavism and praising the achievements of the Red Army. He has also been accused by some groups of being a Pagan and a Satanist (Brown, 2014). Cleo is notably less famous and much less controversial. Before working with Donatan in 2013, she had performed in the “Soul Connection” choir, posted covers online, and attempted collaborations with hip-hop performers, but hadn’t reached any real success until forming the duo Donatan and Cleo (Błażewicz, 2014). 

By the time that “My Slowanie” arrived at Eurovision it had already gained a level of success in Poland and had produced a music video that garnered over 40 million views. The popularity of this song is unsurprising in some respects given that its focus —buxom Slavic women— is evident in both the music video and Donatan and Cleo’s Grand Final performance in Copenhagen. 

The song lyrics unsurprisingly focus on the beauty of Slavic Women, almost to the point of excess. The lyrics are both in Polish and English, but an English translation is provided on their Eurovision page (Donatan & Cleo - Poland, 2014). Both translations focus on the beauty of women, which is good, but issues arise when they are given a closer look, particularly with lines such as, “This special thing we have in our genes,” “We like to shake what mama gave us in genes ,” and “We have what no one else has…” These lines in particular suggest a level of ethnonationalism that is frankly worrisome. The song suggests that Slavic women are better than all other women, “None are better than our Slavic girls, whoever has seen and tried them knows!” The fact that this is claimed through genetics is ironic given the trauma that Poland has gone through because of eugenics in the past. 

The lyrics insist on the genetic superiority of Slavic women, but then suggest their subservience with lines such as, “Cream and butter taste so good. We will prepare for you delicious food.” and “Vodka is better than whisky and gin. The best is in us of whatever you want” (Donatan & Cleo - Poland, 2014). There is an inherent contradiction within the song as to whether or not Slavs are inherently better than other people or if they are meant to be subservient. This is remarkably similar to the aspects of self-othering and self-deprecation in the Polish identity.

These concepts are also reflected in the design, music, and choreography of Donatan and Cleo’s performance, but here they are joined by a much more obvious image of Polish essentialism. To begin with, the beauty of Polish Slavic women is obviously represented in the stage design of the performance. The Eurovision stage for 2014 was designed as a cube made of LCD screens, with one edge facing out towards the audience and the two corresponding faces being open, along with the top of the cube. The stage was themed around ideas of the sea and water, and it also included a shallow pool along the front edge (Agadellis and Jiandani, 2014). Donatan and Cleo took advantage of the LCD screens to display clips from their music video, mostly ones that focus on the women’s breasts, which seem to be a major theme for the song. This was added to by the choreography, which in part featured two buxom women sensually performing household chores in sexualized versions of traditional Polish dress (Donatan & Cleo - My Słowianie, 2014). It is important to note that the chores that the two women were doing happened to be using a washboard (the dancer made use of the water feature) and a butter churn. A lot of focus is put on the beauty of these women, but then on stage they are put into positions of subservience and poverty, having to do chores using outdated tools and methods (at least one of which involving phallic symbolism). These two were the focus of a lot of the cinematography, around a third of the shots were focused on them. This again circles back to the same ideas that the lyrics were suggesting: a sort of simultaneous superiority and subservience; Slavic women are perfect, but they should be submissive and oversexualized. It mirrors the contradictory way Poland that views itself as simultaneously wonderful and terrible. 

Other aspects of the performance are more focused on essentialism and using the ESC to portray a distilled version of Poland to the world. This is done in a number of ways. The music, for instance, is for the most part a mix of rap, sing-talking, and regular singing, which makes sense given both Cleo and Donatan’s history in hip hop, but there are also aspects of Polish folk music sprinkled throughout, including an instrumental bridge that uses an accordion and small uses of white voice in the vocals (Donatan & Cleo - My Słowianie, 2014). This is combined with more Western instrumentals for the rap parts, with an electronic drum kit and synths being used. These sounds combined in a way that partially essentialized the Polish identity, and partially made it more palatable for Western audiences.

