Meet Alicja Szemplińska’s Parents: Izabela Nadratowska and Radosław Szempliński

Alicja Maria Szemplińska, the Polish singer and songwriter who has captivated audiences across Europe, was born on 29 April 2002 in Ciechanów, a small but historically rich town located about 80 kilometres north of Warsaw, in north-central Poland. She is 24 years old.

Alicja is of Polish ethnicity and practices Christianity, having grown up in a predominantly Roman Catholic household, a faith she expressed early through her participation in a local church choir as a child. Her full name at birth is Alicja Maria Szemplińska, though she performs and is widely known under the mononym Alicja.

She was raised in Ciechanów by her parents, Izabela Nadratowska and Radosław Szempliński, two private individuals who have remained deliberately removed from the entertainment industry despite their daughter’s rising profile. Alicja has an older sister named Aleksandra Szemplińska, and the two grew up in a warm, close-knit household shaped by music, encouragement, and a strong sense of family.

For her secondary education, Alicja attended I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Zygmunta Krasińskiego in Ciechanów, the same school where her mother works, where she was noted for excelling academically alongside her musical pursuits. She began taking professional vocal lessons at the age of 12, having started singing formally even earlier through a local community arts centre.

Alicja Szemplińska stands at a height of 170 cm, which is approximately 5 feet 7 inches tall.

Regarding her romantic life, Alicja is currently in a relationship, and her partner has been seen in the music video for her 2026 Eurovision entry “Pray,” which was filmed in her hometown of Ciechanów. However, she has not publicly named or officially confirmed details about her partner.

She has never been married and has no confirmed prior marriages on record. No information confirming that she has children has been made public, and a detailed public dating history is not available, as she has consistently maintained a firm boundary between her career and private affairs.

Izabela Nadratowska

Izabela Nadratowska is the mother of Alicja Szemplińska and, by all accounts, one of the earliest and most formative influences on her daughter’s artistic development. She and her husband, Radosław Szempliński, have raised their family in Ciechanów, where Izabela has built a long-standing professional career in education.

Izabela works as an English language teacher and also serves as the supervisor of the student government at I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Zygmunta Krasińskiego in Ciechanów. It is the very same secondary school her daughter Alicja, attended, a coincidence that speaks to the tight-knit nature of the family’s ties to their home city. Her dual role as a classroom teacher and student government custodian reflects a woman invested in youth development well beyond lesson plans.

Like her husband, Izabela Nadratowska has kept a deliberate distance from the media circus that surrounds her daughter’s career. She is not a public figure and has given few formal interviews. However, the ones she has granted offer a revealing window into what kind of household Alicja grew up in.

In one widely cited recollection, Izabela described the homegrown performances that Alicja staged as a little girl with striking detail: “Concerts were always happening. Alusia would come out from behind the curtain, ask to be introduced, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Alicja Szemplińska is about to perform,’ and she would come out just like in a theatre and sing.”

That image of a little girl staging her own productions in the family living room captures the environment Izabela and Radosław created for their daughter: one where imagination was not just tolerated but celebrated.

When Alicja won Poland’s national Eurovision selection in 2020 with the song “Empires,” only for the contest to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the blow was felt deeply by the entire Szempliński family. It was Izabela who gave perhaps the most honest account of what that moment felt like, speaking candidly on air: “You are already somewhere with one foot, and suddenly you are not there.” That single line communicated a mother’s heartbreak with a precision that no press release could replicate.

Izabela is also credited, alongside Radosław, with encouraging Alicja to audition for the tenth season of The Voice of Poland, the competition that would ultimately catapult her daughter into mainstream Polish music. Her influence has been quiet but consistent: the steady hand behind a rising star who has never lost her groundedness.

Radosław Szempliński

Radosław Szempliński is the father of Alicja Szemplińska and, if the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna is any indication, one of her most enthusiastic champions. He is a private individual with no public-facing professional profile, preferring to live away from the spotlight that increasingly surrounds his daughter’s name. That preference, however, did not prevent him from becoming one of the most talked-about figures in the Polish delegation’s journey to Vienna.

When Alicja arrived in Austria to represent Poland at the 70th Eurovision Song Contest, Radosław made his presence known in a way that swiftly endeared him to fans across Europe. Videos circulated online of him walking the streets of Vienna, Polish flag in hand, proudly stopping strangers to inform them that his daughter was competing for Poland in the world’s biggest song contest. The clips spread widely, and fans were moved by the unfiltered joy of a father who had waited years to see his daughter stand on that stage.

His involvement was not purely ceremonial. During the lead-up to the contest, Alicja revealed in an interview with Eska that it was her father who handled the logistics of transporting the delegation’s most essential belongings to Vienna. He stepped in as an informal fixer, coordinator, and moral anchor, taking on the unglamorous behind-the-scenes work that allowed Alicja to focus on her performance.

Radosław has spoken publicly about the roots of Alicja’s connection to the Eurovision contest. In an interview on Radio RDC, he recalled that the competition had been a fixture in their family home for as long as Alicja could remember: “Ala watched every edition of Eurovision together with Iza from a young age. She always said that one day she would stand on that stage.” That dream, first formed in a small living room in Ciechanów, finally came true in Vienna’s grand arena in May 2026, where Alicja performed “Pray” in the grand final, finishing 12th overall and earning four maximum scores from international juries.

Like Izabela, Radosław Szempliński has no interest in trading on his daughter’s fame. He and his wife lead what those who know them describe as a quiet, family-centred life in Ciechanów. But for one week in Vienna, he let the world see exactly the kind of father he is: the one waving the flag, carrying the bags, and walking the streets with tears of pride barely contained.

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