Bets. Chanel, which will perform in tenth place, is among the favorites along with the Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Italy
May is synonymous with flowers and communions, but also with the largest song festival in the world. Europe puts its differences aside tonight to unite around a television contest in which live music and brotherhood prevail. Eurovision has managed to cross the borders of the old continent, reaching a potential audience of around 200 million viewers. In total, there will be 25 countries that will perform on the stage in Turin (Italy), in a gala that La 1 de TVE will offer from 9:00 p.m. and that will feature Mika, Laura Pausini and Alessandro Cattelan as masters of ceremonies . This year’s edition practically returns 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 chorus girls tested positive for covid and underwent the corresponding isolation. However, Eurovision has also encountered a technical unforeseen event on stage that, luckily, will not affect Chanel. RAI, the Italian public television in charge of organizing the event, opted for a large “kinetic sun” of LED screens that would provide moving images, lights and pyrotechnics during the performances. Despite the ambition of the proposal, a failure in the system meant that it could not be used as planned. Many of the European delegations had to change their staging prepared for months to adapt to the circumstances.
On this occasion, to see the Spanish representative will not have to wait long. Chanel will act in tenth position, 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 in 2015, the Swedish Mans Zelmerlow, performed. He will be the culmination of a candidacy that started off on the wrong foot after the ‘Benidorm Fest’, but has managed to recover the illusion among Spanish eurofans, accustomed to the continuous bumps of TVE in the last decade. “We have not seen each other in another”, insistently repeats this community of followers of the contest on social networks. ‘Chanelazo’ is coming, say others.
The most optimistic bets place the interpreter of ‘SloMo’ in fifth place. The lyrics of the song have 35% words in English and an impressive choreography that winks at Spanish clichés (the artist will take 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 will wear a black jumpsuit and a leather jacket with more than 50,000 ‘swarovsky’ crystals, which she will carefully wear during the popular ‘dance break’, one of the highlights of the performance of the Catalan artist of Cuban origin.
The illusion for the good position has also been transferred to TVE. From the public channel they do not hide their emotion for the candidacy and predict a spectacular audience result at a time when La 1 is not capable of bringing together large masses with its programs and series, with the exception of the broadcast of sporting events or ‘ Master Chef’.
The interest in Eurovision 2022 even led the corporation to transfer the two semifinals of the festival from La 2 to the first channel, disrupting the sacred hour of the start of the ‘Telediario’ of the night and with follow-up success. The second qualifying gala, broadcast this Thursday, managed to double the number of viewers compared to the previous edition, with an 11% share and almost 1.5 million faithful. It was a leader among the population under 44 years of age.
The vote of emotion
The wisest agree that there is no clear winner and that everything is open in Eurovision 2022. The final result will be decided with a voting system in which 50% of the votes will be decided by the professional jury of each country and the other 50% known as ‘televoting’. In Spain, the model Nieves Álvarez will be in charge of communicating the verdict of TVE.
THE DATA:
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More than 1,200 euros for a ticket.
Eurovision returned to one hundred percent of its capacity after the previous edition limited by the restrictions of the pandemic. However, the semi-finals of the contest showed empty seats, so many considered the ticket prices to be exorbitant. At the end of April, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) put them up for sale so that the public could access the venue and follow the festival in Turin live. At that time, the range ranged between 350 euros (the most expensive) and 150 euros for the reduced visibility area, prices that soared above 1,200 euros in the big week of the European event. Likewise, RTVE broke down this week the money it invested in Chanel’s candidacy, including promotion, travel and diets. According to the corporation’s Transparency Portal, the total budget amounts to 637,984.18 euros, 20,000 euros more than what was spent for Blas Cantó last year. Last year, more than 4 million viewers and a 29.4% share followed the final, crowning it the most watched non-sports program of the year.
The bets, yes, give victory to the Kalush Orchestra, which represents Ukraine with a mixture of rap and folk music. The members of this group could benefit from what is known as the ‘vote of emotion’ due to the situation in the country after the Russian invasion. However, the history of the festival also tells us that a war is not enough to win first place. In 1993, singer-songwriter Muhamed Fazlagic came in 16th place representing Bosnia while it was immersed in war.
The surprise of the night may also fall on a country that no longer belongs to the EU. It is about the United Kingdom that, like Spain, has been in the queue in the last editions of Eurovision. For this year’s event, he bets on the song ‘Space Man’ performed by Sam Ryder, an emerging talent who became known during the pandemic on ‘Tik Tok’ and who caught the attention of artists like Justin Bieber or Alicia Keys. Italy, the host country, also enters the pools to win with Mahmood and Blanco, who with their song ‘Brividi’ dazzled the public at the San Remo Festival. In the case of Mahmood, he is already a familiar face in Eurovision, because he performed in 2019 with ‘Soldi’, achieving a second position. For her part, Cornelia Jakobs, the representative of Sweden, with the orchestral pop ballad ‘Hold Me Closer’ promises to be one of the most exciting performances of the night.
And in case Chanel wins, the cities of Madrid, Torremolinos, Valencia, Barcelona and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria have already quickly raised their hands to host Eurovision 2023.
In search of joy after six years in the queue
It is a common comment in the average citizen to highlight how badly Spain is doing in the Eurovision Song Contest. And the data does not lie. In recent years, the Spanish delegation has been at the bottom of the classification. Moreover, it has not even managed to be above the 20th position. The last of the hits was carried out last year by the Murcian Blas Cantó, remaining third from last on the list, but previously 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 stage, achieved 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 position, respectively, in the two subsequent years .
However, our country has not managed to enter the ‘podium’ since 1995, when an unknown young woman named Anabel Conde surprised the continent with ‘Vuelve conmigo’. She came in second place, the same as previously achieved by Betty Missiego (1979), Mocedades (1973) and Karina (1971).
In its 65 editions, Spain has only won the festival twice: with Massiel, in 1968, and the following year with Salomé, although it tied on points with representatives from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France.
After years of controversial pre-selections, the new management of RTVE, headed by José Manuel Pérez Tornero, turned the corporation’s bet on Eurovision and created the ‘Benidorm Fest’, a program to choose the Spanish candidate who is assimilated to other European formats. “We are going to take Eurovision very seriously,” the president warned as soon as he took office just a year ago.
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