It’s been a month since Spain’s beloved duo Amaia and Alfred conquered the Eurovision OT Gala. And ever since then they’ve been traveling the country promoting their song “Tu Canción” and working behind the scenes to get their performance Eurovision-ready.
Besides recording the final version of their song, they also show their official music video as well. Judging from the glimpse that RTVE has already given us, they remain committed to the idea of less is more, simple is best.
Last Monday, on the late night talk show “El Hormigero”, the sweet lovebirds shined once more, drawing the programme’s best audience viewing figures of the season. Music, love and humour filled the night…all leading to a memorable performance of “Tu Canción”.
Amaia and Alfred – “Tu Canción” live at El Hormiguero
.@Amaia_ot2017 y @Alfred_ot2017 conquistan al público de @El_Hormiguero interpretando #TuCanción, su tema para #Eurovisión. ¡Cuánta emoción hemos vivido con #AmaiayAlfredEH! https://t.co/Lmm7AkV9Iw
— antena 3 (@antena3com) February 26, 2018
Two voices and two instruments (piano and guitar) came together for the latest performance. They stripped back their already stripped-back song, creating a more intimate setting for their voices to shine. As ever their tenderness shined through, reflecting their genuine connection to one another.
They also seem to have found outfits that actually reflect their age. Gone is Almaia’s pantsuit from the national final and her prom dress from the OT Fiesta. Instead, we saw her in a simple black top, he in a dark blazer. She provided personality and quirkiness with her gold jewellery and a colourful hairpiece with blue, orange, red, green and white stripes.
Récord de temporada y tercer programa más visto de la historia de @El_Hormiguero con la visita de @Amaia_ot2017 y @Alfred_ot2017 ¿Te lo perdiste? https://t.co/01T21ZVx6J #AmaiayAlfredEH pic.twitter.com/H7BlhE2ZYz
— UniversalMusicSpain (@UniversalSpain) February 27, 2018
Interestingly, the most talked-about aspect of their performance may be its moment of silence.
An ingenious and well-served pause before the final chorus was really effective. It slightly breaks the rhythm and flow, giving the song more dynamism and a bit of surprise. Will they be able to resume in time with each other? Yes they can! Will this pause feature in the revamped version coming soon? Only time will tell.
You might notice Amaia’s voice was quite shaky in that performance — this is down to some recent vocal issues she’s been having. But there’s no challenge this Queen can’t beat…especially with Alfred at her side. That performance has certainly helped their chances of winning…at least as far as the betting agencies are concerned. After nailing “Tu Canción” on Monday night, Spain climbed to 6th place in the Eurovision betting odds, just behind Sweden. Most of the agencies had their odds narrowing at the time of publication.
Subida repentina de España en apuestas. Ahora mismo se coloca 6° pic.twitter.com/eLQ8tq5heh
— Eurofans Spain (@Eurovision_ESP) February 26, 2018
Amaia and Alfred on “El Hormiguero”
In the program, they also talked about music, love and Eurovision — all with plenty of humour and good cheer.
When Amaia and Alfred were asked about how their relationship started, Alfred looked at Amaia and said: “Well hm… no, well, Amaia I think we said we’d stop talking about this”.
Pablo Motos – the host – politely asked them, “You don’t want to talk about it?” Alfred responded, “We talked about it with Jorge – the producer – and you know? I don’t think so. Why don’t we talk about music?”
The moment was getting tense until Amaia broke it by screaming that it was all a joke! A very hilarious one that made the host jokingly refuse to keep going with the program. But he obviously returned.
? #Audiencias lunes: @El_Hormiguero triunfa con @Alfred_ot2017 y @Amaia_ot2017: récord de temporada y tercer mejor dato de toda su historia con 19.4% y 3,9 millones https://t.co/nhohaTl2jG pic.twitter.com/AW48PEpFKK
— Vertele (@Vertele) February 27, 2018
The artists helped the show achieve its third-highest ratings of all-time, and its highest of the season. El Hormiguero reached 3.98 million viewers last Monday, which equates to a 19.4% audience share. They actual reached more viewers here than during the OT Final, though OT did achieve a more significant audience share of 30%.
In a country where lots of channels fight to win prime-time audiences by setting strong and competitive schedules, it’s a hit. Plus El Hormiguero also achieved the most watched minute – known as “El Minuto de Oro” – with nearly 5 million viewers at 23.03h CET.
An English version of “Tu Canción”
In a recent interview with RTVE’s César Vallejo, Raúl Gómez – “Tu Canción” songwriter – confirmed they are currently working on an English version of their Eurovision entry. “English is a language that can reach everywhere,” he said. Nevertheless, it won’t be the version that will compete in Lisbon, but simply a way of spreading love around the world.
