Chanel, of Cuban origin and living in Catalonia since she was four years old, became the winner of the pre-selection to represent Spain at the European festival on Saturday and will attend the contest on behalf of TVE in May, which will be held in the city this year Italian from Turin.
She will do it with ‘SloMo’, a song that mixes Spanish and English, with Latin touches, which she accompanied by an impressive choreography that she made the audience dance at the Palacio de Deportes Lilla in Benidorm.
FIRST STATEMENT
Winning the Benidorm Fest, she says, is the culmination of a career to which she has dedicated a lot of time and effort in order to reach the top.
โThis victory means a lot. Not only because we have worked for many months, but because I have been working on this for many years. And sharing the stage with all these artists has been a dream. I still can not believe it. It’s a gift”, she assures at the press conference, minutes before posing smiling with the Bronze Microphone that she received after winning the Benidorm Fest.
THE TOXIC ENVIRONMENT
The artist also takes the opportunity to dedicate a few words against the “toxic messages” that proliferate on the networks:
“Let them take an example. Among all the candidates there have been good vibes. We congratulated each other, we looked each other in the eye and we enjoyed ourselves. It is a song festival, it is art. Let’s unite and let’s all go as one.”
THE SPANISH FOUREIRA?
It should be remembered that her style has been compared to that of Eleni Foureira, the Cypriot singer who dazzled with the song ‘Fire’ at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. For her, she says, the comparison is an “honour”.
ยซBut it makes me angry when you see an empowered and strong woman, who dances and sings, who is compared to each other. Each one is different. The boys are not compared and it seems unfair”, she criticizes.
RECAP OF THE RESULTS
The young woman did not start as the favourite in the musical contest but after the semifinal, she caused a sensation. In the final of the Benidorm Fest, which aired on Saturday La 1 with great audience success (almost 3 million viewers and a 21% audience share), Chanel won by amassing a total of 96 points. However, the votes were close and the singer received the highest number of votes from the professional jury (51 points) compared to her competitors. For her part, Rigoberta Bandini was in second place with 91 points and, in the third position, the Galician Tanxugueiras (90 points), despite being crowned the favourite option of the televote (30 points) and the opinion poll jury (30 points).
REACTIONS & POLITICS
Chanel’s victory, yes, angered the viewers who demanded a change in the voting system so as not to give so much weight to the professional jury (they decide 50% of the final result).
From social networks, professionals from different fields regretted that the ticket for Turin did not go to Rigoberta Bandini or Tanxugueiras.
They also echoed from politics.
“Citizens asking that in the next elections they vote like in the Benidorm Fest,” wrote the ERC spokesman Gabriel Rufiรกn. ยซTanxugueiras sweeps the two votes of the public and the popular jury of the Benidorm Fest, but she does not go to Eurovision due to the decision of the technical jury. What sadness, what immense angerโ, added the RTVE journalist Xabier Fortes.
an oikotimes original text
