Carolina Casado, the presenter who read out Spain’s voting results at Eurovision 2014, was meant to contribute to the Eurovision story. In the wake of her dodgy English, however, she’s become part of the story and a national talking point.
During the grand final, Carolina awarded “oitpoints” to Romania. Her mistake and thick Spanish accent sparked ridicule and anger from viewers. #Oitpoints started trending nationally on Twitter and hundreds of videos and remixes appeared on Youtube.
Now Casado’s errors have raised eyebrows in the Spanish parliament. On 20 May, the “Izquierda Unida” political group presented a series of questions to the president of the corporation RTVE to clarify how Carolina was selected, and whether her level of English was properly examined. The group wonders if organizers realized “that Spain would offer a distressing image to the continent.”
This is not the first time that this political party has raised questions in parliament related to ESC. They previously did this in June 2013. At that time they asked for an explanation from the president of RTVE about the cost of the festival and the poor results obtained by El Sueno de Morfeo in 2013.
#oitpoints go to…Carolina!
To her credit, Carolina responded to the criticism with humour on Twitter: “#oitpoints to all who have supported me and who haven’t, I’m always learning from criticism”.
She also accepted that she had made mistakes, and with a bit of good humour: “I promise I had studied the lesson, but the nerves and technique made me fail. Today, punished without going out #oitpoints ”
Prometo q m había estudiado la lección, pero los nervios y la técnica m la jugaron.Hoy,castigada sin salir #oitpoints pic.twitter.com/tBwnNTOHDV
— carolina casado (@carolcasadotve) May 11, 2014
#oitpoints a todos los q m habéis apoyado y a los q no, soy de las q aprenden de las críticas
— carolina casado (@carolcasadotve) May 11, 2014
What do you think? Are the Spanish being too hard on Carolina?
In my opinion, she made a mistake but it is no problem. I think there was a broadcast error… Also, in regards to “oit points” I feel like she got nervous and started saying “Huit points” and realized that her english never made it? Either way, not that big of a deal… France on the other hand, always takes advantage of the fact their language is official for ESC and speak (forever) in french.
Esto va para Woz,yo no espero nada ni que me entiendan ni que me comprendan,simplemente escribo en este blogg mis pensamientos.Ya se que todos escriben en ingles,pero como no es mi caso lo escribo en mi idioma si TU no me entienden habra españoles que si.Lo que YO nunca haria es censurar a nadie.No te creas el ombligo del mundo por saber ingles.PREPOTENTE
I don’t know in your countries, but here in Spain nobody knows how our TV chooses the spokerperson.
Of course is not her English level… so we can imagine the reasons.
I am Spanish, and I saw it as a graceful failure. she can speak English … but she was very nervous. Nor have gotten so much with it. in parliament could talk things more important than that
They’re bringing this up in Parliament? Really? Don’t they have better things to talk about?
Haha! She was very unfortunate, not to mention ill-trained of course. Now what’s with these Spaniards making fun of each other on their English? Hala, majas, que tenéis que estar de coña!
#magicenglisheveryone
She sure takes it quite good. 🙂
Im from spain and i sai sorry for that OK for the spanish os really dificult speak english but was very bad im 16 and i speak english better than carolina . please no judge spain like Carolinas example
People are overreacting. Other presenters mispronounce things such as “votes” as “wotes” or Pilou saying “Belarus” as “Belaroosh.” I thought she did fine. Move on.
Its okey, the spaniards are indeed being hard on her. I’ve noticed this ‘oitpoints’ but you know, i didn’t care so and millions others.
#spaniardsrelaxitsnotaproblem
She was very funny & sweet 🙂 i loved her oitpoints! Kisses!
BAY WIWI
pues mira me voy a la pagina de eurovision spain que para todo el WORLD
Hay traductor…y quien no me entienda PAN y AJO,pense que esto es un blog DEMOCRATICO pero veo que no,mas bien REACCIONARIO
Paco, no sé quién esperas que te entienda. Esto no es youtube. Aquí nadie habla en otra cosa que no sea inglés.
Tranquila Europa que no fue para tanto, mas bien otra anecdota de las votaciones de cada año,ejemplo Lena 2013 etc…Carolina es una gran profesional de RTVE con un programa diario pero no solo, España se equivoca en ESC si no que la EUROVISION se ha equivocado con España.Se que suena prepotente pero lo puedo demostrar.Y no pasa nada es el encanto de un programa en directo
As a spaniard I think she should be fired. She and the person who decided she was fit for the job in the first place.
And yes, we spaniards usually have a thick english accent (not me btw), but no thicker than french or germans.
And well, she didn’t get it right and made a fool of herself. But at least our speakperson NEVER embarras us with awkward songs or stupid jokes. Can other countries say that?
Given the many regional accents of the UK, perhaps she learned English in Birmingham, where eight doing indeed sound like oit!
Well it’s not a surprise as Spanish people do not learn English properly. However, her “oit points” was quite embarassing i must say. We learn numbers since the age of 8 (example) so i guess she should’ve know that there is no “oit” number in English!
Didn’t the Spanish presenter back in 2001 made a similar mistake? I think she called Slovenia as “Eslovenia” or sth like that
well, I did NOT hear ‘millions of eurofans’ — woman is incomprehensible. and ‘millions of beautifuls’ actually sounds like what she said!
I think it was cute, of course she was nervous, I know I would be! Glad at least she took it with humour.
Now, as others have said, she said “eurofans”, not “beautifuls” so this proves we all makes mistakes with english 😉
SHE SAID “TO THE MILLIONS OF EUROFANS” NOT BEAUTIFULS WIWIBLOGGS AMATEURS
What’s going on in the house? 😮
I think she said “lots of kisses to the millions of eurofans.”
Siempre nos pasa algo extraño en ESC.En 1990 error de la organisacion la musica entra antes de tiempo,en 2010 el gracioso de Jimy jump,en 1969 cuatro empates ganadores y por si fuera poco este año la pobre Carolina,que le bamas a hacer
In all fairness she did say 8 points go to…then she blanked out and was about to announce the 10 points, it was the second time round where She f’ed up with oit points xD and I don’t see all the fuss in this, she just gave points out at eurovision where as Ana Botella’s speech for the Olympics was much worse and she’s the mayor of Madrid…