It's not the Spanish version of 'Friends', these were the six hopefuls that competed for the prize of representing Spain at this year's ESC and becoming this year's first Finalist in Stockholm. With last year's disappointment of the gorgeous Edurne finishing 21st with 'Amanecer' after an internal selection (Edurne) still in their minds, RTVE decided to go back to a National Final format for 2016's pick. Edurne was now one of the national jurors, along with Loreen and one of the guys from Il Divo so she still had a say in this year's selection.
One thing the Spanish appear to appreciate is fairness as far as the running order was concerned, all done by random draw:
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I'm not sure that Xuso was particularly happy with his selection...
On with the show - Sunday 31st was the date and we opened with a lovely little medley by all the artists, doing what one Spanish Eurovision lady did in 1968 by 'la la'-ing a tune, this time the Eurovision anthem:
Next followed a comedy Eurovision skit portraying past Eurovision winners, focusing on some of the more colourful past contestants (Lordi, Dana International, Bucks Fizz, Cliff Richard etc), plus a certain lady who was to be on the National jury - you know, the one who did the 'crab dance':
I jest, the amazing Loreen with possibly one of the most contemporary songs to have come out of Eurovision - this was a stripped down but very effective performance, which was also very enjoyable. 'Euphoria' always seems better to me when there's not lots of staging, when she's dressed almost normally - a nice start to the show. One thing I have noticed in the NFs so far - no Måns Zelmerlöw at all. Conchita seemed to be everywhere last year...
The one thing that I noticed immediately when watching Objetivo Eurovisión was how hyper the crowd, the hosts, the artists and their 'entourages' were - they were well up for it! I can only hope that the UK NF at the end of this month has the same atmosphere. This NF also had an interesting way of introducing the artists themselves, giving them a 30 second snippet of their song to showcase themselves straight from the get go. Barei in particular looked slick and introduced a strange little dance move that looked a little familiar - I had seen something like it before:
Not quite the same but I have to admit that I prefered looking at her legs doing it!
The voting was explained (in Spanish, of course - I forget how rapid-fire a language it is!):
Maverick - "Un mundo mas feliz'
First up, one of the all-Spanish entries. Maverick performed this well, he connected well with the camera, he had a great voice and it's all staged nicely. Unfortunately the song itself was just okay, no wows, sounding like a tune that would be heard coming from a bar in the Canaries as you walked through Las Palmas, avoiding the barmen trying to drag you into their drinking hole. It was all spoilt a bit too by the weird vocal gymnastics at the end of the song - I expected this to not be challenging for the win at the end. 6.5
Barei - "Say Yay!"
The hot favourite before the show, this started off amazingly well. A very, very contemporary song which was extremely catchy from the start, hooking me in straight away and Barei had huge amounts of enthusiasm and onstage charisma. I even forgave her the odd dance but as her excitement obviously grew with her whooping, her vocals began to lose their precision as she attempted to interact more with the crowd than the camera. I could see that this could be a superb entry for Spain, despite the almost total lack of Spanish within the entry (some backing lyrics apart) but her vocal presentation for the second half of the entry almost lost it for me. 7.0
Xuso Jones - "Victorious"
Visually very nice - two attractive female violinists, he is obviously easy on the eye for a lot of the audience. The main issue with this entry? It screams out "Glorious"! I would not have been surprised if Natalie Horler had been singing this and even Loreen made a comment when she gave her view after his performance that she wondered if her songwriters were involved with this entry! If 'Euphoria' and Germany's 2013 entry had never happened, I would have been very impressed with this catchy song and decent lyrics but as it was, it felt I had heard it all before and his vocals weren't as impressive, solid though they were. This just edged into the lead but there wasn't much in it so far. 7.0
Salvador Beltran - "Dias de alegria"
It seems that every NF has to have a sing-along song and there also has to be someone with poor vocals - Salvador provided both. The second Spanish language entry, it was all very low key and annoyingly semi-spoken. I was not impressed with most of it, the only part that I 'enjoyed' was the chorus but the whole performance aspect of this entry was very naff, with random arm waving and a bizarre stage invasion by the backing singers who came on to play the drums! The worst performance of the night... 5.0
Maria Isabel - "La vida solo es una"
Now this was my favourite of the night - Maria has a superb voice, this was a great routine and there was a nice hook to the music. Being all in Spanish, this had a distinctive feel which screamed out 'Spain' - it wasn't amazing, to be fair but it was the best sounding entry during the NF. The main downside for this was that there were lots of gaps in the music that might lose the viewer and listener and it did run out of steam towards the end. 7.5
Electric Nana - "Now"
Another lady with a sassy attitude but also with very, very weird eye makeup! Nana's vocals weren't that strong to say the least - the band had more of a presence in that respect. It sounded like an album track that a singer might try out on 'Later with Jools Holland', which isn't a good thing - there was no impact with this entry and it was all too repetitive for me. 5.5
As I suspected when I heard the studio versions of these tracks, the NF itself was all quite mediocre, a disappointing hour spent for me and I suspect the hyped-up crowd and hosts deep down inside. My scores varied from 5.0 to 7.5 - not a ringing endorsement for any of them and I suspected that the selection of the winner might have come down to public awareness and televisual impact. If the staging and charisma of the artist was the determining factor here, Barei's position as pre-show favourite and her superb 'in your face' performance might still give her the crown - vocally I would have given it to Maria:
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Before we got the results of esteemed jurors and voters, we were treated to staple sections of every NF this year. First up, something dallied with by Eurosong in Belgium, a chat with the families of all the artists - not as cringeworthy as might be expected, although my knowledge of Spanish being none existent might have helped here! Next up were current singers performing the country's ESC recent entries (I have to admit that I only recognised Brequette) - all apart from last year's offering in Vienna, performed by the most gorgeous blonde to have sung on a Eurovision stage:
No strange outfits, no being flung around by a muscled male dancer - singing Amanecer as it should have been sung in Austria, perfect vocals that would have given Spain at least a mid-table finish.
