Esther Mucientes MADRID
Madrid
Updated Wednesday, January 31, 2024-07:59
Television Amazing staging, outlandish costumes, some roosters and surprising votes: this was the first semi-final of the Benidorm Fest
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They say there are always second chances.
RTVE
and the
Benidorm Fest 2024
have a second chance this Thursday and a third, this Saturday, to fix the real disaster that was last night's first semi-final of the festival from which the Spanish representative for
Eurovision 2024
will emerge . How is it possible that
what happened last night could happen
in the third edition of the
Benidorm Fest
? Well, it is possible and, above all, it is surprising. Have those who cannot forget these things forgotten that the
Benidorm Fest
, in addition to music, talents, a hitmaker, a factory of opportunities, a springboard, is also a television show? Yes, musical, but television. Someone has completely forgotten. You can't give the spectators what they were given last night.
We talked about the
sound glitches
, which were terrifying; We talked about the
realization
, which from home was a real ordeal; We talked about the
meaningless shots
, the complete loss of what the artists were doing on stage because suddenly you had a close-up and in the second you didn't even know where you were; We talked about something, or many things, going wrong last night. Maybe too many, maybe because you are not where you need to be.
Television
Television.
Stunning staging, outlandish costumes, some roosters and surprising votes: this was the first semi-final of the Benidorm Fest
Editor: ANDREA M. ROSA DEL PINO
Stunning staging, outlandish costumes, some roosters and surprising votes: this was the first semi-final of the Benidorm Fest
"It is still too early to know the things that could have gone wrong,"
María Eizaguirre ,
RTVE
's Communication Director
, said last night at the end of the first semi-final of the
Benidorm Fest
. "We are looking at what the incident was to prevent it from happening again by all means," she added. Apologies are appreciated and showing face is appreciated, but when the public channel itself is aware that something happened last night that was completely out of its hands and that caused a festival, for which RTVE
gives
everything and more, to be tarnished completely.
We leave the topic of performances and bets for the
Benidorm Fest
2024 to the music critics. Maybe we should also look at it a little.
Angy Fernández
,
Nebulossa
(the most voted by the jury),
Miss Caffeína
and
Sofía Coll
passed
.
Noan
,
Mantra
(after being the most voted by the public),
Quique Niza
and
Lérica
were left out
.
However, it cannot be that last night of the eight participants in the
first semi-final
of the
Benidorm Fest, two
were heard and, above all, understood - oh, and two is saying too many! -. They could have been singing in Slovak and they would have been understood just the same. There was no way, no matter how hard you tried to tune your ears, to understand what they were singing because either the music was louder than the voices, or some of them were drowned out, or the sound of the microphones could not be heard until the artist honked.
Of course, in a festival like
Benidorm Fest
, which attracts thousands, tens of thousands of followers, all these errors were not going to go unnoticed. In a Festival where
RTVE
has been giving everything for three years and which almost made us winners of
Eurovision
after decades and which has become a talent search, what happened last night is incomprehensible.
The barrage of criticism was the constant of the night. "I just don't know what to say, I hope this gala is a joke";
"The sound quality really is second to none"
; "It's been semi-uncomfortable to watch: zero connection between the presenters, zero forgivable sound errors, dull, boring, zero professional performances"... And this is just a sample (and soft one) of what it really was.
It is very difficult to draw a picture of what happened last night in the first semi-final of the
Benidorm Fest
because it was impossible to think that it could happen.
That in a festival that
RTVE
begins to prepare practically since the end of the previous edition, it is very difficult to imagine that the day of the premiere arrives, the day of the
first semifinal
, and
the voices of 90% of the artists are not heard
; It is impossible to think that when the presenters are speaking, the audience is heard more than them and, therefore, they have to stop every now and then and wait for the audience to finish before being able to continue; It is impossible to think that in the performances
where there was smoke or flares, the latter were heard more
than the singer; It is impossible to think about the crazy plans that were seen; It is impossible to think that the bases of each artist's tracks were so, so, so high that what arrived in each case was
a thread of
unrecognizable voice; It is impossible to think that being aware of the staging of each artist, there was no thought at any time of installing wireless microphones so that the artists would not have to be more aware of whether they had the microphone close enough or far enough and, therefore , either it will be heard too loud or, at all, it will not be heard at all. If
Noemí Galera
(director of the
OT
Academy) is there,
she eats them.
It may seem that we are too harsh with the realization of
Benidorm Fest 2024
, but what was seen last night was really surprising and surreal. Thank God that
RTVE
has the second semi-final and the final left to correct these errors. But there is a problem, there are too many of them and they are incomprehensible. And I think that not only for the spectators but also for the participants, although they still cannot say anything. I highly doubt that last night many of them didn't go to bed thinking about the mistakes they had committed, especially after seeing each other. All the errors were so obvious that just by looking at the briefings during the voting, surely more than one person would be holding their head in their hands internally.
Because, obviously, the first semi-final always has problems that are later corrected. I am convinced that
Ruth Lorenzo
,
Marc Calderó
and Ana Prada - some of the best of the night - will try to make this Thursday the connection between them much more evident and not seem like each one is presenting a different program. I am convinced today there will be a team reviewing every performance, every second of the
Benidorm Fest
, every error and they will try to correct them. But I'm also sure that more than one scream will be heard if they weren't heard last night.
And now comes the second question of the night: what the hell is going on that the votes of the jury and the public are so antagonistic? How is it possible that of the least voted by the jury, the
Mantra
trio , is the most voted by the viewers? We're not going to make conspiracy theories, but it smells hesitant. No wonder
Mantra
cried her eyes out when they heard the 40 points that the public had given them (the highest rating) and saw that they were left out of the grand final. Especially because
Mantra
's performance was the least spectacular of all, the one with the least artifice on stage, the one that was most reminiscent of years gone by. Can
Angy Fernández
's staging or performance be compared
to that of
Mantra
? You cannot compare what is not at the same level.
And it happened with many performances. Beyond the fact that there were technical failures in all of them, it was clearly seen which participants had taken the risk and which had not.
Lérica
, for example, with her
Astronauta
, jumping around the stage with dancers who looked like Parcheesi tiles.
Mantra , with simply a structure that was very reminiscent of
Miki Núñez
's staging
at
Eurovision
2019.
Noan
, the rocker and surfer boy, who started his performance as a musical television program from the 80s, but who later was him and his band on stage, and nothing else. And on the other side, those who passed.
Angy Fernández
, on a vocal level the best of the night and with a staging that did make one think of
Eurovision
; or
Miss Caffeine
, which despite having a structure similar to that of
Mantra
, from which its singer descended, seemed more prepared, more studied. Or
Nebulossa
and her
Zorra
, who at least surprised with her dancers, her lupanar-style chair and her ass. There was no color nor was there any comparison. And that is also a mistake. There is one thing that seems clear: the one who had a draw was visible, the one who didn't too.
It is true that once the winner of the
Benidorm Fest 2024
and, therefore, the Spanish representative in
Eurovision
is known , there is time to improve, change things, look for the best, but last night so many things were missing and there were so many mistakes that it is scary to think what is happening with the
Benidorm Fest
. The good thing, today there will be those who are banging their heads against the wall, today there will be those who assume responsibilities and today there will be those who say 'this can't happen again'. We will see...