2023-04-28 08:00:53
Eurovision 2023 is fast approaching, and all of Spain wants Blanca Paloma to make history by surpassing the forecasts and beating the great favourite, the Swedish Loreen. The ‘Eaea’ from Elche will once again bring flamenco to the competition, which this year is being held in the British city of Liverpool due to the impossibility of Ukraine, winner in 2022, hosting the event due to the war it is having with Russia in his own territory.
Spain has always participated in the Festival of Eurovision, since 1956, the year in which it was founded. That means that it has been 66 times (in 2020 the contest was not held due to the covid pandemic) on the stage of the song of Europe. And those are many times. Enough so that there are all kinds of memories associated with the Spanish representatives, some wonderful… and others that we would prefer to forget.
the best memories
Just as Formula 1 was revitalized in Spain as a result of the arrival of Fernando Alonso on the driver’s grid, there was an important turning point in the importance that the Spanish audience attached to the Eurovision Song Contest, and that moment was 2002. The tremendous success it had’Triumph operation‘ on Spanish Television and the great sympathy aroused in the public by what would be the national representative, Rosa López, caused the viewers to multiply that year, a trend that was maintained in later years although those chosen to defend the national flag did so. do with less media hype. In fact, Rosa’s result was a discreet seventh place, below what was expected.
Of course, the great Spanish success at the festival took place in 1968, when Massiel won the contest with his song ‘La, la, la’. However, this wonderful memory gave way to a much more chaotic one when, the following year, there was a four-way tie for first place and the Spanish organization was very confused in determining the winner. Another of the great Spanish performances was carried out by the group Mocedades in 1973, when they were second with ‘It’s you’. The theme became incredibly popular and even crossed the pond to succeed in Latin America.
After a run of mediocre results, 2022 meant the return of Spain to the privileged positions of the Festival classification. The Spanish-Cuban Chanel won the support of the whole world with her ‘SloMo’ and finished Eurovision in a great third place, very close to the United Kingdom (in fact there was controversy with the voting), although the edition was completely dominated by a Ukraine, which won more for the sympathy it aroused due to the Russian invasion than for the artistic merits of its song.
To forget
However, the road has been thorny at times. Spain has bordered on (or directly made) ridicule on several occasions and for different reasons. The clearest case is probably John Cobra’s candidacy. The Valencian rapper tried to represent Spain at the festival in 2009 and 2010. Although his artistic level was practically nil, in both cases he received massive support (as a practical joke) from the Forocoches internet platform. Luckily, the blood did not reach the river and Soraya was chosen in 2009 (John Cobra’s song was withdrawn because it had previously appeared on YouTube), while Daniel Diges was chosen in 2010. Diges lived another embarrassing moment. during his live performance, when a spontaneous sneaked onto the stage and began to make ridiculous positions among his dancers. The security team took more than 20 seconds to react, although the Spanish artist showed off his professionalism and continued singing without showing his surprise.
Another of the attempts to make humor succeed was the 2008 edition, when Spain decided that his bet would be Rodolfo Chikilicuatre‘alter ego’ of actor David Fernández and who caused laughter and embarrassment in equal parts on the Eurovision stage with his ‘Baila el chiki-chiki’.
The lack of ability of the average Spanish with English caused another of the moments that we remember with derision in 2014, when the Spanish presenter, Carolina Casado, had serious problems with the pronunciation of the language and was unable to correctly say the English words ‘eight points’ (eight points), to finish diciendo “oit points” to the disbelief of half of Europe.
Although the Spanish representatives have sometimes had brilliant performances that have been rewarded with the top positions in the standings, there have also been times when, whether due to nerves, technical problems, cultural differences or any other type of inconvenience , the result on stage has not been enough. The clearest case is probably the resounding 0 with whom Remedios Amaya returned home in 1983 when Spain opted for flamenco with ‘¿Quién maneja mi barca?’. They obviously finished last in the table, tied with Turkey, which did not score points either. TVE attributed it to a “culture shock”. The truth is that the song was not bad and the singer’s performance was more than acceptable, so it can only be considered that the count of points was unfair to the Sevillian.
There have also been occasions in which the artists of our country have had execution problems. Manel Navarro’s rooster when he sang ‘Do it for your lover’ in 2017 is a good example. The serious tuning problems suffered by Raquel del Rosario -a renowned artist with nothing to prove- when El sueño de Morfeo performed ‘With you until the end’ in 2013 also come to mind.
And how can we forget the way in which the two sisters that make up Azúcar Moreno left the stage when a technical problem caused part of their background music to not play at the correct time in 1990. Of course, the Extremadurans were able to repeat their performance and his ‘Bandit’ finished in a more than worthy fifth place.
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