Another week, another Spanish personality complaining about “Say Yay!” This time it’s Remedios Amaya, who represented Spain at Eurovision 1983 and received an embarrassing nul points for her hot mess entry “Quién maneja mi barca“. Ms. Amaya has asked Barei to switch the language of her song in a very folkloric way: “¡Canta en español, mi alma!” (Sing in Spanish, my soul!)
Barei – “Say yay”
Remedios was interviewed by the Europa Press news agency after the release of her latest album, “Rompiendo el silencio” (Breaking the silence), which comes after 13 years without a new release. The singer has commented that she “can’t conceive” that the Spanish representative will sing in English:
“Someone representing Spain in English… where are we ending up? I don’t think that’s right. I love that people sing in Spanish, because they are representing Spain, not England!”
Remedios Amaya at Eurovision 1983
Remedios has explained that scoring zero points was a big slap on the back, and that she’ll always be thankful to Eurovision. Whether fans are thankful for her mythical 0 in Münich is another matter entirely.
The singer recently released a new version of her 1983 entry and it features on her album. Why Because 30 years on people still stop her on the street and ask her to sing the song. Not barefoot and dressed with a curtain as at Eurovision, we hope.
Remedios Amaya – “Quién maneja mi barca” 2016 version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0cbB8xm69s
Moreover, Remedios says that she no longer follows the Eurovision Song Contest, because she thinks it “has lost importance” over the years. Completely agree: it has 200 million viewers and 20 more countries taking part than when she participated. Utter decline.
Remedios is the latest artist to join the ranks of the alarmed, anti-English ex Eurovision stars who think that Spain should sing in Spanish because we’re not the UK. Massiel and Alaska already threw shade on Barei’s decision. What do you think? Do you say yay or nay to English? Let us know below!
Spanish, Catalan, Basque, Galician… When a country has this many languages and cultures, why not sing in English? At least this way, none of those cultures would feel stamped on or left out.
@wiwiLluis actually mi alma is better translated as my dear, my soul is too literal. In fact if you wanted to be bitchy you could translated as my dearie (very wicked witch). That is the problem with translations they can be too rigid or completely change the song. HOw would you translate Say Yay into Spanish?
Since Spain has several national language why pick Castellano over the others?
I think they should consider that every country has to sing in they own language like before 1999 because it’s getting monotonous .I really miss the russian and armenian language and I think we never heard the azerbaijani or georgian 🙂
If she presented the song in English at her national contest and won, then she’d be better off keeping it in English at the big show. unless you can do as good a job in transliteration wordplay as Pollapönk did for Iceland 2014, it might turn out as bad a job as it was for Hersi for Albania 2014, and the points will be low.
Pastora Soler haha!
Puedes pasar el link y lo incluyo en el artículo? Gracias! 🙂
Agree with Digital Style
If Spain should sing in Spanish, they should have chosen Salva B. Sweden Panetoz, Germany Axel Diehl and so on. And I would have been happier with Spain choosing Salva, but it is good as it is with Sweden, and Germany should have selected Avantasia
People are making a massive deal out of her language choice. Seriously, just shut up and accept that she chooses to sing in English. Lots of countries are singing in English, but no one is getting angry about their language choices, are they? Barei does not deserve the pressure that she receives to sing in Spanish.
Luis Fuster
Deberías de escribir también lo de Sergio Dalma… Prácticamente le dijo que era una cateta por cantar en inglés :s
Hay un vídeo por youtube
“mi alma” is an Andalucian expresion, the meaning is my soul but the real sense here is more like “come on girl!”
“Sing in Spanish, come on girl!”
The thing is that Spanish language is the mother language of 500 million people all over the world, so something to preserve and expand for Spanish government and institutions. It’s a big culture group in the world so many people in Spain want to keep and protect even from English new vocabulary.
It’s not nationalism, it’s something else. There is a Spanish sphere culture and strong cultural lazes with latinamerica which gives a rich world of culture and music to the world.
That said, I have no problem with a song in English from Spain in ESC.
I think the Spanish singers are ignorant–it’s totally up to Barei.
It’s eurovision SONG contest. The problem is that some songs are better in English, some not: Lordi wouldn’t have won in 2006 singing in Finnish and Albania would have qualified in 2014 singing in Albanian. Simply, Say Yay is better in English and even if it doesn’t represent an English-speaker country, the song’s style is english so stop this stupid complaints
It is sad that lingustic diversity is almost non-existent in this year’s contest. Having said that, Spain has the same right as everyone else to choose the language they want for Eurovision. I don’t think that will help their entry much, though. I see “Say yay” as a massive fan wank which will bomb big time when the votes are counted.
