The Benidorm Fest 2024 already has its first four finalists. On Tuesday night, the music festival chose Nebulossa (149 points), Angy Fernández (137 points), Sofia Coll (116 points) and Miss Caffeina (105 points) as the first four candidates to win the Alicante contest.
Their performances were the ones that gained the most support in the first semifinal of the contest that selects the Spanish representative in the 68th edition of Eurovision, which will be held in Malmö (Sweden). This Thursday (La 1, 10:50 p.m.) the four singers who will accompany them in the final on Saturday (La 1, 10:00 p.m.) will be decided.
At the closing of the first round of performances at the Palau d’Esports l’Illa in Benidorm, María Bas, the singer of Nebulossa, confirmed the trend of 2024 and established on stage a regime of terror typical of feminists (and radical mariliendres. She was flanked by two muscular dancers in Catwoman-style bras and boots. Your theme The debtliberating and invoking the spirit of Fangoria, was the jury’s favorite option. “I know I’m just a slut. “That my past devours you,” says the lyrics of the song whose title is already visible on many t-shirts among the audience attending the festival.
Angy Fernández had already convinced the specialized press in his followingnoon essay. And, at night, she also had the support of the public as soon as she stepped foot on stage. With an infallible live performance as always, like she did when she was 16 years old in Factor Xand later in Your face is familiar to mehis return to music following confessing to having gone through mental health problems has been consolidated with I know who I amthe first option for the demographic public.
Sofia Coll started as one of the favorites with Here to Stay and she was the first to raise the Benidorm public. It has been classified in third place with a proposal that meets Eurovision standards, due to its scenery, choreography, costume change mid-song and an obligatory dancebreak His song was composed, among others, by Nacho Canut ( once more the spirit of Fangoria present in the room).
The surprise came from Miss Caffeina, one of the most interesting groups on the Spanish independent scene. The band led by Alberto Jiménez has toured all possible music festivals in the last decade. The trio has demonstrated their skills live with a song, Bla bla blawhich, without being the best of their repertoire, has a catchy chorus suitable to be sung by any European Eurofan. That since this Tuesday they have made themselves known to a wider public is already a triumph for them and for the Benidorm Fest.
Although Abraham Mateo, brother of one of the members of Lérica, had called for the popular vote through his social networks, the duo’s proposal, Astronautwas left out of the final. They were the ones who released the first musical note of the live gala, presented by the singer Ruth Lorenzo —in front of Cover Nightanother musical format from La 1—, Marc Calderó and Ana Prada. It rang at 11:07 p.m., perhaps thinking of the spectators in Los Angeles (where it was two in the followingnoon on Tuesday) or those in Sydney (nine in the morning on Wednesday), very attentive, who knows, to the Spanish preselection for Eurovision. The sound was so poor that the Alicante venue barely understood a single word of what the presenters and jury spoke throughout the gala, something that RTVE claims to have taken to correct the error in Thursday’s broadcast. They have also been left out of the final Mantra selection, despite being the televoting favorite with You’re gonna see me; Quique Niza, with Prisoner and Noah with I miss you -.
Like last year, The evaluation of the professional jury is worth 50% in the three galas in this edition. The other half falls on the public vote, although in this case it is divided into two: 25% corresponds to the demoscopic jury – a statistical selection of 350 people that represents the Spanish population – and 25% depends on televoting, that is, of the messages and phone calls made by viewers of live galas.
The jury of this edition has as spokesperson the singer, composer and actress Beatriz Luengo; who is accompanied by Guille Milkyway (The Blue House), who almost went to Eurovision in 2008 with The sexual revolution; the Dominican Ángela Carrasco, the first Mary Magdalene of Jesus Christ Superstar in Spain; and the Venezuelan Carlos Baute. The international and Eurovision expert half is made up of Lee Smithurst, who has been in charge of leading the British representation at the festival on several occasions; Davis Tserunyan, head of the Armenian delegation; Marta Pierkarska representing Poland; and set designer Nicole Refsing, who was artistic director of the festival in Copenhagen 2014, the year in which Ruth Lorenzo participated.
