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SPAIN: The confusion starts on Friday

Daniel Motiño Camúñez reports:


Spain is not being clear with their intentions and selection formula but TVE finally announced the names of the 24 artist bidding to represent Spain in Düsseldorf, although my previous scepticism, once I watched and heard the auditions the options could have been worse and it is still too early to judge since the selected songs have not been auditioned yet.

TVE is not giving any hints about what they are looking for, taking in consideration the different kind of artists selected. Newbies, old classics, one hit wonders, popstars as much as duets, groups, crooners, nostalgics, flamenco pop, r&b, international voices (what does exactly mean?), (apparently) black voices and even a boy band. As I said All Kinds of Everything.

It is not even clear if the jokers are still to come or all already there as TVE is highliting among the finalists "some of the artist are already known from our viewers like Alazán, the singer Esmeralda Grao and Sonia & Selena (who did not pass the first cut)". To this group we have to add Lucía Perez with already four published albums, as many as Esmeralda Grao. As a matter of fact (a suspicious one): some of the artists performed their song reading the lyrics on a paper while singing and even some of them did not know the lyrics at all like Mónica Guech (Dime) or Las Miranda (My number one). I have never been myself to a casting of any type but I guess I would have prepared a bit more my performance. Nevertheless they made it to the final.

Something positive to highlight is the great variety of songs performed, among the finalists there ain't bailar pegados, la la las or vivo cantandos while some of them performed: Je ne sais quoi, Wild dances, My heart is yours or Dum Tek Tek.

In the group of known artist we have Alazan, which now is a duo formed by the younger sister and the niece of Azucar Moreno They did not perform Bandido which for starters is a pro, although they needed the help of a paper with the lyrics to perform Dile que la quiero. It is their second try, they finished 5th in 2000 with Alcanzarás la Luna being a trio, and I believe it is a good option since they could bring back some Spanish-Latin style similar to the one Melody tried two year ago. Esmeralda Grao was one of Mikel Herzog singers in 1998, therefore she performed Que voy a hacer sin tí in her audition. Could someone be less original than this? Closing this chapter we have Valeria Antonella. She has already a version in Youtube of Save your kisses for me but in the audition she tried with Enseñame a Cantar (teach me how to sing) which definetely she needs since she did not get any note right..but again there she is. She is Mexican, with a Mexican face, a Mexican haircut and sings like Paulina Rubio trying to be a Lena wannabee.....Is this another joker?

There is a big group of female singers. My favorite so far is Lorena Fernández, she was more than great performing Dum Tek Tek with her dance crew, brave performance and election for such a casting. Rocío Jimenez (who changed her name to Roima Durán) performed Wild Dances who says she likes to dance and she showed it to us with a gracious and fresh performance. The third artist I would like to review is María López, with a wide experience in musicals performed Nacida para Amar, she was impeccable.

Among the guys, Gio/Sergio Bermejo is there for the third time. He withdrew last year and entered the big final being saved by the jury back in 2008 in the group Divine. Gio is talented and talented was his performance of Satellite, creative and innovative -  exactly what Spain needs. Baltanás tries again. He did first in 2007 not qualifying to the semifinals and in 2008 not being able to make it to the TV-Gala. He is cute, he can sing and he looks really Spanish. He performed My heart is yours and Believe and I hope this time will work for him. The "crooner" David Sancho is the other singer I would like to save. He sang in Michael Bublé style Estando Contigo and could be the Spanish Roger Cicero.

Only one group took my attention and it is the vocal boyband Auryn that really needs to improve their English after what they showed performing Fly on the wings of love . Hidden in this group we have Blas Cantó who tried solo last year and the Eurojunior participant of 2006 Daniel Fernández.
They are leading the current poll which results can be seen  here. You can see all the performances here and and some others here.And here.

The show starts next Friday at 21.30 CET and I will let you know again how it went. 

UPDATE: RTVE has now announced that entablished artists can apply until January 27 and they will be granted a place in the final directly as wildcards.

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