This echoes nationalist and xenophobic sentiments. It is true that the lack of languages this year at Eurovision is disappointing (although we have French, Bosnian and Macedonian, as well as Italian and Bulgarian to a lesser extent) but it is the artist’s and network’s/people’s decision. Barei was voted by Spaniards to represent them- they chose an English song.
And if nationalists are still upset, then they should be reminded of the fact that Barei is a frontrunner.
Spanish hardcore fans want and deserve to do well in ESC at least once. It might not happen this year, but this is the way. Eurovision is not Instituto Cervantes and spanish language doesn’t need any help to find it’s place in the world.
Spain wili be flop like in 2009,2015. Huge support by eurovison fans and them crash in voting .
No Barei. Keep the english version if you want to do an OK result!
Afortunadamente esto lo dice una parte muy pequeña de la ponlacion…Alaska, Massiel ,Remedios y la RAE, yo hago una pregunta el autor de cancion Española del pasado año no era Español y eso se acepto por que se canto en Español…Sin embargo este año la cancion la escribe una Española, y la canta en otro idioma, y aqui estas personas se manifiestan de ésta manera…Definitivamente España no se sabe vender ,mi alma.
Erwann, mi alma, cuando hay entrevistas de este tipo son noticia nos guste o no. Creo que el tono de mi artículo denota lo hasta las narices que estoy de que cada semana salga alguien a decir lo mismo sobre Barei cantando en inglés. Y eso que no soy especialmente fan suyo, pero estas cosas hay que escribirlas. Saludos.
Who does she think she is? She scored nil points in ESC 1983. And that interview….
‘Someone representing Spain in English…. Where will we end up’
In the top 10. With a lot of points. That’s more than am she managed!
But if people really want her to sing in Spanish, she could keep the song in English and sing the last chorus or something in Spanish. She’ll get a better score in English!!
Wait, el idioma. Ugh bloody Spanish. 😉
Me encanta la idioma, pero de verdad no me gusta la musica castellana.
I loved Pastora, and Spain has been one of the somewhat better countries in Eurovision to my ears, but Spanish-language pop is unusually bad. This song works really well in English, leave it be.
¡déjate de tonterías Lluís mi alma!
And back again the same story… I don´t understand why´s so hard to get that she wrote her song, that she´s singing her own song and the spanish audience voted for her the way the song is: in English! For the first time ever those who voted for the spanish entry chose freely among six options to send this one (in English). She didn´t cheat anyone, she didn´t showcase the song in Spanish and later changed it. So common narrow-minded people, it´s 21st century, the spanish entry have been chosen and the audience is the one who chose it! Admit… Read more »
A mi m’agrada Quien maneja mi barca x’D
Is this news? Nobody cares about what remedios amaya think…
Understanding the extremely sometimes over the top patriotic love Spanish people have for their language is something I can understand …until it is used to become like a fundamentalist-extremely-patriotic-weapon against the English language … anyone who knows Spanish knows how they refuse to use anglicisms and any kind of foreign word that may be used worldwide …instead they will change the word to fit the Spanish orthography and accentuation rules and honestly for me that showcases not a sign of protectionism for the Spanish language but an attitude of hatred against English specifically … after all English is the universal… Read more »
Just be thankful that in Spain you actually still speak your language – unlike Ireland, where the British forces actually wiped out the native Irish language. Only a small percentage of people living in Ireland speak their own tongue – so if Eurovision is all y’all have to worry about, then count yourselves lucky!
Mole hills
@ Mar, everyone is not saying English is a better language. What people are upset with is the fact that Barei is being criticized for doing what she wants with HER song that SHE wrote and people implying she is a sell-out. Spain never sends a song in English and it is good to try something new. Now I think everyone can agree that there should be more language diversity in Eurovision but at the same time it shouldn’t matter what language the song is sung in because it is not about the language it is about the song and… Read more »
Are you guys going to write an article every time someone in Spain critizes Barei for her choice of language, which is quite often? We get it, people in Spain are conservative (I share their opinion too), you disagree and think English is wonderful, WE GET IT.
At this rate I wouldn’t be surprised if the King adressed the issue in his Christmas speech.
I can kind of understand the controversy from Spain since Ruth Lorenzo had all of that controversy even though half her song was in Spanish.
Which begs the question do you want to do well or represent your country?
I do wish mote countries would sing in their language and if you look at 2012 it doesn’t really harm your chances to sing in your native language.
