This Tuesday, May 7, the 68th edition of Eurovision, the European song festival, officially started. A delivery that will be held in the Swedish city of Malmö after Loreen’s resounding victory last year in Liverpool with Tattoo. This 2024, the Spanish delegation of RTVE presents Nebulossa with the song Zorra, after winning the Benidorm Fest on February 3.
However, the first of the semifinals began with a look at the past, dedicated to three artists who were on the verge of winning the contest and who were forever recorded in the imagination of the fans. One of them turned out to be Chanel Ternero, the representative of Spain in 2022, who returned to perform a fragment of her iconic SloMo together with the Cypriot Eleni Foureira and the Swede Eric Saade.
The Fuego singer was the first to open the festivities at the Malmö Arena, with the song that left her on the verge of winning the 2018 edition. It was a short version, fragments widely known by the public that filled the pavilion, intended to remember the slogan of this 2024: United by Music, united by music. She was soon joined by Saade, who finished third in 2011 with the song Popular.
The third and last to appear on stage was the Catalan singer, who once again drew applause and ovations from the public with the song that lifted her to third place in Turin. Wearing a blue dress with rhinestones and transparencies, Chanel repeated the first verse and chorus of the song, including the dancebreak that would become a trend in so many other Eurovision songs later on.
The arrival of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest is not far from controversies. Beyond Israel’s participation in the attacks on Gaza, the Spanish song has not been spared from criticism and opposing comments. Zorra has not been viewed favorably by artists such as Paloma San Basilio or Manu Tenorio, although the members of Nebulossa themselves have preferred to stay away from controversies in the previous days.
“I understand that there is diversity of opinions and it is respectable. Everyone has the free opinion to say what they want. We are a bit on the sidelines of all that and there are many people who support us and we have to stay with that. We are going to enjoy it and that’s it, the truth is that we are really liking the song and people have given it a lot of love, we have a lot of reproductions and it is because people have felt it as theirs,” commented Mery Bas.