After the interval acts came the results - the International Jury may have tried to keep it traditional and awarded their top score to the artist who I had as my worst (no accounting for taste, poor performance or vocal ability) but the National jury and televoters bucked the trend and decided that the act representing them in Stockholm would, for the first time ever in Spanish Eurovision history, be singing their entry in English (bar the backing vocals):
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Barei had almost swept the board - top scores from all the National jurors and the televoters, second from the International ones. The Spanish language entries did very poorly - were we witnessing a 'sea-change' in the culture of Eurovision entries within this proud nation? Where Serbia and Israel led in 2015, were Spain now following? The Spanish public seemed to be moving that way...
Not my favourite during the show itself admittedly but unlike most NFs, something astounding (for me anyway) happened during Barei's reprise:
Wow! Where did that come from? This was a hundred times better than her first showing - measured singing, staging still full on and interactive with crowd and television viewer, not OTT - the backing singers sung a lot better too. This performance was the 'real deal', it was if she had relaxed and it all flowed a lot, lot better. Some fans watching thought it might have been the studio version being played but watching it closely, she does change emphasis and wording enough to show that is not the case. She performed "Say Yay!" again on RVTE's morning show, complete with the dance that we will be seeing again and again in numerous interviews across Eurovision-land:
If Barei can at least repeat the reprise vocals and performance in Stockholm, I have a strong feeling that this could be Spain's best entry for many, many years - breaking into the top ten for the first time since 2003. The song is a great up-tempo track and when controlled the vocals are spot on. Barei is sassy, easy on the eye and she has a lot of on-stage and on-screen charisma. Now where did we have all that combination before? Last year? A certain man and his animated friend? Now I'm not suggesting at this early stage that we could be looking at a Spanish win in Stockholm but I think that this was (despite my mid-show reservations) the best choice for Spain - the nation's first entry to be sung in the "World's second language" might succeed where Español has failed since 1969. At the end of the show, it was time for the 'baton to be passed on':
![]()
One thing the Spanish appear to appreciate is fairness as far as the running order was concerned, all done by random draw:
On with the show - Sunday 31st was the date and we opened with a lovely little medley by all the artists, doing what one Spanish Eurovision lady did in 1968 by 'la la'-ing a tune, this time the Eurovision anthem:
Next followed a comedy Eurovision skit portraying past Eurovision winners, focusing on some of the more colourful past contestants (Lordi, Dana International, Bucks Fizz, Cliff Richard etc), plus a certain lady who was to be on the National jury - you know, the one who did the 'crab dance':
I jest, the amazing Loreen with possibly one of the most contemporary songs to have come out of Eurovision - this was a stripped down but very effective performance, which was also very enjoyable. 'Euphoria' always seems better to me when there's not lots of staging, when she's dressed almost normally - a nice start to the show. One thing I have noticed in the NFs so far - no Måns Zelmerlöw at all. Conchita seemed to be everywhere last year...
The one thing that I noticed immediately when watching Objetivo Eurovisión was how hyper the crowd, the hosts, the artists and their 'entourages' were - they were well up for it! I can only hope that the UK NF at the end of this month has the same atmosphere. This NF also had an interesting way of introducing the artists themselves, giving them a 30 second snippet of their song to showcase themselves straight from the get go. Barei in particular looked slick and introduced a strange little dance move that looked a little familiar - I had seen something like it before:
Not quite the same but I have to admit that I prefered looking at her legs doing it!
The voting was explained (in Spanish, of course - I forget how rapid-fire a language it is!):
Televote (deciding factor in a tie) - 40%
International Jury (Italy/France/UK - our own Scott Mills/Sweden - Christer Björkman, getting around this year) - 30%
National Jury (Edurne - as gorgeous as ever/Loreen/Carlos Marin - Il Divo) - 30%
Spain was setting a fast pace in staging the NF - we were already into the songs. Six to hear, although the sound quality and the backing singers left a little to be desired...