However Barei is free to do what she wants since TVE doesn’t ban other languages unlike Portugal RTP.
But I did like the Spanish bridge in the first version.
Moltes gràcies Marc! M’has posat roig ????
Everyone is free to have and express their opinion, and mine is that ¿Quién maneja mi barca? is a wonderful song which had a great performance, and was probably too original and unique for the juries who had their minds set on nothing but Euro-pop. As for the matter of Spanish Vs. English, my opinion is that the only consideration should be which language would suit a song the most. Spain has one of the most beautiful languages on earth so I hope they’ll keep sending songs in Spanish, and I’m certain a song in Spanish can win, just like… Read more »
I think the main problem that these ex ESC Stars have against the song is that nothing about it says it’s from Spain, this is an entry that could come from any country. The Spanish backing vocals that were there originally gave it the mark that said yes, this is a Spanish entry without taking anything away from the song. As it stands now, fully in English it’s lost that and I agree. If it were bilingual or they at least had the backing vocals in Spanish I would appreciate it a whole lot more.
@Lluís segueix informant igual de be com fins ara i donant les teves opinions en els articles que ho fa mes interessant 🙂
I’m afraid I don’t, vlad22. You can always enjoy her full performance.Greetings!
Quien maneja mi barca omg
what a masterpiece
barei could never
Mr Luis Fuster, do you have more barefoot shots of her? Can you upload them too? I would be appreciated.
Dear nukso, I’m sure it was not your intention to sound harsh, don’t worry about that. As for the fact that you might be Remedios Amaya, or a hardcore fan of her, my only response is that I’m exposed to it: I’m a writer at quite popular blog and I give my opinions, so I know that not everybody will share them, nor I intend to. They might be shady? Possibly, but I try to be as sincere as I can, and in this case, I was. As for our tastes, I’m not particularly a fan of Barei’s song neither,… Read more »
I’m so sorry for what Barei has to go through. Our Nina Kraljic has received similar critics from Croatian fundamentlists as well. I stated many times that I am tired of hearing ONLY English, but it is hardly only Spain’s fault. Let Barei sing as the song was meant to be sung, the way it’s written. If, for instance, Moldova chose a song in Romanian, Lithuania in Lithuanian, Iceland in Icelamdic, ect. then Spain singing in English would even be refreshing since they are usually in Spanish. The only problem I have is a lack of language diversity in general.
@DR not anymore, they even cut the couple of lines in spanish the song had in the final version, now is 100% english. I understand both sides because I’ve always been of the mindset that more countries should dare send more… cultural entries if you will, and I would love if more countries sang in their native languages. That being said I also understand singing in english seems to be the way to go to get better chances at winning. I don’t mind Barei singing in english, what I’ve always complained about Say Yay! in particular is that it doesn’t… Read more »
Dear auhor, Of course I get this article is an opinion, and I get your opinion as well. Maybe I’m just one of those ever-complaining eurofans with no musical taste whatsoever. Maybe I’m just a Flamenco enthusiast or a Remedios Amaya hardcore follower. Wait, maybe I AM Remedios Amaya! Eurovision is deriving more and more into a battle between those who believe in homogeneity -what they understand as “international pop”, that should reign upon all of us- and those who prefer identity elements such as traditional instruments, national languages or even local folk music. I will never get the point… Read more »
God i want to be slave for her feet she can punish me with her feet gosh what feet…..
@nukso, as Marco pointed out, yes, I’m “biaised”. I openly give my opinion in my posts and I don’t hide it: wiwibloggs is a site in which redactors are free to shout out their opinions and interpretations freely. We, of course, are rigorous with the informations, but if we have an opinion and want to share it, we do it, just like you can do in the comment section.
Thank you for reading my posts ^^
@nukso: Isn’t an author allowed to his own opinion? He is not a press agency that has to write as objectively as possible… He can be biased and show his opinion. It is, after all, about a song competition.
Another day, another biased article by this same author. “Quien maneja mi barca” is probably one of the coolest, weirdest songs Spain has ever sent. It was a statement, a game changer. Far more avant-garde than Barei’s song, AND being sent 30 years earlier, it embraced electro and dub sounds while combining them with a lyrically complex flamenco tune. It was not meant to win, but to showcase Spain’s will to experiment musically -a process that was already happening as part of “la movida” movement. Remedio’s look and attitude were all a part of that concept. Now, Barei’s song is… Read more »
Right………….
Does everyone seem to forget there is a small number of Spanish lyrics in the song?