The team at WiwiBloggs.Com is growing every day. That means even more attitude from even more parts of the world. Today we’re proud to introduce our first correspondent in Latin America. His name is Mr. Häggkvist and he’s a 20-year old public relations student in Panama. “I’m not European, but I think I was Swedish or maybe Monegasque in my past life,” he told us in his application. “I love what I call ‘Vintage Eurovision.’ My favorite contest is the 1965…I find it just perfect.” He’s 25% Swedish, 75% Panamanian, and 100% sassy. As for the name, he’s true to his Panamanian roots “but my Euro persona is Mr Häggkvist. He is 99% Swedish!” We love listening to Eurovision news through his Spanish-language accent so will be leaving his words as they are. Enjoy the unfiltered Latin flavor!
Hej, hola!… Well, now that the Eurovision month is finished, we gotta wait until second half of November to feel the Euro vibe again. I’m pretty sure that in the next few weeks we’re gonna see potential artists, venues and songs for next year contest. But I think we still have a LOT to talk about the Baku contest.
I need to talk about Spain. España did it great. I adore Sweden & Loreen—hands down was the winning performance. But Spain was awesome, and nobody can’t say that, so I decided to talk a bit about what I call… “The Pastora Fever.”
Let’s be honest and plenty of you will agree with me: this was the best Spanish entry since 1995 maybe. I really don’t see the point of call the political issues in the voting and all that stuff. It’s kinda useless and I just wanna talk about Pastora’s talent, which is the point, right?
Earlier in the year I was watching la 1 “RTVE Main Channel” and the people from the program “La Mañana” said that Pastora Soler was the Spanish singer for Eurovision 2012 and I gotta confessed that I was kinda disappointed at the beginning because I thought that there are a lot of young performers in Spain with tons of stage presence and Pastora was kinda “old fashion” for my taste. But I’m silly sometimes and I must say that she is A SINGER. Not any singer, but a real voice who can sing almost any genre in Spanish music. Her Spanish copla work is just beautiful. She can sing folk music like nobody does, so hands down I think she was the right option for the Spanish broadcaster RTVE which I think had picked a lot of strange songs before…
She had in her national final [where the public voted on which song she would sing at Eurovision] 4 songs: 2 good and 2 bad. The Spanish audience was smart to pick the only quality song, and it was kinda funny that in the live final Pastora was very clear about her preference for “Quedate Conmigo.” “Hombre, Yo canto de todo pero me gustaria cantar una balada en Eurovision!” And by that she means, “Man, I sing everything but I like to sing a ballad in Eurovision!” And in the end she sing a ballad in Eurovision, so good for her. It was kinda obvious that Doña Pastora was a Ballad Lady and maybe it’s her strong point.
So… fast forward all the way to last Saturday, May 26. RTVE gave a special program with Rosa (who represented Spain in 2002), Daniel Diges (from 2010) and their special guest commentator, the Eurovision encyclopedia Senorita Reyes Del Amor, which is I think one of the most brilliant euro fans in the world, but anyway, they start talking about Pastora of course and they spend 30 minutes talking about Pastora! But they connect with Pastora live minutes before the final begins and Doña Pastora seems to be so excited. I love her attitude. She’s confident but really human. She was very clear that her only goal was try to have fun on stage and bring at least a top 10 place to Spain, which she did actually.
It was obvious that the Spanish panel didn’t like the final placement. But Pastora seems to be really happy which I think is the important thing. She arrived to Madrid on May 29 and she was really clear about the experience and that she would repeat it again which I think is what every single Spanish singer says. I think Spain have tons of great singers, hip singers that can bring the vibe. But will Spain send something ridiculous as 2006, 2007, and 2008? Or a mediocre song like 2011? I think brings another huge performer as Pastora is very hard, so we will see…
Pastora has planned to visit her hometown “Coria del Rio” and rest, because she says that she’s really tired from this whole process, but I don’t know, my euro instinct says that maybe this is not the last time we will hear about her…
She just told to Levante-emv News that she wanna record “Quedate Conmigo” in English. Can you imagine that people? She’s just up in air and her fans in Spain are treating her as the only winner. I mean this is literal, because the Spanish media don’t talk about Loreen or Russia… they Just think Pastora was perfect and the best of Spain in years…
On her meeting with Spanish press she has been very clear about how great was all this experience, how the other contestants like her work and that overall she was really happy and pleased to have represented Spain in the big Contest!
Finally she express that the whole experience was unforgettable, and the moments in the Green Room during the voting was one of the best moments of her live. Like I said before: “She seems to be really pleased, happy and agreed with the placement she get.”
She told all the media that her husband was a big support for her during her stay in Baku, and her family are her bigger fans… She also has talk about why RTVE should keep sending songs in Spanish to Eurovision. “Es una de las lenguas más importantes del mundo y hay que apostar por ella.” She says: “It’s one of the major languages ??of the world and we must go for it.” I do agree with her. Spanish songs are beautiful and I know España would send songs in Spanish.
Mucha Suerte y Éxitos para Pastora como ellos la Llaman “Pili”, eres una guapa!!!
