Destino Eurovisión has aired and Spain has decided: Blas Cantó will sing “Voy a Quedarme” at Eurovision 2021.
“Voy a Quedarme” is Blas Cantó’s Eurovision 2021 song for Spain
Raw emotion and Blas’s moving vocals were on full display during Destino Eurovisión. And “Voy a Quedarme” was clearly the song that showcased those assets best. The global vote saw the song win 58% of the vote, defeating the other song “Memoria”, which earned 42% of the vote.
“Voy a Quedarme” is a powerful ballad with a modern arrangement. Blas Cantó kept it subtle, performing surrounded by just a few lights and a full moon that shines brighter as the song evolves. This simple staging sought to grow along with Blas as he approached the climax of the song. Speaking to RTVE, Marvin Dietmann — Spain’s stage director for Eurovision — said he is all about Blas, his voice and his moment. And yes! Blas Canto’s wishes came true – he made the first change to the song and started a capella.
Blas Cantó wrote “Voy a Quedarme” himself alongside Leroy Sánchez – the composer behind Blas’ hit “El No Soy Yo” – Daniel Ortega and Dan Hammond. Both, Daniel and Dan, are also no new faces to fans. Dangelo co-wrote Blas songs “No Volveré” and “Complicado”, but also last year’s ESC song “Universo” – that Dan Hammong produced.
Destino Eurovision 2021: Final results
This year, the voting had no borders. Everyone from across the globe was able to help decide which song Blas should represent Spain with at Eurovision 2021. The voting had two phases: from the start on February 10th to before the Gala (phase 1) and a short voting period after Blas performed both competing songs (phase 2).
After phase 1 was completed, the percentage share between the two songs was 72%/28%. Although, we weren’t told which song had what share of the vote.
Things got a bit tighter for phase 2. Once the voting during the Gala was combined with the Phase 1 results, the final voting share was a 58%/42% split.
In the end, it was revealed that “Voy a Quedarme” was the song with the largest percentage of votes:
- “Voy a Quedarme” – 58% of total voting
- “Memoria” – 42 % of total voting
With almost 2-hours of Gala, Destino Eurovisión has been a celebration all about Blas Cantó, Eurovision and music. The Gala saw Blas perform both competing songs live. He also gave a rendition of Queen’s “Somebody to Love” with Eurovision 2015 star Edurne and sang his hit single “El No Soy Yo” with beloved Eurovision 2012 singer Pastora Soler.
A series of other famous faces, such as Vanesa Martín and Nia (OT 2020 winner), supported the start of Blas’ journey to Eurovision by singing some of Blas’ other hits, such as “Curame”, “Complicado” and more.
What do you think about Blas Cantó’s song for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021? Is this song enough for the Big 5 country to finally avoid the bottom 5 again? Let us know in comment section down below!
Read more Spain Eurovision news here
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Okay, okay, okay…eating my words here officially. Initially, I completely dismissed this song like so many commentators below. Ahem, after a few weeks this song just got into my brain and I have to say I completely love – I know that for a fact because I don’t care where it comes in the Final. The melody is stirring in an unassuming way and the crescendo with the double high notes is the best climax I can remember in a Eurovision ballad. Hands down my favorite ballad in ESC2021.
The biggest asset of this entry is Blas. His voice is really powerful, beautiful and he knows how to use it and of course his image. He is super telegenic and I am sure that this will win him a lots of votes (even I am tempted to vote for him for that reason… How shallow am I?… 🙂 ). Staging seems also to work, presuming TVE is going for this dark theme. It works very well and this is usually a problem for TVE. But… the song?… He deserved so much better… Still I do think that a place… Read more »
That Eurovision medley he did was one of the best I’ve seen in recent years, great mix of songs that were well crafted together (like Soldi with backing vocals humming Arcade).
“Voy a quedarme” was a little better live, and he’s a great performer. Best of luck to him!
Why can’t the Spanish team look at the national charts and get inspired by the local acts’s success??
He wrote the songs.
Yeap but apparently they got approved by the Spanish broadcaster.
