Eurovision 2019 spotlight: Spain's Miki with "La Venda"..
Spain is another one of the "Big Five" countries that will miss the semi-finals, and as I had previously said, that isn't always a good thing. Two years ago Manual Rivera deservedly came in last place with the absolutely horrid surf-pop trash, "Do It For Your Lover", and last time out the fake-as-fuck "romantic couple" of Amaia and Alfred, who came together during the taping of the national selection TV program Operacion Triumpho, landed at 23rd out of 26th with the sappy ballad "Tu Cancion", only to "break up" a few months later. This year there was a lot of competition on Operacion Triumpho, with my favorite "Muérdeme" ("Bite Me") from Maria, which won the Triumpho show, ending up losing the televote in the final Gala Eurovision to young male singer Miki Núñez. But as opposed to Denmark's tragic outcome in their national contest, the selection of Núñez is sitting better and better with me (although I still would've loved to have seen Maria in Israel)...
Spain - "La Venda" from Miki
Miki Núñez hails from the Barcelona suburb of Terrassa in Catalonia, and while he only came in sixth place in Operacion Triumpho, on the final Gala Eurovision show he was able to capture 34% of the vote as opposed to 22% for Maria. But this was no surprise, as Miki's joyful entry, "La Venda" ("The Blindfold"), was a Spanish-style floorburner that has grown on me like none of the others in the "Big Five" (Italy's has always been a fave.). Written by Adrià Salas and produced by Oriol Padrós, the song uses the gypsy stylings of Catalan rumba to get you off your feet, and the revamp since the finals has given the song a punchy horn section and Miki a more elastic reading of the chorus. It's definitely not rocket science, but this is Eurovision so this will excite people much, much more than what the country has been sending recently. And Miki's smile is so damn infectious...
As you can see, Miki is here to bring the party, and I am all in. The more I listen to this, the more I like "La Venda", and I haven't even bothered to find the lyrics translated yet. This will go over well in Tel Aviv as long as Miki can bring that same energy to the stage. I can definitely see this grabbing Spain's best showing since the early 2000s. (Rating: 8.5/10)
PS: Since I mentioned it, here's the video translating the lyrics to English, albeit using the non-revamped original production..
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Spain has been competing in Eurovision since 1961, and during all that time has only won the contest twice (with an asterisk). In 1968, singer Massiel claimed the trophy with the song "La, La, La", managing to beat one of the biggest stars of another country, Britain's Cliff Richard...
The following year in 1969, there was a four-way tie for first place at Eurovision, including the Spanish entry "Vivo Cantando" ("I Live Singing") by Barcelona singer Salomé. In these weird circumstances (which rules were put in place because of since), Spain became the first county to win back-to-back Eurovisions, though it would be their final win so far...
As for my personal favorite, that would be in 2016, when Barei lit up the stage but somehow landed all the way down at 22nd place with her dance-pop gem "Say Yay"...
And before I've trashed the previous two years of Spanish entries, but they don't even compare with the utter awfulness of 2008 when TV character come to stage Rodolfo Chikilicuatre played by actor David Fernández Ortiz somehow found himself at 16th in the final with "Baila el Chiki-Chiki" ("Dance the Chiki-Chiki"). By all means keep your eye on the girl in pink...
But on the other hand, back in 1973, the band Mocadades came in at runner-up position with a song that would be one of the biggest worldwide successes from the show until ABBA, with the song "Eres tú" ("It's You"), which became a top ten hit in the U.S. at #9...
Tomorrow I'll start the second semi-finals line-up...
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