The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continues to rate and review the 41 competing entries of Eurovision 2019. Next we sashay over to Spain where Miki has “La venda”. Did he get the party started? Read on to find out!
Miki – “La venda”
“La venda” reviews
Luis: Ah, Spain. Finally, FINALLY, a song I love from my country from the very first minute. I may not be impartial, and I may be letting myself get carried away like almost every year, but listen, this could really be the song that takes Spain back to the left side of the scoreboard. “La venda” is an instant rush of fun and happiness, and it’s contagious as hell. Miki’s energy elevates the song, and while the revamp may have made it a bit more pop-ish, it’s also a bit louder and more stadium prepared. Just imagine that bridge in front of the whole audience in Tel Aviv!
Score: 8.5/10
Anthony: Miki may not have won Operación Triunfo, but pair him up with a song like “La Venda” and it becomes a completely different story. This feel-good bop perfectly fits in with Miki’s likeable cheeky chappy stage presence. If he can get the audience and viewers going with the right staging, this could be a real crowd-pleaser. And one for the playlist at the Euroclub in Tel Aviv.
Score: 8.5/10
Kristin: I love this! Without a doubt my favourite song this year. I have so much praise about “La venda” and Miki that I don’t even know where to start. But I’ll try. This is fun, this is upbeat, this is pure happiness through and through, Miki is amazing and I would not mind going to Madrid next year. Pass me the Margaritas, por favor, I’m off to the club to do some serious Latin-influenced cardio!
Score: 9.5/10
Jack: “La Venda” is a fun, catchy, and totally danceable song that isn’t trying too hard to be anything that it isn’t. The trumpets and the “La venda ya cayó” hook alone are enough to ensure that Spain will bring the party to Tel Aviv during the night of the grand final. And with Miki’s charisma and charm, I predict that Spain will do well with juries and televoters (or at least better than they’ve done in recent years). “La Venda” has a stadium feel to it that we haven’t heard from Spain in a long time and I anticipate people will be singing this in the streets of Tel Aviv long into the wee hours of Sunday morning, regardless of Spain’s actual placing.
Score: 7.5/10
Oliver: This was another entry that I did not rate incredibly highly upon first hearing the song. However, seeing “La Venda” being performed live completely changed my opinion. This song has such a strong feel-good vibe and exudes complete joy and happiness. Thankfully, the revamped version lived up to the original one and exceeded it in many ways giving off a more professional and seamless finish. While I do miss the distinct ska and trumpet element in the song at times, this is one of Spain’s best entries in a long time.
Score: 9/10
Sebastian: It’s about time someone brought the party to Eurovision this year. Amongst a sea of ballads and dark pop entries, “La Venda” literally removes the blindfold right off of you, forcing you on your feet and dancing. The strength of “La Venda” is that it’s so likeable and inoffensive. There’s nothing not to like about it’s musicality, or even Miki himself. It’s a cool fresh of breath air and might just be the surprise contender if audiences are looking to let their hair down.
Score: 8.5/10
In the Wiwi Jury we have 29 jurors but only have room for six reviews. The remaining scores are below:
| Angus: 6/10
Antony: 6.5/10 Antranig: 6/10 Barnabas: 8/10 Bernardo: 7.5/10 Calvin: 6.5/10 Chris: 8/10 Deban: 7.5/10 Essi: 7/10 Florian: 6/10 Izhar: 9/10 Jonathan: 8/10 |
Josh: 8.5/10
Julian: 7.5/10 Lucy: 8.5/10 Lukas: 7/10 Mikhail: 7.5/10 Pablo: 9/10 Renske: 7.5/10 Robyn: 8/10 Ron: 8/10 Tobias: 4/10 William: 8.5/10 |
We have removed the highest and lowest scores prior to calculating the average. This is to remove outliers and potential bias. We have removed a low of 4 and a high of 9.5.
Wiwi Jury verdict: 7.7/10
What do you think of this song? Share your own score and review below!
I can only assume there was a deafness epidemic among this jury. This song is horrendous. How someone can actually like this horror is beyond me.