There’s still no release date for the English version. But Marina Moon – a young Spanish singer who make covers on Youtube – published her offering of “Tu Canción”. And that reached Raúl, who is amazed at such a version and willing to meet her. He also admitted that the English version is not that different from Marina’s personal cover.
In any case, the Eurovision revamp will drop in mid-March, along with the music video. The biggest changes to the song will come in the final uplifting portion of the track. It will be stronger and Raúl says “people will feel that rise at the end”.
How did the song come about in the first place? Apparently it started when Raúl watched them perform “City of Stars”.
“I fell in love with them when I saw them performing at that gala,” he says. “I had the luck to be able to watch them on the 24h online channel… and not all composers have this luck.”
But that’s not all. Raúl also confessed that he wrote two more songs for Eurovision. One was for Queen Amaia as a soloist. It was inspired by her close relationship with her brother – spotted in Los Javis lessons – and the other one was for Aitana. The latter was a dance offering. He hopes both tracks will make each artist’s respective album.
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OT 2017 tour
All sixteen OT contestants are now ready to smash the biggest stadiums and stages across Spain as part of the OT 2017 tour. The OT madness will be hitting Barcelona March 3 and Madrid on March 16. Both shows are sold out – and we can tell it’s pure madness. The organization managed to sell another wave of tickets – not for the show – but for the general rehearsals so all these people that couldn’t get the ticket can still experience it.
The OT tour will resume soon after Eurovision on May 29 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. You can buy tickets and see all dates in the following link.
What do you think about the performance Amaia and Alfred gave on “El Hormiguero”? Are you happy with it or you were expecting more? And do you think that pause will feature in the revamped version? Tell us in the comment section below!
The girl who covers the song in english, Marina Moon, is not British, she’s spanish from Zaragoza, she’s now studying at London.
I can’t believe how hateful and bitter some people can be. instead of focusing on the songs they like and cheering their countries, they prefer to visit articles they are “not” interested in and take the time to write a hateful comment. Either they have too mch time on their hands or they just want to harm spanish eurofans or spanish singers by atacking them. It’s just sad
Aside from the goofy 3-second pause at 2:30 and the microphone in the way of Amaia’s beautiful smile, this was a much better performance than the clunky OT Eurovision Gala.
I find it quite fun all the haters reading and commenting on this, why even bother? I understand you don’t like the song, but why this venom? I don’t like some of the songs, and I can say, “This is boring” or “I don’t like it” or “Its cheasy”, but some comments here and everywhere are over the top. Just understand some people like overdosed romance, even when you don’t. Let us hype on our entry, we know we will be mid-bottom at the end, but we don’t care. My top so far: 1/2. Grece/Denmark (Can’t decide on one) 3.… Read more »
I have Spain at #11, I really want to make Spain into my top 10 since it’s a decent entry and arguably the best Spanish effort in quite a while. But the amount of cheesiness of the two and overhype from fans does quite the opposite for me right now. That’s why United Kingdom got the 10th spot. Sorry, not sorry.
Greetings.
Seriosly now, I know that you are fans and this is YOUR blog, but can you NOT be so biased in writing?
I mean, the sugar alone in this post may give you cancer.
How are they biased in their writing? The past several posts in the site have been centered on national finals. All articles relating to confirmed acts and their songs have been far few and between this past February. Spain alone only has few articles written about them, all centered on either the encore special they had for OT, or a couple of updates in relation to the song being reworked.
It will only be biased if there’s the entire home page of Wiwibloggs is filled with “Tu cancion”-related articles.
This creation especially made for lost spanish teenagers in lack of love who spend their time watching tv and OT doesn’t work on me, this program tv and producers got you, you are all poor victims…live with that but don’t try to share this with others please. Eurovision is certainly not OT you will see that in May.
I wondered why they got better in the odds. Thanks for the info! That performance is great. The more I hear the song the more I like it… About the haters, I was wondering why they take the time to complain about wiwi’s work on the Spanish and Finnish entries if they openly dont care about them and not about the dozens of news about the selection processes in Sweden, Estonia, Portugal, the Netherlands, etc. I have nothing against overinformation. I read and comment about what Im interested in. This hate by unrespectful escfans and the high bookies make me… Read more »
Spain is so hated. WOW. Any country would wish to have a fanbase as strong and committed as the Spanish one. I don´t know how you guys don´t find that admirable. They do go overboard at times but they are awesome.
BTW this song is my fifth place.
1. ALBANIA
2. ITALY
3. FRANCE
4. GERMANY
5. SPAIN
The more hate this song gets, the more sure I am it will be BIG in Lissabon. Btw, most watched video in the ESC official channel in February
And ? What does it prove ? Spanish viewers are completely crazy yes ok.
