Andrea M. Rosa del PinoSpecial envoy Benidorm
Special envoy Benidorm
Updated Sunday, February 4, 2024-9:31 p.m.
MomenTVs RTVE has gotten into a serious situation: can we take Zorra to Eurovision?
Benidorm Fest Nebulossa, heading to Eurovision without paying attention to the criticism: "We are not 20 years old and we are sweating everything"
In less than a week, a couple of
boomers
who live in a town of 6,000 people have managed to give new meaning to a word that, for almost a century, has been used as a synonym for libertine, prostitute or concubine. According to the RAE, it is perfectly possible for a pejorative term to obtain positive nuances if the population decides to change its use. Although it is not easy. There are terms whose meaning takes years to mutate, but
Nebulossa
has achieved the impossible.
With only two television galas, a three-minute song and immense audacity, singer
María
Mery
Bas
, 55, and her husband, producer
Mark Dasousa
, 47, achieved victory at the
Benidorm Fest
on Saturday and undertook the difficult task of transforming an insult into a fashionable expression. In fact, at the time these lines are written,
fox
is
a trending topic
,
fox
appears on the front pages of all the newspapers,
fox
is read on hundreds of t-shirts and
fox
is the word that the writer pronounced on Sunday 30 times in a a little while of television intervention.
Despite this,
Bas
, who is already known as
"the Spanish Madonna"
, is not satisfied. He wants to go further. «To be honest, I wasn't sure how people would react to this song. I didn't know if it would work. But now I know that we have changed the word
slut
and everyone uses it freely. People have a tendency to say: 'I feel like a superhero' when they feel good, but today we hope that people change the saying and say: '
I feel like a slut, a super slut,'
” she says.
When
Blanca Paloma
handed them the bronze microphone on Saturday night, it seemed that nothing could cloud
Nebulossa
's happiness . What's more, the Palau d'Esports l'Illa in Benidorm trembled before the avalanche of applause, and the public left with a satisfied gesture. We finally sent a real anthem to
Eurovision
! All that joy was, however, somewhat overshadowed a couple of hours later. Some warned that the
European Broadcasting Union
(
EBU ),
Eurovision
's organizing body
, could censor the song.
According to the
Eurovision rules, «the lyrics and/or interpretations must not discredit the
Eurovision
Song Contest
, nor the shows, nor the
EBU
. No speeches or gestures may be made during the performance. "No unacceptable language is allowed in the lyrics or in the interpretation of the songs." That is, any phrase that sounds even remotely offensive should be eliminated. For example, in 2021 the
EBU
forced the Italians
Måneskin
, who finally won, to remove
the word
cazzo from their song
Zitti e buoni
because it means
cock
.
But not all is lost. And
slut
is not only a nickname that refers to the empowerment of women and homosexuals. It is also, above all, a mammal, and that is what
Nebulossa
and
RTVE
will defend themselves . "If you look at what the RAE says about
a fox
, the definition is very clear: it is the female fox," explains
María Eizaguirre
, communications director of the public entity.
For their part,
Bas
and
Dasousa
have also already begun to think about how to justify their daring in
Malmö
. «We have to put our feet on the ground and see what is going to happen with all this. But I'm telling you that I'm dying to see how they pronounce
bitch
in English. It would be something like '
sohra
,
sohra
'. And as for how we are going to translate it, I think the word
fox
might be the most correct.
Fox
is
fox
in English, and our song could be called
foxy
. In the end, the fox is an animal. I think the message will be understood. "To a good understander... Few words are enough!" says
Dasousa
, who says he has not yet come to terms with everything that happened.
«For us we are proud of everything that has happened. The lyrics bring a message of truth. It is part of the process that María has experienced, of bringing out everything she had inside her. This was a personal thing, and the surprise was that everyone identified with what she said. That is why we will remain on this line. We are going to take the song to Eurovision as you have seen it here. There is nothing to change in that sense », she adds.
Even so, the intentions of
Nebulossa
and
RTVE
could not be taken into account. And the person who decides, finally, what can and cannot be presented in Malmö is
Martin Österdahl
, executive supervisor of
Eurovision
and who is in charge of communicating to the delegations whether the chosen song complies with the festival's rules. According to some Eurofans, his decisions could be appealed, but there are things that for
Eurovision
are still too transgressive. Like two men strutting around in thongs to the rhythm of
Zorra
, perhaps.
However, on Sunday
Nebulossa
did not have their minds set on Sweden. It is likely that at this time they have not even
Googled
who
Martin Österdahl
is , because the day after his ascension to the heavens the duo chose to return to their home, in the Alicante municipality of
Ondara
, to spend a few days of tranquility. «We have to see what to do with our beauty center. Our daughter will inherit the position of boss. “Our son is still too young to inherit our recording studio, but some friends will give us a hand,” they reveal about their most immediate plans.
«We are also not worried at the moment about having to take things off our agenda, we are not thinking about that. We are assimilating what has happened. Although we also know that intense months of preparation are coming. But we are capable! We have already been through the
Benidorm Fest
and we have endured. Of course it will be more now, but we will prepare. Let's go for it! We like challenges, we are perfectionists and we will prepare ourselves as best we can so that it is something worthy," they say.