Culture, especially popular culture, has a high sociological component. Perhaps the only solution was to embrace the absurd. And re-signify the term “vixen”, heir to the medieval “witch” and predecessor of the “radical tyrant”. Perhaps Nebulossa’s song had to win the Benidorm Fest this Saturday and represent in Europe a country concerned about an Easter poster that reproduces exactly the same religious iconography that has been populating churches and museums for centuries. Perhaps it makes sense that the word in question hackee the public television signal 40 years after Las Vulpes did it. Carlos Tena, the man who lost his position at TVE because of that controversy, died last April. For a few months this joke of destiny has been lost.
History always repeats itself. But, this time, the network opened the door to the duo who wrote the new hedonistic anthem. He selected her among the 16 finalists of this edition. A good part of the audience embraced her protest spirit. The jury washed their hands and at the final gala decided that the proposal would tie in points with their favorite option, the St. Pedro bolero two strangers. Maybe there is no need to worry about winning a Eurovision Song Contest that, for better or worse, does not follow musical logic. The spectacular option, that of Chanel, was overshadowed at the European song festival by a timely support for a brutally invaded Ukraine. And the option with artistic depth, Heywhich explored Spanish musical roots as a set design with echoes of Lorca and classical Greek theater, did not receive support from European audiences.
The couple that forms Nebulossa, unaccustomed to the media, continues to show their surprise this Sunday: “The song had gone viral and we were already happy. We were thinking that we were going home with our two children and our dog and look…”, they say. “We will put the Benidorm trophy at the entrance to our house,” says Mark Dasousa. “Or in the living room,” she proposes. Mery Bas is clear about it and she is not overwhelmed by the possible controversy within Spain or how the topic will be received in Europe: “We are not 20 years old. “I sweat it all.”
In the third year of the Benidorm Fest, they take the middle street. Spain will challenge ageism this May in Malmö (Sweden), it will claim the drag and the camp, in addition to gender equality while dancing and shouting “bitch.” The group remembers, as in the music video, the essence of the mezzo-soprano Valencian transsexual by Manuela Trasobares.
“I already know that I am just a bitch / That my past devours you / I already know that I am the black sheep / The misunderstood, the stone one,” she sings in the song that gave her victory. “More than an emerging group, we are an emergency group,” the duo jokes.
The story behind the The debt of Nebulossa seems like the plot of a Los Javis series. A middle-aged woman from a town in Alicante and mother of two children collaborates occasionally with her husband, a music producer on the barricades of the local scene. Mery, the woman, decides that, at the age of 50, she wants to become a pop star. And Mark decides to support her dream without questioning it, lending his hand to help her artistic proposal and staying in the background so that the focus is on her. After several singles eighties, she shows up at the Benidorm Fest without telling her husband. And the second season is still to be written.
Mark Dasousa explained to this newspaper hours before winning in Benidorm that the issue sends a message of tolerance that is not only feminist, but also suitable for anyone who has ever felt displaced. “With this path that Rigoberta Bandini opened and that we try to follow, this spirit will grow. Next year, other people are going to think what we thought when we saw her: “Well, we could also introduce ourselves…”, he said in the Alicante city.
Good audiences
According to data provided by RTVE, during Saturday’s final they collected 25,910 votes (17,990 by SMS and 7,920 phone calls). The televoting difference was only two: Nebulossa obtained 4,484 votes (17.31% of the total) and Jorge González obtained 4,482 votes (17.3%). If their positions had been reversed, the final result would have been the same.
With this final, La 1 has managed to be the audience leader, with 16.6% average screen share. It surpasses the Antena 3 and Telecinco broadcasts by six points with an average of 1.9 million viewers following the gala and more than 5.3 million people connecting at some point with the TVE broadcast. Furthermore, this final improves last year’s figure by almost two points, with the victory of Blanca Paloma. It also boosts the audience’s impact among young viewers: 31% screen share among viewers aged 13 to 24 and almost 25% among those aged 25 to 44.