Spain SPAIN 2023 - Blanca Paloma - Eaea

[ESC United Mod Team]

 

[ESC94]

I´m sorry but is my first of the season. These were three veeery long minutes for me ,this painful howling without any structure feels like listening to a fire alarm, afterwards you still have an irritating whisteling in your ear.

I don´t see this repeating the success of "SloMo" to be honest, it feels more like 2022 for me. Many fans will love this but people in front of the TV who don´t know anything about this kind of music and have no time to look up in literature on how "culturally valuable" this is will just be confused.

Better luck next year, this is really nothing for me.

 

[Flamenkax]

When Eaea was released and i heard it, i was like "hmm...interesting but a bit complicated" but i kept returning to it a few times and it grew on me a bit. Now with the live version i'm obsessed by the song, like, this is everything that i want right now at Eurovision.
There's no way it can win the whole thing tho, it's a risky choice. But juries will at least E A T her vocals for sure.
On and on, take my Paloma.

 

[Luneaux]

I didn't follow Benidorm Fest this year but I'm happy to see Blanca on Eurovision! She is talented singer and I like the meaning behind the song! The song itself is not great, not bad, something in the middle for me but it's listenable and interesting for sure.

 

[FilipFromSweden]

Also, the use of a synth does not make something ''electro''. You wouldn't say the use of a guitar makes a song country by default. Synth is even it's own genre.

 

[nudiecrudi]

I gave a 5.
Don't love it but either hate it.
A bit flamenco cliché but with a modern touch.
Her voice somehow irritates me, I don't know why. I would say better Blanca than the gayish Chanel if I have to choose between them clear contenders.
Personally I didn't like the artistic direction of Benidorm Fest this year and I said it some pages before.
The organizers have chosen to make the show more spectacular possible without caring much the quality and variety of the songs. Staging staging and only staging. Are those songs composed only based on the staging? And the lyrics? Somehow embarrassing I think.
Even the winning song doesn't have memorable verses, repeating numerous times Aeiaeiaaeia.
Yes she has a good voice, yes she can perform but is that enough? I don't think so.

 

[Yoozek]

So they picked a song which was dead last in spotify streams of all Benidorm songs. Quite the opposite to Norway's approach I must say.

This is meh, too much shouting for my liking. And I love Eurovision shouting ladies.

 

[marty]

I give 4 points. I appreciate the performance. But I would not listen to that song without beeing forced to.

 

[MAD20]

I can't be happier with the choice I understand some comments, this year we decided to assume some risks instead of taking the safe pathway, but it is undeniable her victory is fully deserved (no dramas with the juries unlike last year hahaha)

What a wonderful Benidorm Fest... It's still surprising for me that RTVE came out with this festival considering only 6 years ago we were having our delightful 'Objetivo Eurovisión 2017'. I'm sure we'll be having Benidorm Fest for a very very long time! Oh, and points for my Blanca Paloma, of course.

 

[gingerale]

She put a spell on me.

 

[Ana Raquel]

and I hope she avenges miss Remedios's utter robbery

I don't know how this will fare but it is great to see a PQ sending a risky entry for once! I get the comparisons with 2022 but at worst i don't think it will do as badly because this might be what some people expect from Spain? Like when flamenco is mentioned, one can immediately relate it to Spain. Meanwhile, I imagine most people don't even know what breton is.

Also since we are talking about it fulenn was robbed

 

[PollyWantsACracker]

I think it's a very good song, a nice representative of Spain, the adaptation of flamenco into modern music which is so on point, with most likely as of now the best vocalist and performer of ESC 2023.

As I said earlier, this could be a flop with people who don't understand flamenco irregular rhytm composition with no choruses, refrains, breaks, or hook melodies. For them this might be "confusing" or "repetitive".

I am myself a fan of Andalus style so this is very enjoyable to me.

Nevertheless this could work very well with televote from the countries that do "get it": France, Italy, San Marino, PORTUGAL, ISRAEL, GREECE, MALTA, CYPRUS, ALBANIA, AZERBAYCAN, Georgia, and South Slavic countries.

The juries will love Blanca's performance, there's nothing not to like there, she's captivating.

In the end it will do good.

Whether it would "reach Finland and Sweden", not sure about that. But who cares. They have been torturing us with Viking songs as well.

