If twenty years are nothing, as Gardel said, fifty are not many either… In 1968 Franco governed, not Sánchez. And Spain was very different from today, or not so much. RTVE was mired in an endless war, the use of Catalan aroused suspicion, politicians intervened left and right, and Eurovision was a sink of failures for Spanish artists. A breeding ground that Fran Araújo and Pepe Coira took advantage of to create ‘The song’, a series about the first and only Spanish victory in the European music competition and his first big project after finishing ‘Rapa’.
«We were attracted by the idea of revisiting historical moments mixed with fiction and making an x-ray of the Spain of that time with an eye on the present, because it deals with themes that continue to resonate today and allow us to reflect on whether things have changed so much.» Alejandro Marín, director of the three-chapter fiction that Movistar Plus+ will premiere next year.
Marcel Borràs as Joan Manuel Serrat
The series, of three chapters of between 45 and 50 minutes and structured chronologically, will address the student marches of the late sixties, a “gray” Corporation in perpetual crisis, the controversial ‘disqualification’ of Joan Manuel Serrat, played by actor Marcel Borràs and the one chosen to represent Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest, from which he refused for wanting to sing in Catalan, and the ten days that Massiel (Carolina Yuste), who was on tour in Mexico, had to return and prepare the ‘La la la’ and make history. ‘The Song’ is rigorous in the real episodes it tells, but expands the plot by mixing it with fiction through the character played by Patrick Criado. «It is not a biopic of Massiel or Serrat but a real frame with many real characters in which the fictional character of Esteban was included, an RTVE official who helps us convey the story and give that overview of the story from one point external to enter the ins and outs,” explains the director, who has worked on ‘I’m Loving You Madly’ and ‘Faggot Lost’.
In ‘The Song’, guess what, the actors sing. Carolina Yuste, who already demonstrated her vocal skills in ‘El Cover’ and ‘Saben Aquell’, will do it with the iconic dress that Massiel wore at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and Borràs will also do it, although the priority was “not make an imitation. «If they imitated it could fall into something parodic and we didn’t want that. We were not just looking for a physical resemblance, it was more important that they had the same energy that Massiel or Serrat and that the casting was in line with how they are: Serrat had to be a Catalan actor and Massiel, “She was a woman very advanced for her time, eloquent and assertive, an actress like Carolina, who is a very committed aunt,” Marín reveals.
Carolina Yuste’s La Massiel, upon her arrival in Spain after winning Eurovision
The tone of the series is not one but several. Musical, of course, and political “without being a thriller”, with touches of comedy and frenetic. «We wanted it to be fresh and breathe. They were times in which there were so many contrasts that we touched the reality of the moment from many places. There are dramatic parts and space for light and hope because, indeed, change was beginning in Spain,” he concludes.
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