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Spain: How the karaoke night went....

Daniel Motiño Camúñez reports:
 TVE promised a night full of surprises and indeed it was since they kicked out Maria Lopez and qualifying to the final two teenage deja vu pop bands and someone so called a crooner unable to perform decently "Estando Contigo". Seems likes teens and housewives collapsed the Spanish votes tonight. Gio and Lucia Perez also move to the final, leaving behind Maria Lopez,  neither the public nor the jury picked her after an outstanding performance of "Vuelve Conmigo". She is beautiful and she can sing, she can really sing but looks like TVE is not looking for an overwhelming voice...seems like we are looking for keep being the 20th.

The first gala of Destino Eurovisión took place last night in Barcelona. The stage was convincing, not the jury or the public. Anne Igartiburu conducted a fresh and dynamic show, as she usually does, with Daniel Diges being in the backstage. The jury was part of the show with funny comments, tips and impressions far from being clever; including Boris Izaguierre - one of the Spanish gay icons in the last decade. His histerical attacks were far from being clever and should have stayed also in the last decade. Only Merche and the exceptional Reyes del Amor, which is really a Eurovision specialist and columnist from the website eurovisionspain.com, seemed to know what was this about.

The artists wer divided in four groups of three each. One of them was be kicked out by the jury after their performance.

David Sancho called himself a crooner and wants to be compared with Michael Buble, so do I but there is a differnce in knowing how to perform in one stage. He performed "Estando Contigo", not a difficult song but it was for him. He was out of focus, nervous and did not get the tones at all. Roima Duran has been really enthusiastic with the Eurovision experience. She chose Wilde Dances as she already won an award performing the song. Her looks´reminded this girl from the suburbs going to the city to party, so was her performance: poor. Finally Da Igual who picked "Bailar Pegados", they are just an imitation of "El Canto del Loco" and were far from being convincing. The jury announced Roima to leave the show, she was a bit shocked and back to the suburbs.

The second lot started with Lucia Perez. She is a established singer with plenty of success in North Spain and already some song contest experiences; she performed Non ho l'età. She knows how to sing and her voice is captivating. She could be a good candidate for Spain but too classic from my point of view. Auryn were the absolute favorites. The boy-band profie has been moving fans from all over Spain and Latin-America, but  they need to improve their English, they really do. Their performance of "Fly in the winds of love" as average and let me indifferent but was obvious they will make it. Finally we had a second class cabaret show with Las Miranda performing Ding a Dong. They wished they would have left their life performing in some motorway bars, but it will not be the case, the jury selected them to leave the show and go back to bar where they could keep on winning singstar contests.

Third round. Tsunami is a rock group which name can start anything but their own name, just an indie local rock band from the block. They performed Gwendoline and I decided to make a trip to the loo. Gio was the next. It was his 3rd trial and second time in the stage of TVE. He is fresh, creative and genuine, he also has a great voice but I still do not understand the rap he introduced while singing Satellite. He also introduced a choreography, his looks were a mix between a clown and The Ark, he needs to improve a lot if he wants to make it and show the talent his got. The jury, more specially Boris Izaguirre praised him after his performance, gay communitiy common support. Guadiana had to perform Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi and she was a disaster since the beginning. She started late the song, made mistakes with they lyrics and her shoes gave her problems. I have never seen anyone destroying Ne Parte Pas Sans Moi like this and I am a frequent visitor of the local Eurovision karaokes. Merche pointed out all her issues, specially recommnded her to learn how to walk with 11 centimeteres heels before stepping out the stage. Tsunami flew out, I coud have eliminated the whole lot.

The fourth and last rond was the stronger one, at this point this was not difficult at all. Maria Lopez open the group with Vuelve Conmigo, a big challenge trying to emulate Anabel Conde. When she started performing the room went quiet, she did not emulate Anabel. She gave us a great performance with her personal touch, she was incredible and the jury praised her. I started believing in hope. Baltanas was the only boy in the group and he performed Fairytale. He should have done Believe or My Heart is yours, something that has to do with singing and not dancing. He was not spontaneous, everything was calculated and he was just following without giving any feelings. He also had a small choreography and luckily for him and for us the camera did not capture that moment.
Paula was the last performer of the night, she looks for me like thie green young politicians and she performed, Tu te reconnaitras but she had to leave first.
The eight survivors moved to the televoting cut and while people were calling (not a joker unfortunately did call) Soraya performed her last and fantastic single "Live your Dreams", Pitingo and the jury member Albert Hammond also contributed to animate the wait.

First the three artist picked up from televoting were announced. Javier Sancho, the Crooner (housewive vote), Lucia Perez and Auryn made it to the next round. The jury had to select two from the five  left, Gio was the first one to breathe in peace, a more than obvious decision since the jury bowed for him, and then it came the end to my hopes, "Da Igual" completed the list. Maria Lopez is out. Well let's not be eurotalifan and respect the solution of the public and the jury, it is not about us, it is about the contest and not seeking for a victory, just for a 20th place. Jokers please call!

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