Let the Eurodrama begin! Spain’s selection for Eurovision is getting ever closer with the reveal of the titles of the songs that the OT contestants will sing.
RTVE shocked everyone today with this unexpected announcement regarding Eurovision. Here are the titles of all 17 competing songs:
- Alba – “¿Qué será luego?” (What will be next?)
- Carlos Right – “Se te nota” (It shows/Everyone can tell)
- Carlos Right – “Nunca fui” (I was never)
- Damion – “Sale” (It comes out)
- Famous – “No puedo más” (I can’t anymore)
- Joan and Marilia – “A tu lado” (By your side)
- Julia – “¿Qué quieres que haga?” (What do you want me to do?)
- María – “Muérdeme” (Bite me)
- Marilia – “Todo bien” (All good)
- Marta – “Vuelve” (Come back)
- Miki – “La venda” (The blindfold)
- Miki – “El equilibrio” (The equilibrium)
- Miki and Natalia – “Nadie se salva” (Nobody’s safe)
- Natalia – “La clave” (The key)
- Noelia – “Hoy vuelvo a reir otra vez” (I’m laughing again today)
- Sabela – “Dímelo de frente” (Say it to me directly)
- Sabela – “Hoy soñaré” (I’ll dream today)
That’s it, 17 entries for 13 of the 16 contestants. The only OT acts who are out of the race are África, Alfonso and Dave. Some of the competing acts have multiple entries. Miki will face a tough week having to record three songs, much like Sabela and Natalia, who have two songs each.
The songs, as explained by RTVE
In their official statement, RTVE elaborated on the entries, like the genre and the type of songs they are. Noelia’s “Hoy vuelvo a reír otra vez”, Marta’s “Vuelve” and Carlos Right’s “Nunca me fui” are apparently romantic songs. Although they don’t explicitly say it, it’s not difficult to anticipate that Joan and Marilia’s duet “A tu lado” will be of that kind too.
Julia’s “¿Qué quieres que haga?” is a flamenco ballad, while Alba Reche’s “¿Qué será luego?” is closer to soul music, although it has some Latin elements. That’s a quite an interesting mix, just like Famous’ “No puedo más” — a mid-tempo entry with gospel edge.
Both Sabela’s “Dímelo de frente” and Carlos’ “Se te nota” are pop entries: Sabela’s got some electronic arrangement, while Carlos’ is a bit more Latin. Two very different entries for Sabela apparently, because her other song “Hoy soñaré” has an “ethnic and chilled out” sound.
Miki will have to show his versatility, as his three songs come from different genres: “La venda” contains rumba and ska references, while “El equilibrio” is more of an indie rock number, and his duet with Natalia “Nadie se salva” appears to be an upbeat song, judging from their reaction.
Natalia’s song “La clave” has been defined as “Spanish pop with urban touches” (Rosalía anyone?) while María’s “Muérdeme” is the “sexiest song” of the bunch. Not hard to believe, given it’s a song called “bite me”.
The two weirdest combinations a priori would be Damion’s “Sale” which mixes pop and dancehall, and Marilia’s “Todo bien” a danceable tune with Brazilian funk tunes.
Okay, yes, but can we hear the entries?
And now the big question: Can we listen to the songs? No! Not until next Thursday, when all entries will be released. Also, the contestants will not be able to say anything until then, and that is bound to be a nightmare for them.
Así ha sido el reparto de temas de Eurovisión en OT 2018 -> https://t.co/b3cMqXAdpA
— eurovision_rtve (@eurovision_tve) December 11, 2018
Some of them have already started commenting a bit. Apparently, all of Miki’s entries are upbeat, while his duet with Natalia has a well-known composer, as he’s recognised him or her from the recording. Famous said he was left speechless with his song, while Alba says she loves the lyrics and she’s trying hard not to hum it. Sabela commented she’ll have to use a lower tone for one of the entries and Julia quite likes her entry too.
The director of the academy, Noemí Galera, explained how things will go: all songs will be released on Thursday the 20th, and then an online vote will open. The three most popular entries will qualify for the Eurovision gala, and then RTVE will internally pick up to another seven songs.
But will we hear the full songs? No, that will be a demo, and we’ll only listen to a minute. So… will we actually listen to the songs before of the actual Eurovision gala in January? Who knows!
Are you excited for next Thursday? What do you expect from the entries? Who do you think will be behind the song titles? Any shock? Any duet you’ll miss? Tell us in the comment section below!
I hope the chosen song and artist will not be a stranger outside Spain again. They have been doing that since 2016 because look at their results since that year.
That’s mostly, because most Spanish artists don’t go to European market, preferring to appeal at the Latino America market, where they don’t need a fluent knowledge on a second language and it’s culturally linked with Spain.
I haven’t followed OT but I saw that no one of the contestants is older than 26. Is it a coincidence or will it become usual that Spain only sends young handsome people and doesn’t dare to risk something?
I don’t really follow it closely either (primarily because the format absolutely flopped in the U.S. where I’m from, so the most I’m familiar with the Star Academy/OT format is from what I read in the international versions), but I took a look through all the contestant lists of all seasons of OT and I could only find two contestants who were over the age of 30 across all ten seasons: Chipper from season 6 (who was 34 at the time of his participation) and Ricky from just last year (who was 31). I don’t know if OT has an… Read more »
People in Twitter wrote Miki’s songs are from La Pegatina and Álvaro Soler. I don’t know if it’s true.