Oh, it got 1 point (1!) among the professional juries. 1 more than it deserved.
Sure this a good song, even though I’m not a big fan of it. I get the appeal and all, but.. 7.7 and currently in THIRD?? Overrated imo. It’s probably also not going to reach the top 10 in the contest considering Spain’s track record, no shade.
SPAIN IS THE BEST ENTRY … SO AMAZING AND A GREAT PERFORMANCE … SPAIN 12 POINTS …SPAIN OS THE BEST ENTRY … SO ANAZING AND A GREAT PERFORMANCE … SPAIN 12 POINTS …SPAIN IS THE BEST ENTRY … SO AMAZING AND A GREAT PERFORMANCE … SPAIN 12 POINTS …SPAIN OS THE BEST ENTRY … SO ANAZING AND A GREAT PERFORMANCE … SPAIN 12 POINTS …
Assuming this is a Spanish Eurofan
For me, this song is not for Eurovision Song Contest, but for cocktails on the beach and enjoyment. Wrong competition.
You don’t want enjoyment in Eurovision? You watch it to suffer? Omg, lol.
Exactly, we are talking about ESC, not about New Year’s concert in Vienna…
But no Bucharest 2020 either!
10/10.
THIS THING ABOVE GREECE, SLOVENIA AND AZERBAIJAN??? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Excepting Slovenia, none of those you mention are masterpieces either, in fact, quite ordinary genetic songs in English. No essence.
Ordinary *genetic* songs? Maybe with all these talk about My Heritage site we indeed get one in 2020. 🙂
As it should be…
Neither of the Iberian songs tickle my fancy at all this year. :-/
The wiwi jury is usually not very accurate when it comes to give Spain its scores. – In 2015 they ranked Edurne 5th with a score of 8.26! (she ended 21st). – In 2016 they ranked Barei 8th with a score of 7.83! (she ended 22nd). – In 2018 they ranked A&A 8th with a score of 7.69! (they ended 23rd) They did it better in 2014 (they ranked Ruth Lorenzo 7th and she ended 10th, but Ruth has an amazing voice) and in 2017 they predicted that Manel Navarro would flop (but we all new that would happen). I… Read more »
This was I think only just my favourite in the NF but it was a very strong NF. Anyway La venda was also my number 1 for quite a while so I do really like this and I hope on the ESC stage he gives it his all with his vocals as that’s what made his NF performance in my opinion! 8.5/10
I must say this song wasn’t my favourite in the NF, but when I saw Miki’s performance I voted for it. And now I hope it has in Europe a similar effect as it had on me. I hope joy translates into votes this time.
That’s the key! We brought joy and good vibes with Barei back in 2016 but no one voted for us. I don’t think we deserve to be mistreated every single year in the voting. I hope this year we’ll get better!
I had problems with the cheap production, but the revamp refined it, giving purpose to its breaks and harmonizing the instruments in the background. The Spanish guitar in the bridge was a nice touch. Far from being great, it’s a party song that only makes sense when performed live, with a cathartic chorus setting the mood. Miki sells it with energy and guy next door vibes. I hope RTVE doesn’t ruin it with an excess of choreography. “La Venda” is about leaving negativity behind. This is not supposed to be slick, it needs to be playful. 7.25/10
Hmmm too many words to justify mediocrity.
Lol , these reviews are good but just too long
Even though the song itself is fairly basic and like anything you’d hear on Spanish radio during the summer, It really is good fun and Miki does sell it well. Have to say I enjoy watching the video and the lyrics are pretty good too – Buena suerte de Irlanda!
I love this song, 9/10 for me. If Mahmood is not going to win I hope this song to do so 🙂
This song isn’t bad, but for me it certainly is not top 10 material, either. Very surprised it gets such high scores from wiwibloggs
They ranked Salvador #23 back then… What do they know?
7,7 Makes me laugh. Well we will see if you right or wrong.
