Xavier Herrero |
Benidorm (Alicante) (EFE).- Three of the great favorites to represent Spain in Eurovision 2023, Agoney, Alice Wonder and Fusa Nocta, will have to revalidate their options to win this Tuesday at the start of the official competition of Benidorm Fest, that celebrates its first semifinal among a sea of unknowns.
This morning the order of performance designed by production criteria was revealed: 1) Sharonne (“Aire”), 2) Aritz Aren (“Flamenco”), 3) Sofía Martín (“Tuki”), 4) Agoney ( “I want to burn”), 5) Megara (“Arcadia”), 6) Alice Wonder (“I wish”), 7) Meler (“They will not move us”), 8) Fusa Nocta (“My family”) and 9) Twin Melody (“Sayonara”).
It will be from 10:50 p.m. on La 1 when this gala can be followed, in which Leo Rizzi, Edurne and Mónica Naranjo will also participate as guest artists.
The Catalan will also be, together with Inés Hernand and Rodrigo Vázquez, the host of the second Benidorm Fest, which will try to replicate the audience success of the first edition, which in its first semifinal already brought together 1.5 million viewers and 11.8% audience share, a figure that skyrocketed in the final to more than 3 million and a 21% share.
Without names or “a priori” identity factors that this time attract as many viewers as the Tanxugueiras effect (great focus of attraction for Galicia in 2022), one of the questions is to check if Benidorm Fest 2023 maintains interest thanks to the pull of artists such as Agoney or even by itself as a brand in the consolidation phase.
It also remains to be seen if among these participants there is any revelation in the style of its first winner, Chanel, who started out of the pools and propelled herself to the top of the pools after an already emblematic performance in her contest.
Many eyes will therefore be on Agoney himself with his impossible treble and the song “I want to burn”, as well as on Fusa Nocta and “My family”, in which an artist with characteristics close to Rosalía was wanted to be seen, or in the emotional capacity of Alice Wonder’s modern and naked ballad, «I would like».
The final, on February 4
It seems clear in any case that the three will achieve their qualification for the final on February 4, but not who will be the recipient of the fourth place at stake, for which the sensuality of Aritz Aren with «Flamenco», the theme more voted by the internal committee that chose the participants, or the rock band Megara with “Arcadia”.
Nor can the options of the Meler trio be ruled out (one of whose members, Javier Pagalday, has a Colombian mother) with a collective Avicii-style catharsis called “They will not move us”, the winner of “Drag Race Spain 2” Sharonne with her disco bet «Aire» and the carefree pop songs by Sofía Martín and Twin Melody with «Tuki» and «Sayonara», respectively.
Voting will play a fundamental role in the outcome of this first program, the system of which has undergone changes after the controversy that arose last year over Chanel’s “sorpaso” to Tanxugueiras, changes that many experts consider do not really improve the fairness of the process.
Modification in the voting system
The main change has occurred in the composition of the jury, which will continue to retain 50% of the weight in the final decision, but which goes from 5 to 8 members, most of them international (in a ratio of 3 to 5), with figures such as the vocalist of Katrina & The Waves among them and the singer and actress Nina as spokesperson and with the notorious and sudden absence of Nacho Cano “due to scheduling problems.”
In addition, in the semifinals it will be the jury’s score that prevails in the event of a tie for the fourth and last place in the classification, while in the final it will do so if it occurs at the top of the classification.
As in 2022, the other theoretical 50% of the votes will be granted by the public, which will be divided in two: 25% to be distributed in order of preference of the telephone calls and SMS of the viewers and another 25% that will determine a poll jury of 350 people, selected by criteria of age, population and gender as a representation of all of Spain.