A small town girl from Poland: Our new friend Maja Krzyżewska
18 November 2023 at 19:01 CET
🇵🇱 Poland - Maja Krzyżewska - First Rehearsal - Junior Eurovision 2023
Corinne Cumming / EBU
From a tiny village in Poland to the Junior Eurovision 2023 stage, Maja Krzyżewska is bringing her song ‘I Just Need A Friend’ to Nice.
Maja’s journey to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest shows that you don’t need to live in a big city to achieve big things. There are only a handful of inhabitants in her village in the Suwałki region of Poland. At just 13 years old, she is already making waves in singing competitions in her country, and when she competed in The Voice Kids Poland, she was told she had an angelic voice.
After training in a local song studio, Maja got herself Junior Eurovision ready. She entered her national final Szansa Na Sukces, where she performed Adele’s Set Fire To The Rain and Ed Sheeran’s Photograph. And voilá, she is zooming towards the stage in Nice.
Maja’s song I Just Need A Friend is in Polish and English, and is all about searching for a companion. The song was written for whoever won Poland’s national final by a top team of songwriters, and Maja performed the song in a head-to-head before winning her place. Once Maja had been confirmed as the winner, the songwriters worked their magic and revamped the song to fit Maja perfectly.
She said that if she was using 3 emojis to describe the song, she’d use a sun, a couple of friends hugging, and a dog. Maja has an extremely cute Pomeranian dog back home, and we all know a dog is a Junior Eurovision artist’s best friend. And from her TikTok videos, the little pup seems impressed with Maja’s music.
After a few classes, Maja has taught herself aerial silks, which she calls “dancing in the air.” There might not be any flying in her Junior Eurovision performance, but Maja has posted behind the scenes videos of the choreography for I Just Need A Friend, and it looks like it’s going to be a show stopper. We certainly spotted a few balletic moves from the dancers.
Getting ready for Junior Eurovision, Maja has recorded snippets of I Just Need A Friend with some top pop super heroes. She’s sung with Polish singer Sara James, who represented Poland at Junior Eurovision in 2021 with Somebody and came in second place. She also harmonised with The Voice of Poland winner and Eurovision 2020 artist Alicja Szemplińska, who entered the song Empires in the year the Competition was cancelled due to Covid. Both artists have brought emotional songs to the stage, with impressive vocals, just like Maja.
Maja says: "If you want to fulfil your dreams and develop your talent, living in such a small town certainly doesn't make it easier, but if you really want something, you can overcome all obstacles.”
You can learn more about Maja Krzyżewska right here.
Junior Eurovision 2023 took place in Nice, France on Sunday 26 November and was won by Zoé Clauzure from France! You can rewatch it live via the official Junior Eurovision YouTube channel (if available in your country).
All 16 songs are available to watch on our YouTube channel and listen to the official album on all streaming platforms, and of course, you're invited to vote for your favourites too! How do I vote in Junior Eurovision? Here's how...
