Monday 3 February 2020

SPAIN

The Spanish entry was released on January 30th online, firstly via rtve.es then via other online audio visual platforms. Back in October 2019, the Spanish broadcaster RTVE announced that Blas Cantó had been internally selected as the singer. The song he will be singing is “Universo" (Universe)

The video is very cinematic in its direction and gives us very few clues as to how they could present it on the Eurovision stage. For some of the video he is flanked by a couple of dancers who are covered head to toe in dark glitter which kind of mirrors the starry/universe theme. Some of the outdoor parts were filmed on the Canary Islands and looks much more rocky and rugged - almost moon like - than the studio based excerpts. Here he is joined by a number of extras all dressed in what seems like 99p shop plastic raincoats and full face muzzles –  like the Handmaid’s Tale remade by Channel 5. Blas Cantó does quite a lot of emoting and there is a lot of looking at hands, praying motions, looking above at the skies which, although tying in with the songs title, lacks personality and makes him look quite generic. The song has a good amount of backing singers on it too, and these are not featured at all but these will be need accounting for when staging in May.

The song starts with what turns out to be the chorus but in a much more subdued voice and tone. There is a mid-tempo latino/dancehall syncopated rhythm in the background that keeps the song chugging along in the short verses which even in such a short form comprises of two different tunes! Only 20 seconds after the introduction, we get our first chorus proper although it does feel more like an elongated bridge due to the chopping and changing of the melodies and this then ends with a oh-oh-oh earworm with repetitions of ‘universo’ on top which could also be interpreted as a hours but feel more like an afterthought.. This process repeats again and this gets up to the 2 minute mark. There is then a repetition of part the verses before a crescendo to a final blast of the chorus with an elongated high note. It then ends with a final ‘oh-oh-oh’ rather than the word in the title.

Being a music video I can get a good idea of his voice but not how good it is live on this song. His voice sounds quite breathy and gentle in the verses and his pronunciation is very clear. The choruses however use much more of his range is used in the chorus including some parts suing falsetto. Although this part of his voice is also nice to listen to the juggling to and fro from head voice to chest voice and back again sounds odd to the ear. I suppose the only plus point about this oddness of melody is that it makes it stand out and slightly more memorable which is a plus point is you don’t speak or understand any Spanish. The possible drawback of this will be if he is able to perform these parts live and to a good enough standard.

My first reaction to this is that it is actually quite hard to get into and not the easiest to crack into and absorb into your head. After a few listens it embeds itself quite well – but do you need something more instantaneous at Eurovision? My main criticism of the song is I find the structure very stop start and made up of too many short bits. I almost want the song to flow a bit more and maybe have a longer amount of time in the first verse and less time setting up the ending, which is much of a muchness. The language gives away that the song is the Spanish entry but the rhythm of the song tends to this way which gives it a good grounding and could easily be heard on the radio. Overall, there are too many question marks over the presentation of the entry to be overly confident of its chances but I just don’t think this is instant enough to worry the top of the scoreboard mainly because I don’t think this compels anybody to vote for it.

Artist - Blas Cantó
Song - Universo (Universe)
Composers - Blas Cantó, Dan Hammond, Ashley Hicklin, Dangelo Ortega, Maciej Mikolaj Trybulec
Lyricists - Blas Cantó, Dan Hammond, Ashley Hicklin, Dangelo Ortega, Maciej Mikolaj Trybulec

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