Hello! As you may have guessed from the name of this blog, my name is Liz and I am fascinated by song lyrics. I hope you enjoy my waxing lyrical about lyrics and about music generally. I also review albums and gigs and have interviewed several wonderful musicians. Enjoy!
If you would like to learn more about my time in Spain, check out my travel blog - the post where I first arrive in Salamanca can be found here and you can then go through the others in the Blog Archive on the left.
I hope to share more articles and reviews on this blog soon, especially with the Eurovision season coming up!
Well, last night was the grand final; what we've all been waiting for. And it didn't disappoint. There were some amazing songs, and Baku did a great job of hosting a brilliant show.
I wasn't so keen on the ridiculous political voting - I had kind of been hoping that it had become less of a problem in recent years; however it seems to have re-emerged in force.
Luckily, I think the winner won on the strength of the song and the performance, because Sweden were receiving douze points from countries that are nowhere near it geographically. So that's nice. With regards to the winner, talent won over daft block voting.
I personally enjoyed Loreen's winning song, Euphoria, though I felt she performed it better in her semi-final. Other songs I enjoyed were Echo (You and I) by Anggun for France, which I voted for, Be My Guest by Gaitana for Ukraine, and Quédate Conmigo by Pastora Soler for Spain.
As usual we had our family Eurovision party; we watched the show together and ate cakes and brownies we had baked earlier that featured the flags of the participating countries. We had a great night and really enjoyed the spectacle.
So, thank you to Baku for a great show, and thank you to all the performers for making this year's Eurovision amazing!
Here's looking forward to next year in Sweden!
Please keep coming back to my blog; Eurovision may be over for the year but I will still be blogging regularly about music and artists of all genres, past and present, that I love.
Also, maybe check out some of my earlier, pre-Eurovision posts which feature artists and bands such as Roxette, Gloria Estefan, Céline Dion, R.E.M., Paul Young, ABBA, Martika and Dire Straits, among many others!
I will be sure to keep posting on this blog, so come back and visit when you can.
Spain has certainly had a colourful Eurovision history, from their stage invasion in 2010, to the unforgettable "Baila el Chiki-chiki" in 2008, to their 2011 entry "Que me quiten lo bailao," by Lucía Pérez which I love and which has to be one of the happiest, bounciest Eurovision songs ever ♥
I personally think that in the last few years they have been one of the more consistent nations when it comes to entering if not amazing then certainly very good songs - songs that have potential, either to win or to become Eurovision legend - as in the case of Baile el Chiki-chike.
When I think of Spain in Eurovision, one of the first songs that come to mind - after Lucía Pérez - is "I Love You Mi Vida," by D'NASH.
When I first saw this and my Spanish wasn't as good as it is now, I genuinely thought they were saying they loved their life. In actually fact, "mi vida" is a term of endearment and means, "my dear" or "my darling." I kind of like it more now that I know it is a love song than I did when I thought it was just one of those typical shouty Eurovision party anthems (although it still isn't that far from being the latter!)
I was surprised to see this was from 2007 - in my memory it was an earlier competition. But hey, I must be wrong. It is up there with Krisse Salminen as one of the things that made the 2007 competition great (although I still think Krisse MADE that Eurovision!).
The next year, however, we were subjected to... Baile el Chike-chike. It was, let's say, an unusual song. But it kind of had its place in the competition, I felt. Sometimes you need something a bit different. (WARNING - strobe lighting in the video below)
I do think the dancing arrangement is somewhat sexist, with the man ordering the women to do his dance moves, and then him seeming to inspect their performance, and the general lack of clothes on the women. That's one side of this song that I do not approve of.
Otherwise... I think there's room for a few novelty songs each year; in fact I'd be disappointed if there weren't any.
In 2010 - one of my favourite Eurovision years - there was the famous stage invasion during the performance of "Algo pequeñito" - "Something tiny."
The first video is the performance uninterrupted; the second includes the stage invasion.
The song was performed by Daniel Diges, with support from an array of toys/circus characters, I'm not sure which. Whatever they are, I personally find the song and performance a bit weird and almost scary... no me gusta mucho.
I have to admit, disrespectful as it was to the performers, I did enjoy the stage invasion - especially as it looks at first as though he's supposed to be there! I didn't realise he was an intruder until security chased him off!
Last year, in Düsseldorf, Spain's Eurovision offering was Lucía Pérez with what is quite possibly my favourite Eurovision song ever and certainly one of the happiest and most upbeat songs I have ever heard. This is "Que me quiten lo bailao." I will warn you that this version of the video - the only decent version Blogger will let me embed - has some rather psychedelic stuff going on with the graphics from about 0.08 to 0.14.
I love her voice, her joyful, bubbly persona in the video and the song itself, as well as the chance to get a glimpse of the Carnival celebrations in Sitges, Catalonia. It looks like an amazing fiesta!
Whenever I hear this song, I just want to dance. It's brilliant ♥
¡Gracias por una canción maravillosa!
Thanks for reading.
Liz x
Songs: I Love You Mi Vida - D'NASH - 2007
Baila el Chike-chike - Rodolfo Chikilicuatre - 2008