A similar thing happened with the costuming. There were six people up on stage during the performance: three dancers, the two women doing chores, and Cleo herself. Donatan was not on stage. Of the six, the three dancers were wearing what one would consider Polish dress, while Cleo was wearing an outfit that fit more into a pop aesthetic and the women doing the chores were wearing clothing similar to the dancers, but with a more revealing neckline. Aside from the chore choreography, the dancers had a mix of minimalist choreography that used clapping, and a spinning dance that seems to be influenced by more traditional Polish dances like the Krakowiak: a dance that has its origins as a courting dance, tying back to “My Slowanie’s” relation to subservience and matrimony (Trochimczyk, n.d.). This again mixes traditional Polish ideas into a more pop-oriented Western lens that might be more favorable to some of the audience at Eurovision, but less true to the Polish identity.

The stage design is the last notable thing about the performance, which seems to be more of a simulation than a representation of essentialism. The entire stage is decorated with the Polish colors of red and white, and amongst the scantily clad women, the LCD screens project what could be considered generic Polish or Slavic designs, including that of a white rooster, which could also be suggestive of more phallic symbolism (Donatan & Cleo - My Słowianie, 2014).

In general, it seems that the entire design of the performance, from the song itself to the specifics of the stage, are a reflection of one specific aspect of the Polish identity. The touting of Polish virtue and the beauty of Slavic women is contrasted by these ideas of Slavic subservience and the small amounts of genuine Polishness that are represented in the design are overshadowed by the attempts to make the performance palatable to a larger Eurovision audience. Whatever attempts that Donatan and Cleo made to produce a Pan-Slavic anthem fall into this. The idea of Polish self-othering takes over here, and it almost seems like the duo is making a mockery of Poland and Slavic peoples while trying to show its virtues to a larger audience. 

References

Klajn, M. (2018). Polskość: the legacy of Polish past in its present identity struggles. europeanbordercommunities.eu. https://europeanbordercommunities.eu/blog/polsko%C5%9B%C4%87-the-legacy-of-polish-past-in-its-present-identity-struggles

Agadellis, S., & Jiandani, S. (2014, April 23). Eurovision 2014: The stage. Eurovision News, Polls and Information by ESCToday. http://esctoday.com/81547/eurovision-2014-stage/.

Brown, J. (2014, May 13). Eurovision 2014: Voting controversy after UK public revealed to have. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/eurovision-2014-voting-controversy-after-uk-jury-revealed-to-place-conchita-first-but-british-public-voted-for-donatan-cleo-9351644.html.

Błażewicz, M. (2014, February 25). DONATAN I CLEO REPREZENTANTAMI POLSKI - Eurowizja.org - najwięcej o Eurowizji %. Eurowizja.org - najwięcej o Eurowizji. https://eurowizja.org/donatan-i-cleo-reprezentantami-polski/.

Donatan & Cleo - My Słowianie - We Are Slavic (Poland ... Youtube.com. (2014, May 10). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ920cN2HmA.

Donatan & Cleo - Poland - Copenhagen 2014. (2014). https://eurovision.tv/participant/donatan-cleo.

Easton, A. (2019). Poland still counts losses from WW2 invasion. BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49523932

Eurovision. (2014, May 7). Poland: Where is Donatan? Eurovision.tv. https://eurovision.tv/story/poland-where-is-donatan.

Jiandani, S. (2013). Eurovision 2014: TVP will participate in Copenhagen. ESCtoday.

        http://esctoday.com/69854/tvp-poland/

Klajn, M. (2018). Polskość: the legacy of Polish past in its present identity struggles. europeanbordercommunities.eu. https://europeanbordercommunities.eu/blog/polsko%C5%9B%C4%87-the-legacy-of-polish-past-in-its-present-identity-struggles

Trochimczyk, M. Krakowiak (Cracovienne). Polish Music Center.         https://polishmusic.usc.edu/research/dances/krakowiak/.