This is Spain’s lucky year. And thei’re lucky because they chose a happy, uptempo and unpretentious song performed by a nice guy in a year in which this type of songs are a rare exception, so this will definitely stand out and take Spain out of the bottom of the scoreboard where they usually end up. Still, this doesn’t make “La Venda” a good song per se. The music is nothing to write home about, the lyrics are extremely basic and it does not stand out vocally either. “La Venda” is like a bad joke in a funeral; you know… Read more »
I don’t think the lyrics are so basic, too be honest. It has short verses, but each of them has a strong direct message.
Of course it is not up to me to judge what certain lyrics mean to someone, as that is very personal, but they look quite basic to me. Some parts do not even make much grammatical sense in Spanish…
They do Riming. Absolutely grammatically correct. They look basic because the verses are short, so the message goes straight to the point in each of them.
Sorry to dissapoint you, but they don’t. I speak fluently Spanish on a daily basis. ” te rezas porque confías”, “te vives, alto voltaje”, “te saltas, no quedan normas”… these sentences make no sense, as the verbs “rezar” (pray), “vivir” (live) and “saltar” (jump) are not reflexive verbs and cannot be used after “te”, what means that it are actions you are doing to yourself. In Spanish (or in any other language) it does not make sense to “pray to yourself”, “live to yourself” or “jump yourself”, not even in a poetical context. They started te lyrics with correct reflexive… Read more »
As a spanish-speaker:
It is called ‘Anafora’.
You need to ommit sometimes the “te” to understand every single sentence you mentioned.
“(Te) vives, alto voltaje” > you live at high voltage
“(Te) rezas, porque confias” > you pray because you believe (i guess in God)
…..etc
Musically is not a masterpiece buy lyrics are pretty meaningful.
The term “Anáfora” means repeating one or more words at the beginning of each sentence, but with a meaning and sense. So they indeed used it in the first verses correctly. After the chorus they WANTED to continue using this “anáfora” but they did it wrong. Having to ommit “te” makes no sense at all.
“La venda” is an excellent song! (But, hey, you have to ommit the word “excellent”, cause it makes no sense in this sentence)….
“Te compran porque te vendes
Te vendes porque te sobras
Te pierdes porque hay camino
Te digo: hay otras cosas
Te sales porque te quieres
Te quieres, tu mente en forma
Te eliges porque hay camino
Te digo: hay otras cosas”
So far it makes sense. There is no “te” that is unnecessary or that doesn´t add information
“Te rezas porque confías Te sientes que ya tenías Te vives, alto voltaje Te traje buenas noticias Te vales y ya no fuerzas Te vives y te interesas Te saltas, no quedan normas” “Te rezas” makes sense. You prays to yourself because you recognize yourself as a god. “Te sientes que ya tenías” the only real mistake here is the lack of a direct object… “Te sientes, que ya tenías necesidad de sentirte…” and a comma. “Te vives” it is metaphoric but just the way you can live a story or an experience, you can live yourself if you claim… Read more »
Exactly, without being high poetry, the lyrics are full with several retoric figures, such as metaphoras, anaforas and ellipsis, it does not mean it is incorrect. Anyway, I do not know why we are doing here such a deep retoric and meaning analysis of La Venda. I do not see it for other songs (We are technicolour, watch us go We never walk away, na-na, chama chameleon…. aha… and I think it’s a great song), not to talk about the fact that there are songs in Albanian, Slovenian, Georgian… I do not think any of us talking here right now… Read more »
It takes native deep poetic knowledge of the Spanish language (including Spanish literary language) to understand, not just speakind on a daily basis. As they explain below: “te saltas, no quedan normas”: Te saltas (las normas porque) no quedan normas: You skip the rules because there are no rules for you any more. Te rezas porque confías: Te rezas porque confías (en ti): you pray yourself because you trust yourself. Absolutely correct: your pray yourself instead of praying God or praying any other nowadays divinity (consumism?, other people?, social media?, others’ opinions?) because you put yourself as the center of… Read more »
It may mean something else, at least I’m Spanish.
Te vendes porque te sobras. You have so much of you (te sobras) that you don’t mind selling yourself.