Spaniards can’t vote for their own song (and they can’t buy it or stream it either, Lo malo has been outcharting it for its entire run), so I’ll retain the idea that it’s going to another flop for them.
1.6 million views. There is no way that 1.6 million Spanish people have watched that video. I’ve watched that video about 5-10 times and I am not Spanish.
Also, what does Lo malo outcharting them have to do with this? If Lo malo had won, Spanish people couldn’t vote for that either.
Yes of course, do you think we will believe you ? Of course the majority of views are from spain don’t think the people is stupid please. Spain are trying to create an hype about their entry (as for Italy last year), an artificial thing, it’s blatant so it’s ridiculous.
Of COURSE it’s not just spanish people. It’s the WHOLE LATIN AMERICA, SWEETIE LOL
Lots of latin americans and spanish immigrants betting. No biggie, we will see the real result in MAY!!!
This is a new one. Now latin americans also bet and overrate spanish entries.
The list of excuses grows and this means a lot. Spain has to do the great staging job they never get to achieve. This song deserves it. Eurovision claims it for a good show.
Juka is probably right and this is a spaniard reasserting it. I mean, Spain is going down the drain again. It is what it is.
So sorry you CAN’T be Spanish. Learn to live with that. Thanks ?
> The more hate this song gets, the more sure I am it will be BIG in Lissabon
Remember how The Shin won in Copenhagen with a song that was hated basically by every Eurovision fan? Me neither…
(I apologise to all Georgians for comparing The Shin to that steaming pile of santorum that’s the Spanish entry…)
The Shin missed out on the grand final at the 2014 contest in Copenhagen. :/
Eurovision viewers are not OT fan viewers, and eurovision viewers are not interested in it and in this artificial tv build couple.
Neither are they all fans of The Voice, Got Talent, X Factor, Pop Idol, and Rising Star.
And yet alumni of all these reality talent shows have been a strong presence in the song contest for nearly two decades now.
We have the feeling to be in a spanish blog fan here, not in an eurovision blog, I can’t undestand the aim of this article….. amaia and alfred made a good audience in their country, they made a joke and sang in a show what an extraordinary thing lol!! Ok great but what is the relation with eurovision. I’m sure in other countries selectionned artists sing in shows and promote their entries but only Spain and finland exist in wiwibloggers mind now……there are 21 artists and songs but wiwibloggs can’t stop talking about this cheesy couple…..it’s sad….wake up guys !!… Read more »
They talked about the changes that will be made to their song for EUROVISION! that’s eurovision news right there!
“You might notice Amaia’s voice was quite shaky in that performance…”
Okay, seriously, hasn’t anybody ever noticed how shaky HIS voice is – in like every performance?
She’s carrying a cold this time. It’s clear to me. Look how she stops at some moments.
But yes, I think both of them have been quite out of tune in both of their performances. I have no doubt she will be one of the main voices of the contest. She has some “operacion triumpho” acts that are worth looking. One very special voice.
I have more doubts about her boyfriend. Will he deliver? mmhh
No big worries, though. This is the time of the year to be far from your best.
We really don’t care…..amaia has changed her hair, amaia has changed her clothes, they make a pause in the song lol but we really don’t care !!!
Fed up with them and Aalto this year ! Enough !! It’s too much !!!
Aren’t we going to talk about the fact that Mikolas Josef is now second in the odds? So basically he’s first, because we don’t know Bulgarian song. He was flawless at Vidbir. He deserves it!
I know, right? It’s the highest Czech Republic has ever been in the betting odds! And like you said – since we don’t know the Bulgarian song, Lie To Me is the highest from all of the selected songs.
It’s already been this way since Sunday, I’m so happy for him!!! He’s currently sharing my 1st place with Hungary… It’s well deserved. I’m not sure if he’ll keep his 2nd place tho, there are some bangers to come. But I would be happy if he did. ^^
It is remarkable indeed. He could very well turn over a new leaf for the Czech Republic, like Anouk did for the Netherlands.
Do the odds even matter now? We only have half of the songs, and most countries are either too high or too low based on their recent record. There’s no way Bulgaria will still be 1st once their song is revealed.
I dare you to spill the beans on Bulgaria.
But yeah, nothing really matters at this point and since I never believe in any kind of hype, I strongly believe Bulgaria will drop rapidly without having any clue what it is they’re going to send.
Odds are quite overrated. I never understood their relevance in the grander scheme of things other than making people either rich if they hit it right or go broke if they go way off.
Bookies should go back to actual bookkeeping.
I actually have to admit that I kinda like the English solo cover version. It’s so much less cheesy and so much more heartfelt.
Spain is somewhere around no. 18 on my list at the moment. :/