The sisterhood of Eaea from Lorca, fueled by Blanca Paloma’s stunning vocal performance, became the winners of Benidorm Fest 2023 on Saturday night. The song and artist will therefore be the ones to represent Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool this month in May. Flamenco revival at the European Song Festival.
The singer’s production, prepared independently by a group of theater professionals, evokes the spirit of her grandmother Carmen, who was her first reference in flamenco. With her began the musical career of the stage designer, who trained in the field of fine arts and whose memories inspired Eaea.
The 34-year-old singer from Elche, with 169 points, beat Agoney with 145 and Vicco with 129 points, classified second and third. She was the preferred option by the expert jury, whose eight members awarded her 94 points out of a possible 96, and also by the Televote, while she was the second favorite for the demoscopic vote – a statistical selection from 350 people representing the Spanish population. This near unanimity prevented controversy surrounding this choice, at least initially, unlike what happened with Chanel.
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In this final, whose gala was moderated by the singer Mónica Naranjo together with Rodrigo Vázquez (El cazador) and Inés Hernand (Gen Playz) of the Palau d’Esports l’Illa de Benidorm, the eight resulting artists took part after qualifying the two previous semifinals. The variety of proposals that passed the last filter was great: from rock to folklore, ballads and commercial pop. Almost all of them showed stronger and more energetic performances than just a few days ago in their respective semi-finals. They were Karmento with I want and duel, Megara with Arcadia, Alice Wonder with I would like, Fusa Nocta with My family, Agoney with I want to burn, Blanca Paloma with EAEA, José Otero with Winter on Mars and Vicco with Nonchentera. The reaction from the audience, who sold out the tickets in just 36 seconds on the day the tickets went on sale, was also much more festive and passionate, sometimes reminiscent of the passion aroused by last year’s Benidorm Fest, something that had never been seen before the previous days.
But there were no surprises and the bronze microphone was only contested between two names, those of Agoney and Blanca Paloma, the only ones to have appeared between the two favorites of the professional jury, the demoscopic vote and the televote, in the two previous semifinals of the competition .
personal heritage
Eaea’s scenery reflects this personal legacy, surrounded by strong women and a circle of red fringes inspired by a shawl that belonged to her grandmother. “It is the result of a hardship that came when she went missing. Back then, when he died, I had a reputation for flamenco,” the singer commented to this newspaper from her hotel in Benidorm this Friday. Walking through Antón Martín’s market almost a decade ago, Blanca Paloma received her upon arrival in Madrid a signal. The pounding of heels thundering through the roof of the house drew his attention to a dance school that was upstairs. And it transported him to the long-awaited universe of Carmen. There he met Lina, a teacher who passed it on as his grandmother’s copy until he encouraged the artist to pursue a career as a singer.
Agoney, another favourite, during his stage show at Finale Morell (EFE)
The singer Vicco with her disco bet in the Morell final (EFE)
Mónica Naranjo made the public vibrate in Benidorm while people voted from their homes.Morell (EFE)
The singer José Otero during his performance in the final of the BenidormFest 2023 that takes place this Saturday in the city of Alicante. Morell (EFE)
The singer Blanca Paloma, one of the favourites, with her flamenco and her voice Morell (EFE)
The singer Fusa Nocta during her performance in the final of the BenidormFest 2023 that takes place this Saturday in the city of Alicante. Morell (EFE)
Alice Wonder with her intense ballad, another bet for the Benidorm Fest 2023 final. Morell (EFE)
The artist Megara during her performance in the final of the BenidormFest 2023 that takes place this Saturday in the city of Alicante. Morell (EFE)
Guest artist Manuel Carrasco, guest star of preview Morell (EFE)
The singer Karmento with her commitment to the Manchego folk in the finale Morell (EFE)
In one of the shows where Blanca sang Paloma, Acciones sencillas, the dancer Jesús Rubio Gamo, Max Award for Performing Arts for the best dance show in 2020, she found several allies with whom to build the Eaea proposal. One of them is the composer and artistic director José Pablo Polo and some of his choir girls and dancers.
The team of singers, who had already performed at the Benidorm Fest last year with Secreto del agua, the soundtrack of the documentary series Lucía en la web by RTVE Play, wanted to repeat the competition to show a project conceived from the start instead of the previous edition adapting a song created for audiovisual content, Polo commented to this newspaper a few days ago. Given the fashion for dance pauses, a series of steps with great energy that occur during the song’s musical bridge, Eaea officials have devised a capella pause, a chant without musical accompaniment that depends solely on the singing talent of Blanca Paloma, said polo . The live audience is particularly moved at this moment, so that the singer can no longer hear her own voice with her shouts and applause, she herself admitted before this finale. His performance on Saturday was once again one of the highlights.
In this candidacy to win the Benidorm Fest 2023, with choreography by Paula Quintana and costumes by Paola de Diego, he is surrounded on stage by a group of women, chorus girls Desiré Paredes and Saray Frutos and dancers Angélica Moyano, Paula Valbuena and Paloma Fernandez. Together they create a Lorca moment on stage: a “rite of invocation, of trance, of catharsis, in which we somehow connect to our ancestors, to the strength, to the legacy that each of us left,” narrated the artist.
With Eaea, she also conjures up the memory of Remedios Amaya’s Quién maneja mi barca, despite the fact that her flamenco proposal that she performed barefoot took last place in the 1983 Eurovision Song Contest.Blanca Paloma, without superstitions, is optimistic and believes that flamenco will become He sees it differently than he did then, both inside and outside of Spain. “It would be an honor for Eaea to be this new opportunity for flamenco in the Eurovision Song Contest, after years in which many artists have paved the way internationally,” the artist declared shortly before her performance on the night of her flight to Liverpool begins.
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