It’s a 10 out of 10 for me! I love “La Venda” and I love Miki! This kind of song is what I have been waiting for to see on the Eurovision stage for a long time! I really hope it will do well and good luck to Miki and his team!
It’s the first Spanish song I’ve liked since Edurne, however it does sound like a Ricky Martin dance track from the 2000s. I never know how well Spain will do at Eurovision, because they’re normally big fan favourites (bar 2017) but end up flopping.
It’s a good vibe party song with some vindictive and motivational lyrics. It isn’t meant to sound like a piece from Mozart or Beethoven. You sound far too classy in your review. You just have to enjoy it, not overanalyze it. Obviously, if you don’t like party or party songs, you are not going to like this one. Matter of taste I suppose. Same to Purple Mask.
Ah, point taken.
I usually enjoy your reviews though!
Miki’s biceps tho.
10/10
top comment. he is quite yummy
Arguably our best entry since 2012 and 2014. I wasn’t expecting that “high” score though, I couldn’t believe it while reading the reviews . I think it has been a grower in all of us and it’s going to step on the stage in its best moment. I could write a lot of things, but to make it short you better go above and Luis’ review because that’s what I think too. This could be finally our year, I mean a top 10… but looking back isn’t that bad. I’m really looking forward to see what Fokas has staged. This… Read more »
SPAIN – It’s a breath of fresh air! An unpretentious fun which makes one move. It’s a big party anthem, well suited for stadiums and concerts. Miki is totally in sync with the song and it’s a hoot watching him. In the national finals, it slightly bordered on being *too* unpretentious (read: uncoordinated), but after the re-vamp, it seems they want to polish it a bit. As long as it’s only a bit and the song keeps it’s spontaneous charm, I’m fine with it. Hope Spain does well. – 8/10 My rating: 9.5 – ALB 9 – EST, POR, RUS,… Read more »
true . this song is in top 30
Sooooo oooovvvveeerrraaatttteeeedd
Too repetitive. Spain has so much more to offer than just the traditional image of ‘verbena’.
No todos contribuimos a este país de charanga y pandereta, algunos nos tomamos en serio que España sea un país moderno, europeo y un paradigma cultural mundial.
Bottom 5 again…
Wiwi Jury verdict: 7.7/10 ? really ? hahhahhahhaha no baby
I agreeMust be 10/10 .that is then right
Joyful party song together with Miki’s boy next door charm makes this song very likeable. La venda ya cayooo 🙂
well it IS outdated and definitely far below what spain would be potentially capable to serve, especially in this music industry climate where reggae is thriving, but issa fun song in a sea of ballads and we appreciate what we have
la vendetta
this is either opening the show or closing the show.
it sounds nothing like a show closer but i can see them putting it either 1st or 14th, either way it’ll do better than their other latest attempts
Haters gonna hate
I think this is what will see in Tel Aviv. No 12 points for Spain, very few 10, but lots of 5, 6, and even 7 and 8. This is such a likeable song and Miki gives all the good vibes in the world. I foresee a Top 10
It’ll be more like lots of 1s and 2s. It might get 16th.
Come on we all a know that Spain will FLOP again This year as always…don’t let the crazy stupid Spanish fans confuse you
Maybe Fokas will elevate it but don’t see it above 20th place
Huele un poquito a envidia por aquí…
OGAE fans have it at about number 10. Spain can’t vote for itself. I think it’ll end up top ten.
I love the song and i am not a stupid crazy spanish fan. Why do not you respect everyone that think different to you?pure envy
Every single year Spanish fans are going crazy with their songs and they ALWAYS flop
This will be no exception
And am I envy about “la venda”????!!!
Are you kidding me?…if you see the comments here you will notice that many share my opinion!!!