That is what he put forward so yes.
Surprised to see the live performance, I gotta say it grows so much live. That said, good luck Spain
Not bad at all,moment in my top 4 from the ten entrys ,I see mayority from the very bad coments come from Spain self,of Cataluña,what is also Spain ,but we know the problem,anyway good luck Spain and Blas.
Am I the only one who likes this? Anyway, good luck Spain!
Damn. This is bad :/
Bad effort of cloning dumcan lawrence
You never heard of a Spanish pop ballad before?
Does this guy not have any say in his own song selections – this is just so generic. What a wasted opportunity for a talented singer
He wrote his songs based in his own experiences in life. What more do you want from him?
Good taste.
Anyone can write words. Writing a good song requires talent.
So what do you want him to write about then?
I don’t want him to write the song for Eurovision when he clearly can’t write good songs. Just let someone else write the song for him.
Hmm, him delivering a self-penned song likely comes with the package when he put his name forward for RTVE’s consideration, which the broadcaster agreed to.
With those terms, what kind of song would you want him to write for himself as an ESC entry if you don’t like what he has put forward?
Speaking from ignorance I see. The lyrics are amazing. He had got a lot of great songs. Investigate before speaking
What is a “good song” then?
If we’re gonna go technical, I don’t understand why people seem to have a problem with how the song is made.
That would be subjective at best. It’s alright if you can’t connect to the song in question, but I do as it does hit the right sweet spot in what I expect from pop ballads in Spanish. 🙂
Guys, when talking about Spain, you need to understand: the problem is not “Spain doesn’t know how to Eurovision”. The problem is “RTVE doesn’t know how to do TV”. This is deeper than just Eurovision. What you’re seeing here is the result of decades of corruption and politicians trying to control this TV. You probably think that RTVE is big because they’re part of the Big 5, but that’s not the case. You just need to watch some shows like their special New Year’s Gala to understand that RTVE has some serious problems. They know nothing about TV, nothing about… Read more »
That problem can be explained and it’s quite complex tbh. That’s a structural problem in spanish TV in general, not only RTVE. TV shows starting at 10:30 and finishing at 02:00/02:30 are common in Spain. There are 2 reasons that can explain this: Money. TVs follow one simple rule: producing 1 show is cheaper than producing 2 or more. If you can do this show in 1 hour, they extend it to 2 hours cause that’s cheaper (that’s what they did here, why should they finish this at 11:30 when they can continue the show till 12:30 with the same… Read more »
This is a common scheduling thing overseas. Many important TV events happen during the weekends and broadcast would air them late to get people watching. You see this in Portugal, Italy, just to name a few.
RTVE don’t have to abide with the viewing patterns of people who are clearly watching the show outside of Spain who are used to shows starting strictly at 8pm and ending at 10pm/11pm.
Oh that makes so much sense now ! When I was watching Eurovision Triunfo I was constantly thinking it was looking pretty cheap and simple for such a big country ! I hope all of this mess will change one day…
In order to try to improve my Spanish I watched a lot of RTVE for a while and I agree with you, Alex. Sure, they can from time to time hit the jackpot (El Ministerio del Tiempo is a great TV show for example, but probably a co-production with an independent studio), but it seems the perennial political confusion in Spain (I can relate, my country is a mess too) directly affects the broadcaster. Last night’s show was a good example of how messy they can be with their programming. I mean, you just need to see the logo they… Read more »
Also to consider: They don’t want to preempt shows that aie earlier in the night.
You mean other RTVE shows? About the lenght of the show itself, I guess it’s a cultural thing. See how it works in Sanremo… FdC’s semi yesterday had last 2 hours and a half when all performers were finished in the first hour. In Brazil it’s common practice to keep a show on the air for longer than schedule when they know it has good ratings, while the competition sometimes waits so they can only start their successful show when that one finally finishes. I guess a Swede (having in mind Melfest is so concise and precise) would get crazy… Read more »
At least there is no convoluted voting mechanics like how it was with Operación Eurovisión 2017. 🙂
That was a disaster…
Let’s see if the Spanish people support this song, i mean you cannot expect Europe to vote for you if you don’t support your own song [streaming, digital download]/
Take a look at the charts in Spain, you will notice a significant difference in the style of the songs compared to the ones we heard last night which is disappointing. It shows you how out of touch is the Spanish delegation.
