Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

The reborn Spanish Eurovision  reached climax last night when Benidorm Fest final was held and won by Blanca Paloma and her flamenco Eaea . She won the jury vote, televote and came second in the demoscopic jury so most likely there won't be such a chaotic uprising like last year when Chanel won (and how did that end??). Blanca Paloma was there already last year and it is quite remarkable her Secreto de agua finished 5th. And guess what? these two songs are the only two songs she has ever recorded! As she's not a singer (with that voice!!!) but set and costume designer! Actually her last year's entry was a theme song for a tv-series she ended up singing.  So, even if not my favorites as you can read in my review I totally admire her and this song. Brave move from Spain that has too often sent plastic Europop written by Swedes. However, flamenco (inspired) songs have had mixed fortunes in Eurovision from Remedios Amaya's fantastic Quien maneja mi barca that scored a fla...

Spain has been reborn at Eurovision thanks to Benidorm fest that was launched last year and besides creating a hype, hit songs and return of Spain to Eurovision top-3 finish this year the concept is the same. Two semi-finals and the grand final. Most of the songs have already been streaming successes but after seeing the semi-finals one can only wonder are they trying a bit too hard? Most of the staging haven't been so good, there's too much going on in most every act and they come across chaotic and too busy. Add weak vocals here and there and even an act where one was left wondering did he sing at all in the end? Sadly that song was maybe my favorite before the live and didn't even make the final despite apparently topping the rank of the pre-selection. What a difference live three minutes can make! Anyways, here's my take on the final songs (and the rest): Agoney - Quero arder ** This one's fun to watch and he can sing for sure, but when I only listened the studi...

  Spanish Operacion Triunfo isn't over yet as still five contestants are in the running, but the Eurovision side kick will be finished tonight. Five + plus one finalists singing nine songs, one of them becoming the Spanish entry for Lisbon. The voting will be in two rounds. After the first one top-3 goes for the superfinal and voting will restart from zero. The songs are a real turn away from the Swedish produced nonsense Spain has sent so often. The only song in that direction is the plastic manyfactued group song and maybe a bit  Magia . Al cantar, Tu canción and Arde are soft almost acoustic ballads. Que nos sigan las luces and Lejos de tu piel are pleasant but rather forgettable simple pop rock. El remedio and Lo malo bring in some Latin rhythms. If one of those ballads or one of those Latin songs wins Spain is going to have one of the better quality entries since many years. OT comes once again to save the day, it seems. Amaia Romero - Al cantar A...