Maverick - "Un mundo mas feliz'
First up, one of the all-Spanish entries. Maverick performed this well, he connected well with the camera, he had a great voice and it's all staged nicely. Unfortunately the song itself was just okay, no wows, sounding like a tune that would be heard coming from a bar in the Canaries as you walked through Las Palmas, avoiding the barmen trying to drag you into their drinking hole. It was all spoilt a bit too by the weird vocal gymnastics at the end of the song - I expected this to not be challenging for the win at the end. 6.5
Barei - "Say Yay!"
The hot favourite before the show, this started off amazingly well. A very, very contemporary song which was extremely catchy from the start, hooking me in straight away and Barei had huge amounts of enthusiasm and onstage charisma. I even forgave her the odd dance but as her excitement obviously grew with her whooping, her vocals began to lose their precision as she attempted to interact more with the crowd than the camera. I could see that this could be a superb entry for Spain, despite the almost total lack of Spanish within the entry (some backing lyrics apart) but her vocal presentation for the second half of the entry almost lost it for me. 7.0
Xuso Jones - "Victorious"
Visually very nice - two attractive female violinists, he is obviously easy on the eye for a lot of the audience. The main issue with this entry? It screams out "Glorious"! I would not have been surprised if Natalie Horler had been singing this and even Loreen made a comment when she gave her view after his performance that she wondered if her songwriters were involved with this entry! If 'Euphoria' and Germany's 2013 entry had never happened, I would have been very impressed with this catchy song and decent lyrics but as it was, it felt I had heard it all before and his vocals weren't as impressive, solid though they were. This just edged into the lead but there wasn't much in it so far. 7.0
Salvador Beltran - "Dias de alegria"
It seems that every NF has to have a sing-along song and there also has to be someone with poor vocals - Salvador provided both. The second Spanish language entry, it was all very low key and annoyingly semi-spoken. I was not impressed with most of it, the only part that I 'enjoyed' was the chorus but the whole performance aspect of this entry was very naff, with random arm waving and a bizarre stage invasion by the backing singers who came on to play the drums! The worst performance of the night... 5.0
Maria Isabel - "La vida solo es una"
Now this was my favourite of the night - Maria has a superb voice, this was a great routine and there was a nice hook to the music. Being all in Spanish, this had a distinctive feel which screamed out 'Spain' - it wasn't amazing, to be fair but it was the best sounding entry during the NF. The main downside for this was that there were lots of gaps in the music that might lose the viewer and listener and it did run out of steam towards the end. 7.5
Electric Nana - "Now"
Another lady with a sassy attitude but also with very, very weird eye makeup! Nana's vocals weren't that strong to say the least - the band had more of a presence in that respect. It sounded like an album track that a singer might try out on 'Later with Jools Holland', which isn't a good thing - there was no impact with this entry and it was all too repetitive for me. 5.5
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As I suspected when I heard the studio versions of these tracks, the NF itself was all quite mediocre, a disappointing hour spent for me and I suspect the hyped-up crowd and hosts deep down inside. My scores varied from 5.0 to 7.5 - not a ringing endorsement for any of them and I suspected that the selection of the winner might have come down to public awareness and televisual impact. If the staging and charisma of the artist was the determining factor here, Barei's position as pre-show favourite and her superb 'in your face' performance might still give her the crown - vocally I would have given it to Maria:
No strange outfits, no being flung around by a muscled male dancer - singing Amanecer as it should have been sung in Austria, perfect vocals that would have given Spain at least a mid-table finish.
After the interval acts came the results - the International Jury may have tried to keep it traditional and awarded their top score to the artist who I had as my worst (no accounting for taste, poor performance or vocal ability) but the National jury and televoters bucked the trend and decided that the act representing them in Stockholm would, for the first time ever in Spanish Eurovision history, be singing their entry in English (bar the backing vocals):
Not my favourite during the show itself admittedly but unlike most NFs, something astounding (for me anyway) happened during Barei's reprise:
Wow! Where did that come from? This was a hundred times better than her first showing - measured singing, staging still full on and interactive with crowd and television viewer, not OTT - the backing singers sung a lot better too. This performance was the 'real deal', it was if she had relaxed and it all flowed a lot, lot better. Some fans watching thought it might have been the studio version being played but watching it closely, she does change emphasis and wording enough to show that is not the case. She performed "Say Yay!" again on RVTE's morning show, complete with the dance that we will be seeing again and again in numerous interviews across Eurovision-land:
If Barei can at least repeat the reprise vocals and performance in Stockholm, I have a strong feeling that this could be Spain's best entry for many, many years - breaking into the top ten for the first time since 2003. The song is a great up-tempo track and when controlled the vocals are spot on. Barei is sassy, easy on the eye and she has a lot of on-stage and on-screen charisma. Now where did we have all that combination before? Last year? A certain man and his animated friend? Now I'm not suggesting at this early stage that we could be looking at a Spanish win in Stockholm but I think that this was (despite my mid-show reservations) the best choice for Spain - the nation's first entry to be sung in the "World's second language" might succeed where Español has failed since 1969. At the end of the show, it was time for the 'baton to be passed on':
'Dawn' has broken - it's time to 'Say Yay!'