Spain sends couple with romantic duet to Eurovision 2018
After Spain’s (deserved) last place in Eurovision 2017, Spanish broadcaster TVE had to come up with a new strategy to select their representative for the contest in Lisbon this year. They chose to bring back talent competition Operación Triunfo which they used as a national final from 2002 to 2004, with three top 10 finishes as a result. This year, real life couple Alfred and Amaia won the competition with their duet ‘Tu Canción’. Will they save Spain from another Eurovision failure?
It seems that Spain was inspired by the victory of their neighbour country Portugal last year. They now send a ballad that brings back the romantic vibes of the past too. Alfred even has got some ‘Salvadorisms’ going on in his vocal delivery. The difference however is that Salvador Sobral’s performance was widely seen as heartfelt, whereas the performance by Alfred and Amaia could come across as kitsch. Having said that, there seems to be a market for their love duet ‘Tu Canción’. The track immediately hit number 1 in the Spanish iTunes list after release and became a decent hit afterwards. Spain has been in the top 5 of the Eurovision betting odds since ‘Tu Canción’ was selected.
Alfred and Amaia are both talented performers and their chemistry on stage does have a certain charm. At the same time I am afraid that ‘Tu Canción’ as a composition, won’t be memorable enough to make an impression in between 25 other songs. To be honest, I couldn’t remember the melody line after my first listen. We will have to wait and see how well they will sell the track on stage in May!
UPDATE: RTVE released a new Eurovision version of the song on the 7th of March. The instrumentation is fuller and the whole thing sounds a bit more polished. I have to say this track did grow on me in the past weeks, but as the viewers at home will only here it once, this might come too late. The cute video shows some good ideas for the staging in Lisbon in May! The flying might be a bit too much, but some falling snow on stage wouldn’t hurt, right!?
Review of Final Performance:
Spain had bad luck this year, as the show producers decided to give them the unlucky second starting position. The couple performed their love duet ‘Tu Canción’ (your song) with passion and their romance really shined through on stage. Vocally, Amaia sure was the stronger one of the two, but both did a good job at working with their nerves. Although I would have loved to see these two higher up the scoreboard, I was not surprised their sweet, sugary ballad only finished in 23rd position.
Read our other Eurovision 2018 reviews: ALBANIA – ARMENIA – AUSTRALIA –AUSTRIA – AZERBAIJAN – BELARUS –BELGIUM – BULGARIA – CROATIA – CYPRUS –CZECH REPUBLIC – DENMARK – ESTONIA – FINLAND – FRANCE – FYR MACEDONIA – GEORGIA – GERMANY – GREECE – HUNGARY – ICELAND –IRELAND – ISRAEL –ITALY – LATVIA – LITHUANIA –MALTA – MOLDOVA – MONTENEGRO – THE NETHERLANDS – NORWAY – POLAND – PORTUGAL – ROMANIA – RUSSIA – SAN MARINO – SERBIA – SLOVENIA – SWEDEN – SWITZERLAND – UKRAINE – UNITED KINGDOM