Earlier today, the Wiwi Jury— our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — took a trip to one of the Valencian Country’s fantastic beaches. While we sunbathed, we reviewed the contestants of Objetivo Eurovisión, Spain‘s National Final for Stockholm. Today, we are commenting on Maverick‘s “Un mundo más feliz“. Did Maverick made us see our world coloured in pink or did he left us depressed? Read on to find out…
MAVERICK – “UN MUNDO MÁS FELIZ”
“UN MUNDO MÁS FELIZ” REVIEWS
Angus: “Un Mundo Más Feliz” is to me the best song in the competition — it has shades of the calypso styling that made “Bailando” and “El Perdon” such megahits and Maverick’s vocal has a soft tone that has seen real success at the contest itself. It may be a less obvious smash but that might be exactly what Spain needs this year.
Score: 9.5/10
Bernardo: Go Enrique… oh, Maverick! I get why this could flop really hard in Stockholm, but I can’t help dancing to it. It brings good energy and a smile to my face. Maverick is not a frontrunner but I’m feeling it. I’m going to enjoy this in the national final, ’cause I already know Maverick is an amazing performer.
Score: 7.5/10
Deban: Maverick hones in on a cultural theme by taking us on a musical tour of the Iberian peninsula. The live intro sets a coastal tone. You can hear the waves breaking on the beach, the castanets and hues of flamenco. Later, trumpets add a Latin twist, however, the sad twist is that much of this doesn’t depart the shores of Spain, and could alienate potential voters at the mother contest.
Score: 7.5/10
Diego: It’s no longer 2004, and this song reminds me of that year’s entry “Para llenarme de ti”, which did quite well back in the day, but not anymore. Maverick’s vocals aren’t that bad, but that generic Latino sound with those really corny lyrics don’t add to much to the song. I think Spain should stay away from this genre at least for the Eurovision Song Contest.
Score: 3.5/10
Judit: This song makes me dance and smile. I can feel it in my blood and for three minutes I can imagine myself as a Spanish girl. Maybe Maverick won’t win the pre-selection, but he has already won my heart. With this song my mornings have a better start.
Score: 8/10
Luis: With this kind of song is where you find the main cultural difference between Spain and the rest of Europe (or the rest of the world, really). While this is considered a typically Spanish song, that is suitable for a night out at a beach party, to me it sounds kitsch and cheap, trying to appeal to the average European that comes to Spain to get drunk and jump from the balconies and all that stuff. As Diego said, it worked with Ramón in 2004, but in a way, that was genuine, while Maverick’s song sounds just pretentious. Apart from that, in the lyrics he says that “the cookies smile at him”. WTF IS THAT.
Score: 3/10
Rezo: This is typical Spanish song, which will not be successful for Spain at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Europe knows Spanish style well and this song will not sound new.
Score: 2/10
Robyn: I really like “Un mundo más feliz” and I’m not entirely sure why. There’s good energy and plenty of that sunny Latino flavour that Eurovision always needs more of. The studio version has traces of autotune, so it will be interesting to see how Maverick handles it live.
Score: 7/10
Sinan: Typical spanish song! Oh Maverick! I love that song, and I think there is nothing to review! Good luck.
Score: 10/10
William: A stereotypical take on “Spanish” music, this reminds me of the trash they play at dive bars on the Costa del Sol, where you can get two margaritas for free if you buy one. Decidedly predictable and vanilla for an artist called “Maverick,” it’s easily my least favourite song in Spain’s selection.
Score: 3/10
In the Spanish Wiwi Jury we have 22 jurors, but only have room for 10 reviews. The remaining 12 scores are below!
Antranig: 4/10
Bogdan: 4/10
Cristian: 7/10
Denise: 7/10
Edd: 9.5/10
Josh: 4/10
Mario: 4.5/10
Max: 8.5/10
Mikhail: 6.5/10
Patrick: 2/10
Sami: 7/10
Zakaria: 5/10
The highest and lowest scores are dropped prior to calculating the average score. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 2 and a high of 10.
Maybe it’s just because I’m in the U.S. and this style of music is rather well liked in places like Mexico as well as several places in South America, but this doesn’t seem that bad to me.
The cowbells! OH THE GOD DAMN COWBELLS! Slay my spirit instrument, slay! I’m liking this song more each time I hear it, it has the Spanish flair that we all know and love, and it’s easy to pretend like we know the words and then like the “ah ah ahhs” perfectly. Saying that, something’s missing, maybe maracas? I don’t know, but regardless, it’s sure to get wherever it’s played moving!
Score: 7/10
You guys are really split on this one!
I just can’t help loving songs like this one. It may not be the best option for Spain, but not the worst either.
Thx Diego and Luis
This song is just pathetic, if this sh** represents my country… I will move to San Marino.
I have conflicting thoughts on this. On the one hand, it is catchy and memorable, and that’s a good thing in a pop song.
On the other, it’s a paint by numbers pop song in the Spanish/Latino world. There is nothing new, innovative, interesting, or plain old weird; it’s a safe, conservative choice for Spain – except safe and conservative choices these days are actually the riskiest thing you can do if you want to challenge the left hand side. This won’t. 5.5/10
Out of all the entries, this is a total NO. Maverick can’t go for Spain to Sweden, this song just can’t. Period. He would be a BIG mistake and so will Xuso Jones, if sent. Spain can do well, with any of the other 4 entries: Salvador, María, Electric Nana & Barei. I would be really sad, if all the fans he accumulated during his time in La Voz (aka teenage girls) vote heavily for this awful song, and I’d be sad too if Xuso Jones goes (he also has big teen girl fandom, FML), the song sounds and it’s… Read more »
To be honest I’m glad that Diego and Luis (also William) said that this entry is the typical song from my country, there’s nothing new about this and it’s dated (100% agree it’s a copy of Ramón and have passed 12 years from there). For me this is the weakest entry from the National Final, and I’m very surprised with the final score, seems that everybody loves this but I’m sure when it comes to voting, nobody will vote this song. Would love that my country sends a current song (spanish or english lyrics) but something you could hear now… Read more »