The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — needed some tanning time, so we caught the high speed AVE to Madrid and then took to the gorgeous Campo del Moro gardens. Kicking back at the Puerta del Sol, we lent our ears to Madrid’s own Edurne and her Eurovision 2015 song for Spain “Amanecer”. Is the Spanish dawn rising or do we forecast an eclipse on the horizon? Read on to find out…
Spain’s Eurovision 2015 song
Reviews: Edurne with “Amanecer”
Zach: And just like that, Spain looks to be in prime shape to break free of their “odd year curse”, and claim their third title in the process. This is my favorite entry of the year! Edurne’s vocals are on point throughout the song and they’ve got a Shakira-like vibe to them. The instrumentals of the song are really amazing, and the little break before the last chorus has me in love. Viva Espana!
Score: 10/10
Anthony: When I heard that the trio of Thomas G:son, Peter Boström and Tony Sánchez-Ohlsson would compose “Amanecer”, I knew something big was coming from Spain this year. And I was right: The three wise men have combined their talents to frightening effect. “Amanecer” is a dramatic Spanish power ballad and it’s breathtaking. Just as with Ruth Lorenzo in Copenhagen last year, Edurne will nail her live performance for that wow factor.
Score: 10/10
Angus: The category? Top-five potential. Winner? EDURNE. Iiiiiiieeeeeeoooooooo! “Amanecer” is the bomb and Edurne just slays. This has so much lift and power it carries me to cloud nine, and I only want Edurne to let me down when she swoops into the break and the sirens cry out that her dawn has broken. ¡Aye que fabulosa!
Score: 9.5/10
Robyn: At this stage, “Amanecer” isn’t actually doing a lot for me. I can appreciate it in theory, but when I listen to it, I’m left feeling unmoved. All the ingredients are there for amazing, but it just isn’t working. However, I’m not going to write it off yet. There is a very distinct possibility that it will spark to life during the grand final, much like “Quédate conmigo” did in Baku. Until then, I’m cautious but optimistic.
Score: 6/10
Padraig: In many ways Spain has fallen victim to its own hype. With the possible exception of Armenia, no one else’s PR machine came close. By the day of the song reveal we were expecting a track to match “Euphoria”. In the end we got “Amancer”. But that’s not to say this is a bad entry – anything but! A fierce blonde diva singing an OTT pop ballad about overcoming adversity – what’s not to love? The entry oozes drama, passion and class. Spain’s conveyor belt of Eurovision gems shows no signs of stalling just yet.
Score: 8.5/10
Bogdan: In the studio version, Spain’s entry is a killer song. It’s obviously written for Eurovision and I can’t imagine it topping international charts or having any life after May, but I don’t really care about that, as “Amanecer” has something majestic and untouchable about it. Edurne is arguably the most beautiful contestant this year and this will hopefully help her. If she manages to overcome nerves and to iron out all the little imperfections of the live performances we’ve seen so far, she could even surpass her predecessor, who was my favourite last year.
Score: 9/10
William: When Edurne sings “Amanecer” it makes me believe in God. This song has a spiritual quality that hints at something bigger than us, and it resonates across continents and time. It evokes a tribal feel and would no doubt have appealed to our ancestors on the hunt, just as it appeals to today’s pop enthusiasts. This is unique in the competition yet universal in its feel. Delivered by a Spanih pop princess, I can only say, “All hail!”
Score: 9/10
Chris: Time to get my claws out for this tigress. “Amanecer” was easily the most overhyped song of the year before its release and even now, months down the line, I have yet to really warm to it. Edurne’s got the star power to give a good performance, but after that, what really is there? A mediocre song that relies on a hook that ultimately isn’t that catchy, especially when compared with the likes of Trijntje. It’s by no means a bad effort, but I’m not feeling this Spanish Fever.
Score: 6.5/10
First reaction to “Amanecer”
Deban: Edurne’s profile generates a lot of interest on the continent. She is fabulous, telegenic, and packed with enough star power to drive high ratings in Spain for nearly a decade. Vocally, she is untouchable. “Amanecer”, which is hemmed by some of the finest composers in the industry, is a showpiece and masterclass. When Edurne takes to the stage to deliver her vocals, she’s flawless – dropping an ace card that signifies perhaps the best overall package in this year’s competition.