Alvaro soler? Wow. He himself could have been great choice for eurovision.
All the televoting and just 3 songs? Ain’t that tragic?
is 3 songs in order to make them “finalists”. But then , in the eurovision gala they’ll have 10 songs (as max) and the public will have “all the televoting and just 1 song”. If you compare with eurovision you have 42 songs and “all the televoting and just 1 winner”. I guess all is “that tragic” if you choose to look at it in that pesimistic way. We pass for all the issues since we born… to end just dying… tragic as well, right? ^^
All of them sound promising when described. But we really need to listen to the full 3 minutes. 1 min is not enought to decide. Also, interesting how, in the end, there are only 17 songs (there were going to be 20). Could be low quality entries the reason? I hope not. Only when we hear them we’ll know.
Im rooting for noelia, sabela or Julia.
Famous y miki y carlos
If there’s anything half as good as Lo malo, I’ll be happy. Speaking of which, Aitana’s EP was certified Gold in its first week.
So many red flags here… Viewers will have to vote for songs they won’t be able to hear in their entirety, there’s a very real possibility that they haven’t even been able to fill out the planned 20-song selection because the overall quality was terrible (I recall singer/songwriter Zahara, who was part of the pre-selection committee, stating a few days back that many of the songs she personally evaluated sounded the same to her, or like they had been made for last year’s contestants), and if the OT shows are any indication, exactly zero effort is being put into fixing… Read more »
Well, that’s why I always go with the Italians, even when I’m Spanish
Looking at the title, I wonder if Famous’ song will resemble Sweden 2017 in any way.
For the sake of our ears, I hope it sounds nothing like it.
It’s literally NEVER successful (almost) – look at Cascada trying iT with Euphoria 2.0, or Georgia 2013 trying to serve another Running Scared. Sweden might be in danger too with John Lundvik being pushed as a potential new Cesár Sampson.
Three (!) songs for Miki and two for Carlos Right? They are pulling the “handsome guy”-thing forward, aren’t they? Poor Dave, Africa and Alfonso 🙁
And where is the handsome guy you’re talking about?
Not for you maybe but for all puberty-crazed female teenagers who watch OT…
That can’t be the ‘attractive guy’ standard for Spain omg
I do find Carlos very attractive, but that guy has no real talent. Neither does Miki….
TVE wants to win of two duo, like last year .
I feel like this selection is just a little bit all over the place..
Also didn’t they say that all contestants would be included? I see on Twitter that Africa ain’t happy. Dave and Alfonso also been left out
RTVE is such a magnet for drama. There’s so many things they could do differently. For a start, they should had given at least a song for each contestant and much more time for all the artists to get used with their songs. It’s also weird that some will polish their act inside the academy while others won’t. It also won’t make sense to vote based on a 1 minute sample. All of this could be avoided if they made the Eurovision gala a separated thing, let’s say two months from today.
you are right robyn, they never said the 16 would have a song. The same way, they always said that it would be “a max of 20 songs”. I guess it was clear from the start it wouldnt be 20 songs, but less. However i see somehow fair that people had been misslead by so confussing and weird rules. People expected the 16 guys competing, and 20 songs, thought TVe never assured it would be that way.
The Flamenco ballad sounds the most intriguing to me!
I’m not sure about RTVE’s process of opening up the studio versions to a public vote and then having them perform… it should be performance first as that’s what’s going to matter in the end.
Well in the end it is a song contest. You won’t get far if the song sucks. You’ll still be able to choose the best performance from one of the 7 best songs on the night of the eurovision gala in january.
This format just doesn’t make sense! I don’t think any country should choose their act through a talent/reality show! Why do some singers sing more than 1 song?!? Famous really isn’t going to suit a song in Spanish, as for me an English song would be a better match! Although countries should be persuaded to sing in their mothertongue, some singers would suit one language over the other!
My hopes aren’t high for Spain next year!
Wild guessing based on the descriptions, it seems Famous, Julia and Natalia got songs in perfect styles for them. I hope they’re good songs. I don’t know what to expect of a soul/latin mix for Alba, but sounds cool. The “ethnic chilled out sound” for Sabela also makes me curious. Miki and Natalia doing a duet is something that can work very well for both. From the eliminated, I’m surprised about so much love for Carlos. He’s cute, but that’s all. I wonder if Noelia will finally get something that can match all her potential.
Do we see them rehearse the songs for the eurovision?
I mean, after the 20.12 when the will debut the songs?
nope. they said that this yeear they wont show their rehearsal week. in fact, the academy will be dismantled on 19-D (so they may even reherse directly on the OT floor.
It seems they picked this December 20th date to release the demos as a way of keeping the interest alive just one day after the final. But it sounds unnecessarily rushed and brings a lot of weird situations. For example: Miki having to get used to 3 different songs at the same time he’s fighting for a spot in OT’s final. Or the eliminated contestants being able to direct all their focus at their Eurovision gala’s entry.
It means that sabela will be in the top 5.
It was obvious, considering the songs they gave her, which far better than miki’s song.
Miki famous are on the fight to represent spain next year. Julia is an o.k. but for me famous is the only right logic choice.
I am curious what kind of song alvaro soler wrote for miki?.
Vuelve reminds me of my all time fave Spanish entry, from 1995.