No yesterday's leftovers: Venus!

Daniel Motiño Camúñez reports:

 Diana, Marta and Mimi are Venus the newest Spanish girl band who enter the Spanish national final in 2010 with Perfecta finishing 5th. However seems like the band created by former Operación Triunfo and Popstars members taking seriously their chances and want to fill the empty the girl band gap in the Spanish music industry.

Several female groups have tried to success in Spain. Acuario were the pioneers in the late 70,s with the bit hit Rema marinero but they disbanded in 1980. Then in the late 80's Objetivo Birmania hit the radio with Los amigos de mis amigas son mis amigas with a touch of Bananarama but two years later they also broke appart. Other bands like A las diez en casa or Lunae did not went further than summer hit. Finally popstars show landed in Spain in 2002 and its five winners became Bellepop; although the big potential the band did not profit from the Popstars platform. The album was poor half way pop, latin and r&b, it lacked of own identity and they great vocals from some of its members were not exploited enough. Tthe band disbanded in 2004.  (What about Azucar Moreno? And who were Chicass??? Loved their LP to bits. Ed.note)

Marta was one of these great voices. Since show n.1 the singer from Cordova showed she was willing to enter the band, work hard and succed in the music industry. After Bellepop Marta released a solo album Alma Latina featuring self composed songs and flamenco fusion tracks. Mimi and Diana entered "Operación Triunfo" in the 2008 and 2009 editions. Mimi or Miriam Segura originally from Melilla, mesmerized rapidily the audience with her sensuality and ashtonishing performances. In a year full of controversy and manipulation she managed to enter the final. After the competition she was in the TVE show "Los mejores años de nuestra vida" (The best times of our life) which she toured all around Spain in 2009. She also participated as backing vocalist of the group Niño Raro. Diana is the "Lolita" of the group. The singer from Burgos started to perform when she was a teenager. Indeed she was finalist from the childen's talent contest Veo Veo, covering Laura Pausini. She did not succeed at Operación Triunfo but now she joins a new adventure with Venus.

Perfecta was presented and created to compete in the Spanish nationa final for Eurovision 2010, composed by the Swedish Eurosongwriter Thomas Gsson (I love you mi vida, Todo está en tu mente and Piénsame among others). The song had this schlager touch and all the ingredients to be the perfect entry for Spain. In fact they were my favorites so far. I was expecting a Serebro-like performance but the unfortunate costume selection and the poor sound quality and stage from TVE did not help the girls at all to succeed. Nevertheless the song managed to hit the Top-40  and Europa FM Spanish radio's playlist, this followed by a constrained budget but effective promotion in several TV shows and being the front page of the magazine Interview with sexy and classy pictures, positioned the girls on top of Spanish media and gave them the power to keep on performing and stablishing Venus as the mediatic girl band in the country.

As a result Venus just released a new single Restos del Ayer which could be easily a hit by The Saturdays or Sugababes. The single was published on 28th December and is presented with a cute and gaysh video recorded in Madrid's restaurant Peggy Sue including the colaboration from two well known Spanish actors. The cherry on the cake has been the confirmation of Venus debut album to be released on 25th January on digital and classic format. To promote the album, which name has not been yet confirmed and might include 10 songs from Tony Sánchez Ohlsson, Jesús María Pérez and Thomas G:sson, the group is working on a tour where Venus will present the new songs and also some covers in an one hour show. They have been recently in Bilbao with excellent critics.

If you are looking for more you can follow the group in its Facebook page or just stay tunned for more news.

I am really excited and fully support Venus, I really hope they will achieve what the success they deserve and cannot deny I will love to see them once in Eurovision Song Contest representing Spain.

Go Venus!