Score: 8.5/10
Mikhail: At first listen I thought “Amancer” was just an average song, not worthy of all the hype. And then my opinion on it shifted from “good” to “brilliant” to “OMG! I love it!” Now I am running around screaming ieeieeee! And it all happened within one hour. It’s simple yet has killer energy. This is a pearl and it’s shining brightly. The sun has definitely risen!
Score: 10/10
Reaction to live performance
Our jury consists of 29 people, but we only have room for 10 written reviews. Here are the remaining 19 scores.
Denise: 9/10
Francheska: 7.5/10
Josh: 8.5/10
Judit: 9/10
Kristin: 6/10
Liam: 10/10
Luis: 7.5/10
Marek: 9/10
Mario: 7/10
Max: 4.5/10
Mike: 9/10
Patrick: 7/10
Ramadan: 6/10
Renske: 7.5/10
Rezo: 8/10
Sami: 6.5/10
Sinan: 10/10
Sopon: 10/10
William C: 8.5/10
To reduce potential bias, we drop the highest and lowest scores prior to calculating the average. We removed a low of 4.5 and a high of 10.
That’s easy
Il Volo has a lot of support in Latin American. Take a look at the population in Mexico or Brazil.
Spain has nailed it. Just watching the video is enough to show that this is exceptional. The rest is icing on the cake 10/10
Eugene ESC UK:
Techncially, My Slowainie still rules with +40 million views.
Edurne’s song: Voice is there, music is there, but I don’t see a peak or a boom to REALLY draw you in. I like that it doesn’t feel like a self ripoff, it sounds original. Maybe live I’ll have that boom quality that screams top 10, but a marginally better step than last year, even better than Brequette.
I do like Pastora and Ruth better. For me this singer is in the usual uuu jee, iii aaa, oooo ahhh category.
Thank god that didn’t crack the top 4. But still too high a placing for an extremely average song.
This is tacky. 4/10.
Hey Eugene, if you could stop obsession over Il Volo and mentioning them every few articles, that would be great. There is no agenda, as you so often claim. It’s almost as if you want such an agenda to exist. 1.Italy and Australia are good, but not that great, Russia’s song is pretty poor despite Polina’s talent. Just because the jury doesn’t conform to the predictions of yourself and the Bookies does not mean that they are biased. 2.Your point about the OGAE poll is pretty redundant, seeing as the final result came out around the same time that Sami,… Read more »
About Edurne, I second what other fans have said, It’s great and all, but my all time favourite spanish entry remains Quedate Conmigo, I like Amancer a lot more than Dancing in the Rain though, so I’m hoping Edurne to achieve at least the same result as Pastora and Ruth!
Do we have a winner? No we don’t, and the sooner we admit it, the less disapointed we all will feel.
However, we spaniards would be thrilled with a top 5. That would be a fair outcome. I want to say thanks for all the support we are getting this year from all over Europe and beyond. I hope all this love reflects in the televoting and the juries… for once. Let’s probe wrong all those who think Spain is a cursed country in ESC, including me.
Edurne is so sweet authentic glamorous…
She can sing really good, she can dance, she has presence.
She HAS THE WHOLE PACKAGE TO WIN.
Brave to sing in native language, Spanish is the 2nd most spoken language in the world.
Well.. I hope she wins and turn this Englishvision to the original mix of cultures and languages. Then many other countries would send a song in native language.
BTW she is dam beautiful OMG
Amanecer is a nice song – better than dancing in the rain -, but I’ll always prefer “quédate conmigo”.
Only Spanish people can feel the lyrics… it’s beautiful.
This is a good song, but not as good as Quedatew Conmigo or Dancing in rain.
Edurne is a good singer, but the song is bit boringwith all those eeeeooooww..Tarzan screams.
Can’t see a hype around this. Pretty usual song on the same vibe as Worrior from Georgia and Malta, also Switzerland in the same bunch. For me outside the top10.