Bravo por la Madre Patria! Spain got it right, por fin! As a Latin American supporting Spain in the ESC since 2003, I couldn’t be happier with this entry . It highlights what Latin Americans and Spaniards (at their best) are known for joie de vivre, passion, flavor and good energy. The first version took me back to my college years with its ska and trumpet sounds. The second version more anthemic took me back to the World Cup in Brazil. Wonderful times! It baffles me to see the negativity here. For years, you’ve been complaining that Spain should bring… Read more »
Para los gustos, los colores. Me gusta el hecho que tengo dos versiones para disfrutar. Estoy de acuerdo en que España merece un muy buen resultado este año. Ojalá que así sea.
I like the studio version of this song even though i’m not the biggest fan of it, however it really comes to life when performed live. Miki has a likability to him, and seems like he could be anyone’s best friend. Combined with the trumpet elements and the whole fiesta-feel, this all feels very spanish while also targeting an international audience. This is the kind of song that passes under your radar during the eurovision season, and for some reason you end up voting for it on the night. Maybe Im biased, because I really want my neighbiurs to do… Read more »
This is flying under the radar, but with 40k Fokas staging, it can pull a Moldova 2017. 7.7 is a bit exaggerated nth, I would give it a solid 7.
I agree, it’s too repetitive, I like the intro and the chorus is fun but, after a couple of times, it’s just “thank you, next”.
This is a joke, right?
I really really love this for some reason and I’m ashamed. It just puts me in a good mood idk. 8/10
I immediatelly clicked with this entry, good song, one of my favourites. Good luck Miki!
In my opinion it’s unbelievable that this Spanish (crappy) party song scored better than Sebi,which is a piece of art.
Loved this at first. Revamp killed it dead for me. It sounds too polished and has the raw brass band fun factor.
The song is fun and the guy seems to be enjoying preforming the song. The chorus makes everybody sing along and dance. However , the speaking style of singing in the verses doesn’t really lend itself well to my ears and vocally the song doesn’t show any versatility. This could Garner a decent televote but the JURY won’t probably put this high. I liked it better before they altered it.A 6/10.
Would have struggled to qualify from the semi if this weren’t an automatic qualifier , probably borderline.
Haha, a reminder of the “masterpiece” that is The Ketchup Song: https://youtu.be/AMT698ArSfQ
This music is so simple. It reminds of a football anthem. Miki has lots of energy, and there are brass instruments. The video seemingly tries to make the song into a protest movement, which is risky considering how the singer is from Catalonia. But musically I agree with Tibor – “The Ketchup Song” was more interesting. I enjoy “La Venda” mainly because Miki is cute, but that’s about as far as it goes. Sorry Spain.
But not everything needs to be so complicated…!
Some of the best things are…simple!
It’s fun, but not enough to make me vote for it.
That score is highly inflated btw.
5.5/10
The revamp ruined it’s vibe but a great entry nonetheless
Well this is an overrated score. Higher than Norway, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Slovenia, Portugal, Greece really? But yeah it’s a good song, but it is something that I usually don’t listen to, I’m not a huge fan of this kind of Spanish pop songs (Alvaro Soler for example). Spain hasn’t been in my top 10 since Ruth and this also doesn’t light my fire… My score: 6,5 / 10 My Top: 9,5 – Greece 9 – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Slovenia 8,5 – Portugal 8 – Austria, Albania 7,5 – Poland, Estonia 7 – Hungary, N. Macedonia, Ireland 6,5 – Spain, Russia, Belarus,… Read more »
This is like a million times better than their last 2 entries and I’m glad that Spain is sending something that actually works. This song shouldn’t be too hard to stage right but so was Tu Cancion and that staging was a disaster as well. This is such a happy upbeat entry and I instantly liked it when I first heard it. I see this performing 26th in the Grand Final which would boost his televote enough to get this in the top 13. 8,5/10
I preferred the original version however I am getting used to the revamp now and the song is back in my top 10. This is so far my favourite Spanish entry so far and is definitely the type of songs that the sunny nation should be sending to Eurovision. I love Miki’s voice and pronunciation, he’s also a very handsome guy in my opinion. Love those arms but back to the song. “La Venda” is an energetic, catchy and upbeat bop, the kind of which I have waited a very long time for Spain to send to ESC. This will… Read more »