But the vast majority of artists dominating the Spanish charts are from Latin America and from American-born Hispanics, very few Spaniards make it into the Top of their own charts unless you’re Aitana or Rosalia.
Personally, Blas’s discography reminds me a lot of the Spanish-language stuff i listen to from back in the day, which is actually a good thing: RBD, Son by Four, Enrique Iglesias (non-English), and Camila.
If you see any common thread with all the mentioned artists is that they’ve all sang telenovela theme songs. Hehe
Voy a Quedarme would be more suited for the LATAM and the Hispanic-American market than Eurovision
Which would probably be the point as to why the contest would need songs like this to be entered.
Italy is a prime example of a country whose songs they send that would rather fare well in their home market but have consistently been odd fits as Eurovision entries.
it’s nice, but a little dull
I don’t get how countries with less budget do miles better shows than us. Blas Cantó’s performances were better than our standards but that’s still bad if compared with other countries. I mean the lighting and Dietmann work were okey, but the production and the sound was terrible, backvocals were too loud and you could tell Blas was uncomfortable with the sounds in his in-ears in both performances. Also, the show lacked any rythm or even a coherent scaletta. RTVE even swapped the phone lines so that’s the reason why the percentages were even at the end. It’s a shame… Read more »
Oh, and let’s not talk about the graphic design and the banners. Cringy asf. I’m embarrased.
Our potential last place.
Spain (I mean their delegation) needs a sort of Eurovision compass, they have lost their north. They swear they are doing it in an awesome fashion, but every edition they end up in the last places. I don’t know what is the matter with them: The land that for decades has provided huge artists for the Spanish-speaking world, resorts to such bland formulas. I loathed the full “Universo” package, it looked and sounded so manufactured, so forced and corny. Yeah, Spain is missing “something” and I am sure they can find it …but with another team or delegation.
Thegala was so awful. They give the host a paper with the winner, she keeps it for 5 minutes, and then they anounce the result in a screen, the sound was bad, the plans were bad, they showed eight thousand of auryn things to make Blas feel angry or idk why, the logo and design in general, specially the leds and the black and white lights…
The worst thing is that rtve thinks that they were awesome and the eurofans opinions mean nothing from them
VIVA TOÑI
Unfortunatelly, this song has nothing memorable. The juries won’t understand it, and the voters won’t like it. So, it will end up low again…
My God Spain… Why, just tell me why…
OK, but how did the national final with only 2 song last 2 freaking hours!?
He sang duets, other hits, there were other famous singers such as Pastora Soler and the show combined performances with interviews, like a meeting of friends at home. It’s was very entertaining and people got to know what an amazing performer and Great guy he is.
The way every single guest song performed was better than his actual Eurovision song, i…
“It was very entertaining” hahahahha. That’s why the audience was terrible, just 6%. Noone was watching this.
Gotta milk the format
I called it.
26th place in the final….forgetable and bland
Expected. It was a lose lose situation anyway.
soooooboring
This makes much more of an impact than the studio version.. Good choice Spain..
The “spanish” songs from sweden are outdated,
Good choice by the Televoters. Great idea of Blas to begin the song a cappella – exactly what was needed to make the song more enjoyable. Quiet start slowly building to a soaring high note. Blas can be proud of his talents and Spain can hold her head high at Eurovision this year.
Sure, Jan …
If it’s in the English version of Wiki then that would be technically correct as that’s how the casing is for proper nouns.
In English, yeah. Not in Spanish. Titles in Spanish don’t have every word capitalized.
Proper nouns in foreign languages tend to adjust their cases because of the way proper nouns in general are presented in English orthography.
Likewise , the same can be said when English proper nouns are adjusted to fit the orthography of other languages.