I totally agree with Chris on this one. It was the most overhyped song, and I’m still not really feeling it. It has good values, great music, nice lyrics, Edurne is a great performer, but somehow all the combination just doesn’t work. I feel like the song never gets to it’s beat. Still a nice effort, but it can only manage a placing on my top 25. 6.5/10
Le deseo la mejor de todas la suerte a Edurne.
This is about as good an Entry as Spain are ever going to produce. It will be a genuine litmus test as to how far they can go in the era of Anglicised Eurovision. It sounds epic, the staging is amazing and the singer, beautiful. I just feel as if there is a glass ceiling for this and despite it being as good as or better than all the other songs, televoters on a whole will go for something in English.
9/10
Brilliant entry from Spain. From what i can see from the 30 sec clip her performance came to life on the Eurovision stage. I reckon top 10, perhaps top 5. This polls top 10 is my top 10, though not quite in the same order 🙂
This is my #3 song overall, right behind Italy and Belgium. I really hope one of these 3 gets to win, since last time they won was 25 years ago (46 years ago for Spain!). It’s catchy, well sung, nice rythm and in Spanish! Nice move Spain.
9,1/10
A dramatic powerful song with a nice language.
I hope that it wins, so more countries will sing in their own language next year.
I like the song, its very modern, Edurne looks stunning and sings it beautifully and its brought to us by two of the men behind Euphoria. I do think the song has drawn some influence from Euphoria, it reminds me of a spanish remix.It does however risk being very much overrated, but its still good though, and I have been noticing Spain improving on their efforts year by year. Should finish Top 10, but I dont think it will make Top 5. it will place somewhere between 6th and 10th. 7/10
Stunning
Beautiful
Mesmerising
What’s not to like?
Get ready to be spellbound
2015 the year of vocal delivery!
Non stop
I think the Big 5 + Host (+ Australia in this case) are being severely underrated this year. The UK’s song although not my type, seems to be very polarising between people – love or hate. In other words, it could do really well or really bad. Austria does not have a standout track, but it looks like it will get jury love. It won’t do very well, but it won’t do as bad as everyone thinks. Italy is a contender for the win, but I don’t think it’s enough. They’ve taken a different approach to ESC and something at… Read more »
@ Well i’m sure that Nina will receive the right treatment in Vienna so she will get her voice back…
Even if she doesn’t sound really great tomorrow she will sound much better on Saturday…Yeah…I really think that she will manage to qualify to the big final anyway..
The first rehearsal was great! It looks like a Las vegas show. I can’t wait to see the final performance on stage! Go Edurnee
Oh im no surprised actually.. 🙂
I knew that Espana would receive a really high score from the WiWi Jury..:)
I like *Amanecer* <3 🙂 It is not that great song but still is very good 🙂
Edurne can do really great in Vienna finishing in the top10 or top5…But i do not think though that Spain can really win..
I have Espana's song as my 14th most liked song from the 40.. 🙂
Spain with UK receive many negative comments about theirs first rehearsal, and many said UK wili be strong contender for last place and eventually 0 point and predicted for Spain place in bottom 5 in final.
Spain jumping to my top1 , together with Sweden and Estonia, Australia can be high too ,dark hors can be Netherands if go to the final
9.5/10 I absolutely LOVE this song! I got instantly hooked upon first listen. The orchestra just building to an epic arrangement and climax at the end along with Edurne’s killer vocals almost instantly drove me to put this on my playlist. Those elements just draw me back to play it on my iPod at least once every day. Ever since Loreen with “Euphoria”, I’ve been keeping an eye out for any entries written by Thomas G:son and to an extent Peter Boström, so finding out that this is written by both of them gives me hope, because this is another… Read more »
Did you guys hear Nina Siblatti has lost her voice.
One thing is clear, Edurne will bring some show to the Eurovision stage, and that’s always a good thing, no matter how many points she gets.
Good luck Spain
Was hoping this would creep into your Top 3… Great song and I’m hopeful that she has a chance to win it all!