P.S. She's also so beautiful and is the only woman among many others in national selections who actually wore more than her panties, so she's got a plus from me for her class as well.

Overall, she's a but not the winner we've been looking for.

 

[Decayingbooks]

Also, the use of a synth does not make something ''electro''. You wouldn't say the use of a guitar makes a song country by default. Synth is even it's own genre.

It's neo-flamenco, it mixes electro with the background/base melody and the accapela style of flamenco that is the main melody.
Another example of neo-flamenco is somewhat mainstream would be Rosalia's album "El Mal Querer".

 

[Grinch]

Her voice is incredibly impressive for sure but the song is not doing anything to me. It's like one of those entries portugal send every year and no one remembers.

 

[Decayingbooks]

Escportugal just released the amount of televotes in the spanish final:

1. Blanca Paloma - 9 898 votes (28,28%)
2. Agoney - 9 515 votes (27,19%)
3. Vicco - 6 030 votes (17,23%)
4. Megara - 2 908 votes (8,31%)
5. Karmento - 2 371 votes (6,77%)
6. Fusa Nocta - 1 755 votes (5,01%)
5. Alice Wonder - 1 543 votes (4,41%)
7. José Otero - 977 votes (2,79%)

It was a close call, but if Agoney had won the televote it wouldn't have changed the result.
In another article, escportugal points out that there where less 81% votes than last year in the spanish final.
This year the amount of votes was 34 997 in total, while last year there were over 192k votes with Tanxugueiras getting 70,75% of those votes.
While I do think that last year's Benidorm Fest had stronger songs, it must be taken into account that this year the televotes were more expensive, calls from landlines and sms were 1.45€ and calls from cellphones were 2€.

 

[Sabrewulf238]

I gave it a . It grew on me a bit over the last few listens though I feel like it probably won't grow on me much more.

It's an interesting song but I would kind of agree that it can feel a bit on the repetitive side. Still the best song confirmed so far though.

 

[Ezio]

Her voice is incredibly impressive for sure but the song is not doing anything to me. It's like one of those entries portugal send every year and no one remembers.

I actually remember Portuguese entry vividly, but Spain just sends a wall of noise.

 

[Ezio]

Escportugal just released the amount of televotes in the spanish final:

1. Blanca Paloma - 9 898 votes (28,28%)
2. Agoney - 9 515 votes (27,19%)
3. Vicco - 6 030 votes (17,23%)
4. Megara - 2 908 votes (8,31%)
5. Karmento - 2 371 votes (6,77%)
6. Fusa Nocta - 1 755 votes (5,01%)
5. Alice Wonder - 1 543 votes (4,41%)
7. José Otero - 977 votes (2,79%)

It was a close call, but if Agoney had won the televote it wouldn't have changed the result.
In another article, escportugal points out that there where less 81% votes than last year in the spanish final.
This year the amount of votes was 34 997 in total, while last year there were over 192k votes with Tanxugueiras getting 70,75% of those votes.
While I do think that last year's Benidorm Fest had stronger songs, it must be taken into account that this year the televotes were more expensive, calls from landlines and sms were 1.45€ and calls from cellphones were 2€.

This year was not up to par in terms of originality and intrigue. All these songs this year were so derivative of music we already have heard before.

The televotes are indeed very tragic. In a country of 40 million these televotes look like Eurovision is a fringe event in Spain.

Last year's Top 3 knocked it out of the park. I am still obsessed with Ay Mama.

 

[Mainshow]

Up to 2€ for a single vote?

No wonder Spain couldn´t attract many televoters - especially this year, when the quality of the music significantly decreased. Blanca came up with an incredibly mesmerising (vocal) live performance but the song itself hasn´t caused any fuss (unlike "Ay Mama" or "Calle de la Iloreria")... Hopefully, continues hosting Benidorm - even if Blanca fails in May - it´s a quality entry - Spain has so much to offer.

 

[Karhu]

Juries are not there for just voting based on vocals. They also have to look at staging, song structure, lyrics, instrumentation, production value etc

In which case they have all the more reason to vote for this. This song and performance check all of those boxes you just mentioned, in my opinion.

 

[Luki]

The televotes are indeed very tragic. In a country of 40 million these televotes look like Eurovision is a fringe event in Spain.

Well if televotes were more than the 25% of the total points maybe then the numbers would be much higher.