- Ukraine wins Eurovision while Chanel makes history for Spain
The Hispanic-Cuban embroidered her participation with a waste of energy and talent with her ‘SloMo’ at the Kalush Orchestra night
She arrived, saw and almost conquered, in the land of Julius Caesar, and although she did not win, Chanel achieved the very best result for Spain in almost four decades, since Lady Lady in fact back in 1984, when she finished in third just behind the runner up, UK’s Sam Ryder, who had led until the very last votes were announced from the European public.
But of course the contest ended with the inevitable victory of the Kalush Orchestra and Ukraine, a country hit by the Russian invasion and which the televote catapulted into first place despite the dominance of Sam Ryder and Great Britain in the votes of the jury.
The geopolitics of emotions ended up triumphing in a Europe seemingly dedicated to solidarity, with 28 out of 40 maximum scores for the Ukrainians, with its mixture of folk and hip hop, which found the antidote against the incalculable talent of the UK, which managed to stand out with it’s ballad ‘Space Man’, in a contest that was full of them.
But what about the performance of the imposing Chanel, perfect in voice and choreography, confirming that she is one of the great historical figures of Spain in Eurovision with 459 votes, the best result that this country has ever achieved, and one that not even the most optimistic dreamed of receiving, although I did wager a tenner on the song with Betfair.
Despite national criticism, the path born at the Benidorm Fest, shows that Spain, when it wants to, can compete with the great songsters of Europe. Neither Sweden nor Italy could live with the power of the Spanish performance, which took ‘Douze Points’ from Portugal, San Marino, North Macedonia, Armenia, Ireland, Malta, Sweden and Australia.
It was insufficient to dethrone the Ukrainians and close to unseating the United Kingdom from second place as Chanel gave a choreography bordering on perfection and a glimpse of the great artist that she is certainly going to be.
Although tradition says that those performing in the first half of the gala tend not to do so well, Spain did not do badly. But the power came in the second half with the Swede Cornelia Jakobs who finished in fourth position and the disturbing Serbian Konstrakta in fifth. This was the triumph of enjoyment in a contest marked by ballads, like the wonderful Swedish contribution or the excellent quality of the UK entry, and others that were rather more monotonous like Germany, Belgium, Azerbaijan and Lithuania.
However nobody could compete with Ukraine’s act, who had been favourites to win for weeks. But with Sam Ryder achieving the UK’s best result since 1998 and the Cuban-Spanish singer Chanel Terrero, marking Spain’s first top 10 placing since 2014, who could deny the symbolic show of public support for the Ukraine following the country’s invasion by Russia.
The rap-folk band, who were given special permission to leave the war-torn country, soaring to first place with 631 points as they ended their performance in Turin with a plea: “Please help Ukraine, help Mariupol, help Azovstal right now.”