In short: It goes both ways.
Edit: I just realized i misread your original post and that you’re actually referring to Wiwibloggs.
My point still stands, however. 🙂
When reading song titles, I think that none of the European languages besides English capitalize every word in a title, unless it’s a name itself. I mean, some of the songs are written as:
– Kelle ma soitan (Finnish)
– Do tja dal (Albanian)
– Star lig her (Danish)
– Zapjevaj, sloboda je (Croatian)
– Na mais profunda saudade (Portuguese)
– Pourvu qu’on m’aime (French)
– Om allting skitter sig (Swedish)
… and so on.
Actually, in Portuguese we capitalize most of the words. “Amar Pelos Dois”, “O Jardim” and “Senhora do Mar”, for instance.
Thanks for letting me know. It’s a cool fact. 🙂 The English Wikipedia has all of the songs in FdC miscredited with only the first word capitalized. I re-checked these other languages also just in case, but they all seem to indeed capitalize only the first word. (At least they do in Serbo-Croatian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Estonian, Albanian, French, Lithuanian and Icelandic).
I’ll re-do my Portuguese FdC lists now. 🙂
I wonder why languages gone different ways with this. Sometimes it seems confusing even for those who are native speakers.
Is it me or in terms of staging, they literally copied the one from France ? Ok I understand that these are two ballads, BUT, I find it very similar… If we remove the garland on the ground, we have exactly the same lights (especially the beam from the back), the same set of cameras and the same starry sky in the background. I find it a shame to very clearly copy another performance rather than create its own identity. I like the song, I don’t think it ends up in my top 5 (or maybe even 10) this year… Read more »
Perfect – includes The NetherLamp !!!
I love Blas, he is talented, charming and amazing performer, I wish him luck with the song, not a masterpiece but nice and with a bit revamp could bring Spain decent place
Which songs ?
Vamos amigos, baila baila, etc all the alvaro estrella’s ones
I don’t say I like them, but that he refers to those
Mucha suerte !
France 10/10
Lithuania 9/10
Finland 8/10
Ukraine 7/10
Spain 7/10
Albania 5/10
Israel 4/10
Norway 3/10
Czechia 2/10
Croatia 1/10
Be serious, the Spanish language songs (or chorus) in the Swedish selection are basically clichés which are mostly seen ridiculous in the Latin Market
It does.
But Sweden has not been a role model for some time in Eurovision. They only deliver generic pop without charisma and try to hide it with a good production and staging.
They have lost their essence and are no longer a reference to anybody.
And you think songs like “Vamos Amigos” and “Baila Baila” would change that? The Spanish delegation is not good, nobody is going to defend them, but don’t come here trying to sell that Sweden has better Spanish songs cause those songs are a joke xD
I think it must be so hard to be the spanish representative when the whole spanish eurofan public is throwing so much negativity (I read all the comments and it’s sad how mean they are, even how the dismiss other countries entries). He sounded nice!. There was some technical problems on the show with the sound (specially with backing singers), but it was a HUGE IMPROVEMENT, taking into consideration that the spanish television does not have the same resources like a swedish, finnish, estonian or the norwegian television. Maybe it’s not the most wonderfull thing in the world, but they… Read more »
Spanish eurofans are generally quite toxic. I don’t try to justify, but rtve doesn’t care about eurovision ;( But every single year, most of the spaniardds will criticise him/her, and it is already exasperating (I am spanish and I guess by your name that you are too). Blas has improved his song a lot, Universo was so bland and boring… I don0t get neither why they are angry when he sings a song in his style, it’s like wth. GOOD LUCK BLAS
Toxic? Is it toxic to expect certain kind of quality and competition? RTVE, Blas and his music label knew this is FOR eurovision, a music contest in btw there is no single chance to win. Imagine if a football team loses during decades or a company loses revenues year after year. I can tell you that both the coach and the CEO will be immediately replaced, but nothing happen in the Spanish delegation. They can systematically sent awful cringy loser acts with no consequences; if they can´t do better, let´s put people there who actually WANT to participate and compete… Read more »
Exactly. And also the same dull reasoning repeating itself over and over:
If you are Spanish you have to undoubtedly support your contestant.
