Eurovision 2008: Spain

Tuomo writes: Recall that according to the current Eurovision rules, only the winner and the Big Four, i.e. United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Germany, make it directly to the final, and thus will not be performing during the semi-finals. However, since televoters in Spain and Germany will be casting in their votes on the night of the first semi-finals, I will be reviewing their entries at this point.

So first Spain. As one of the Big Four, or the biggest sponsors of the event, Spain has not gained first place since 1969 (I believe), and even then it was a four-way split. Victory has unfortunately remained elusive ever since with a placing in the top 10 every once in a while. The entries that Spain has submitted over the years have been marked by typically Spanish music culture: a delicious display of musical tapas on a platter of flamenco, gypsy sounds, lost of guitars, castanets, and clapping hands… :-) So here’s Spain, Rodolfo Chikilicuatre, and Baila el chiki chiki:

Here or



Honestly ¡Dios míos! ¿Qué fue esto? I mean – honestly??! Is this the year of the freak shows?! First Ireland, then Estonia, and even Finland (how else is one to characterize Teräsbetoni’s macho posturing)…

This got me so upset that I had to do some research on how this came to be, so I hope I got the facts right. It turns out that once again the Spanish national broadcasting company TVE had invited performers to submit entries on MySpace websites. This fresh twist to selecting a candidate to represent a country brought in over 500 applications, among which voters could then vote for their favourites over four days on the Internet. Five of these would make it to the final, and five others would be selected by a jury.

Unfortunately, this allowed anybody to vote – including from abroad – as well as opened to door for hackers and other retards. A rival TV station allegedly wanted to sabotage the competition and encouraged people to vote for a clearly lame entry. As a result, the final top five initially contained two clear cases of “sabotage,” but one of them was disqualified. But damage had been done, and Roberto ended up as the winner even with a jury having a word to say.

I just can’t understand what makes some people feel so bitter or whatever by a song competition that they have to ruin the event for everyone. What do these people hope to achieve by voting for a candidate that does not have much of a chance – hopefully – to place much higher than the other entries Spain has submitted in recent years?! Does this mean that Eurovision fans have now been given the legitimacy to sabotage other cultural events like soccer games just because the fans don’t happen to like them? :-)

Now I have to admit I'm not a big fan of reggaeton or rap, but Rodolfo's performance did little to expand my range of music I like. Though annoyingly catchy and the lyrics require skills beyond the first five units in Spanish 101 (typically the words la luna, el sol, la playa, and yo te quiero mucho have been part of the lyrics one way or the other !), I can’t find a better word to describe Chiki Chiki than amateurish – at best. What a shame, Spain! ¡Qué lástima España! :-(

And in the context of trying to be funny, I wish I remembered what my initial reaction to Verka's "weird business" in 2007 was. I loved it, and though I can't perceive it ever being considered a Eurovision evergreen, it did not come across as mockery of the Eurovision genre. In contrast, all the honestly weird ones this year do exactly that: they mock Eurovision and transitively everything that Eurovision fans consider close to heart. Does this mean humour should be off-limits. Absolutely not! Just don't mock - whatever that means :-) I mean, I don't know where and how to draw the line. Maybe someone with more refinement in esthetic analysis can pitch in at this point...

To add even more insult to injury, consider this entry by La casa azul "La revolución sexual" could have represented Spain but placed third. Now this is something that would have given even Romania run for the money for my douze points - delightfully irreverent (smart lyrics) and a deliciously catchy tune to dance to!!! Now if only I knew how to get hold of more La casa azul – I love them! 90% of my Spanish is comes from listening to Mecano in the early 90s; maybe La casa azul can help me move on and improve :-)