THIS YEAR'S
ENTRY
Spain's glory
days at the Eurovision Song Contest came forty
years ago, when they won the contest in 1968,
under suspicious circumstances and then hosted
in 1969 and shared victory with three other
countries. You have to go back to 1995 for the
last time that Spain finished in the Top 5 and
for the last three years, they have finished in
the bottom five.
This year
Spanish broadcaster TVE decided on an inovative
approach to selecting its Eurovision entry.
There was a ten song national final in late
February, and all potential entrants would post
their entries on the popular MySpace website.
The public chose five of the entrants and TVE
would then add another five. Over 500 hundred
entries were submitted, and soon after the
public voting began, it became clear that
interest in a novelty entry "Baila el Chiki
Chiki" (Dance The Chiki Chiki)"
would win the Spanish selection, despite the
fact that it was only a minute and a half in
lengh, which would have made it the shortest
ever Eurovision entry.
The song was
re-arranged, removing samples of other songs and
lengthened for the slightly delayed Spanish
final was held on March 8th at the TVE TV
Studios in Madrid and was hosted by famous
Italian entertainer Raffaella Carrŕ. The winner
was chosen by two sections of televoting. The
first section was based on votes received in the
week building up to the contest (33.3%
weighting) and the section was the televote on
the evening of the contest (66.7% weighting). In
one of the biggest and least surprising wins of
the year "Baila el Chiki
Chiki" (Dance The Chiki Chiki) by
Rodolfo Chikilicuatre won the ticket to
Belgrade.
Rodolfo
Chikilicuatre (supposedly born in 1972 in Buenos
Aires, Argentina) is a popular Spanish comedic
character played by David Fernández Ortiz
(actually born 24th June 1970 in Barcelona,
Spain) and first introduced in the Spanish late
night show "Buenafuente" as an
improvisational act. Rodolfo was interviewed as
the inventor of the vibrator-guitar.
According to
Chikilicuatre himself, participating in the
Eurovision Song Contest is a dream come true,or
truth becoming a dream, although the show which
catapulted the character to fame often derides
the contest and many saw "Baila el Chiki
Chiki" as an attempt to draw further
scorn on Eurovision. Consequently it is believed
that TVE were not best pleased with the
selection of the song as the entrant also comes
from a rival channel to TVE.
The song is
unusual in that it is the first Reggaeton
Eurovision entry. Reggaeton is a form of urban
music which became popular with Latin American
youth during the early 90's and spread over the
last years to the rest of the World. Originating
in Panama, Reggaeton blends Jamaican music
influences of reggae and dancehall with those
Latinos, such as bomba, plena, merengue and
bachata, as well as that of hip-hop and
electronica.
Reggaeton's
most notably unique feature is a driving
drum-machine track which was derived from a
popular Jamaican dacehall rhythm. Many of the
sounds found in a typical reggaeton beat are
electronically synthesized.
This year's
Spanish Eurovision entry has become a massive
local hit in Spain, topping the local singles
chart and it has begun a huge novelty dance
craze. The song has become one of the biggest
hits on the YouTube site, with several hundred
videos of people showing their version of the
"Chiki Chiki". Publicity around the
entry was maintained by a casting show which
chose the backing dancers for Belgrade.
"Baila el
Chiki Chiki" shows an interesting division
in what people like and what people think will
do well at Eurovision. The song has generally
done very poorly in internet fan polls and is
apparently hated by most Spanish Eurovision fans
but it is among the ten favourites to win the
contest with the bookmakers.
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