bets. Chanel, who will perform in tenth place, is among the favorites along with Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Italy
May is synonymous with flowers and communions, but also with the largest song festival in the world. Tonight, Europe puts its differences aside to unite around a televised competition in which live music and brotherhood predominate. Eurovision has succeeded in crossing the borders of the old continent, reaching a potential audience of about 200 million viewers. A total of 25 countries will perform on the stage in Turin (Italy), in a gala that La 1 de TVE will offer from 9 p.m. and with Mika, Laura Pausini and Alessandro Cattelan as masters of ceremonies. This year’s edition is practically returning to normal after more than two years of pandemic, although the coronavirus has also made an appearance in Portugal’s candidacy, where one of the choir girls tested positive for covid and underwent the associated isolation. However, the Eurovision Song Contest has also had to deal with a technical contingency on stage that Chanel will luckily not hit. RAI, the Italian public television responsible for organizing the event, chose a large “kinetic sun” of LED screens that would provide moving images, lights and fireworks during the performances. Despite the ambition of the proposal, a malfunction in the system prevented it from being used as planned. Many of the European delegations had to change their staging for months to adapt to the circumstances.
On this occasion, the Spanish representative does not have to wait long. Chanel will be in tenth place, behind Italy and two places ahead of Ukraine, which became the favorite after the Russian invasion. It is the same place where, for example, the winner of Eurovision 2015 the Swede Mans Zelmerlow performed. It will be the culmination of a candidacy that started on the wrong foot after the ‘Benidorm Fest’, but has managed to restore the illusion among Spanish euro fans, accustomed to TVE’s constant bumps in the last decade. “We have not seen each other in another,” this community of followers of the contest on social networks insists. ‘Chanelazo’ is coming, others say.
The most optimistic bets place the performer of ‘SloMo’ in fifth place. The lyrics of the song have 35% English words and an impressive choreography that winks at Spanish clichés (the artist takes out a red fan in the middle of the performance). She will be dressed by the designer Palomo Spain, with a bullfighting inspired look. She wears a black jumpsuit and a leather jacket with more than 50,000 ‘swarovsky’ crystals, which she will wear carefully during the popular ‘dance break’, one of the highlights of the performance of the Catalan artist of Cuban descent.
The illusion for the good position has also been transferred to TVE. From the public broadcaster, they do not hide their emotion for the candidacy and predict a spectacular audience result at a time when La 1 is unable to gather large crowds with its programs and series, with the exception of the broadcasting of sporting events or ‘ Chef cook’.
The interest in Eurovision 2022 even led the company to move the two semifinals of the festival from La 2 to the first channel, disrupting and successfully disrupting the sacred hour of the start of the night’s ‘Telediario’. The second qualifying gala, broadcast this Thursday, managed to double the viewership compared to the previous edition, with an 11% share and almost 1.5 million believers. It was a leader among the population under 44 years of age.
The wisest agree that there is no clear winner and everything is open in Eurovision 2022. The final result will be determined with a voting system in which 50% of the votes are determined by the professional jury of each country and the other 50% known as ‘televoting’. In Spain, the model Nieves Álvarez will communicate the pronunciation of TVE.
The bets, yes, give the victory to the Kalush Orchestra, which represents Ukraine with a mix of rap and folk music. The members of this group could benefit from what is known as the ‘voice of emotion’ due to the situation in the country after the Russian invasion. However, the festival’s history also teaches us that a war is not enough to take first place. In 1993, singer-songwriter Muhamed Fazlagic came in 16th, representing Bosnia as it was plunged into war.
The surprise of the night can also fall on a country that no longer belongs to the EU. It is about the United Kingdom, which, like Spain, has stood in line in recent Eurovision editions. For this year’s event, he’s betting on the song “Space Man” performed by Sam Ryder, an up and coming talent who rose to fame on “Tik Tok” during the pandemic and caught the attention of artists like Justin Bieber or Alicia Keys. Italy, the host country, also entered the groups to win with Mahmood and Blanco, who stunned the audience at the San Remo Festival with their song ‘Brividi’. In the case of Mahmood, he is already a familiar face at Eurovision Song Contest, as he performed in 2019 with ‘Soldi’ and reached second position. For her part, Cornelia Jakobs, the representative of Sweden, promises to be one of the most exciting performances of the evening with the orchestral pop ballad ‘Hold Me Closer’.
And just in case Chanel wins, the cities of Madrid, Torremolinos, Valencia, Barcelona and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria have quickly raised their hands to host Eurovision 2023.
It is a frequently heard comment from the average citizen to emphasize how badly Spain is doing in the Eurovision Song Contest. And the data doesn’t lie. The Spanish delegation has been at the bottom of the rankings in recent years. In addition, it has not even made it above 20th place. The last of the hits was performed last year by the Murcian Blas Cantó, third of the last on the list, but rather Miki Núñez (22nd), Amaia and Alfred (23rd), Manel Navarro (26th), Barei (22nd) and Edurne (21st).
To find the best results for RTVE in Eurovision, you have to go back to 2014, when Ruth Lorenzo and her powerful ‘Dancing in the rain’, including rain on the podium, took tenth place, the same as Pastora Soler two years earlier with’ Stay with me’. With the phenomenon of the first editions of ‘Operación Triunfo’, Spain improved its results, with Rosa López finishing seventh in 2002, while Beth and Ramón del Castillo had to settle for eighth and tenth places respectively in the following two years.
However, our country has failed to enter the ‘stage’ since 1995, when an unknown young woman named Anabel Conde surprised the continent with ‘Vuelve conmigo’. It was in second position, the same as previously achieved by Betty Missiego (1979), Mocedades (1973) and Karina (1971).
In its 65 editions, Spain has won the festival only twice: with Massiel, in 1968, and the following year with Salomé, although it was on par with representatives from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France.
After years of controversial pre-selections, the new management of RTVE, led by José Manuel Pérez Tornero, turned the company’s gamble on Eurovision and created the ‘Benidorm Fest’, a program to choose the Spanish candidate who is assimilated with other European format. “We are going to take Eurovision very seriously,” the president warned when he took office a year ago.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