Fake and plain patriotism.
I know, Toñi Prieto has been for like ten years the final responsible of eurovision in spain and she doesn’t care at all about eurovision, while the HoD, Ana Bordás, actually cares. We’ve been asking for change for many many years (even before than Manel Navarro), and if you search in twitter “Toñidimision”, you will see it. But all this can’t unveil the fact that spanish eurofans, we are dissapointed, but also many of them are toxic
Yay! This song is really good. It’s my current favorite with albina.
Es una mierda y lo sabes
Branding-wise, RTP’s Festival da Canção has the better presentation than RTVE’s Destino Eurovision. I’m curious as to who the Spanish broadcaster hired to make those god-awful graphic package.
But I’m glad that “Voy a quedarme” won regardless.
RTVE is one of the worst national televisions. It’s corrupted, has a massive internal crisis and they don’t know how to make TV. This is not just a problem with their “Eurovision shows”: all their shows in general have terrible stages, audio, cameras and graphics in general.
It needs a revamp, that choir at the end is just noisy. It will struggle in the final. Blas is very talented and it’s a beautiful staging, but the song is extremely forgettable.
Is it me or in terms of staging, they literally copied the one from France ? Ok I understand that these are two ballads, BUT, I find it very similar… If we remove the garland on the ground, we have exactly the same lights (especially the beam from the back), the same set of cameras and the same starry sky in the background. I find it a shame to very clearly copy another performance rather than create its own identity. I like the song, I don’t think it ends up in my top 5 (or maybe even 10) this year… Read more »
2 words. Struggle bus.
Spain could so easily win if they just send something latin
They literally did that in 2019 with a fairly decent song and STILL didn’t do well
In my opinion, it was the right decision. The good news is that Blas will sing something that’s better structured and that sounds much more earnest than “Universo”. The staging was pretty and it was a great idea to start it a capella. Sure, the backing vocals were too loud tonight, but since they’ll be pre-recorded in Rotterdam, that’s not a big deal. The bad news is that I still think this sounds and looks too bland to be remembered after 26 performances.
Totally agree. However, there is something positive in this too: some people are attired by not so memorable entries if there are special details which call their attention. Professional juries should specially focus on that. That’s what they are there.
That’s why I liked the a capella idea, it’s the biggest chance for Blas to get some juries’ points.
Blas is so cute and talented! However, the show was awkward without purpose… even the design logo was basic, no effort from the ES team at all… I am disappointed that the best they could do the past year is to record these 2 songs as final candidate entries for ESC…really? Is that the best Spain can offer? Blas should have worked with a variety of producers and writers/song-writing camps anyone? I think i prefer Memoria than the winning song. Unfortunately, this ballad is very bland and won’t appeal to anyone in ESC and I strongly believe it will end… Read more »
It was the best among the two but still Spain is gonna struggle in May. Maybe a massive revamp could save it. Good luck Spain!
Powerful performance which undoubtedly elevated the song. Great stage, great voice, great lyrics and a personal and organic song. The capella was a great idea. Some will find it boring, but no doubt there is musical quality in here. They need to solve the problem of the back vocals, though, or better, just remove them. And I also agree the camera has to focus more on his face.
Better of the two won, still boring tho. Sounds like a intro to a mexican telenovela.
Some Mexican telenovela songs are actually bops. This isn’t one. This is just a bad song. Spain loves to squander their auto qualifiers advantage. Instead of taking risks, they always send something bland and generic.
“Some Mexican telenovela songs are actually bops.”
Actually agree on this one, love me some Maite Perroni 😀
Apparently, Miate and a few good friends have recently reformed RBD. 🙂
#Rebelde
If I didn’t know the lyrics, I’d think this were a same old The X Factor winning song with that performance.
Bottom 5
Mark my words
I mean with good staging and vocals this could be a surprise favorite from the jury, maybe