Blas Cantó was the internal selection for Spain in 2020 and was swiftly confirmed as their 2021 artist following the contest’s cancellation. Whereas the song last year was internally selected, for 2021, the Spanish public are being given a choice of two songs. Online voting has been open for a few days but there will be further voting during the song selection show,
Universo, last year’s song, was a mid-tempo number and fell roughly mid-table in my own top 41 of 2020. At the time I said that while I quite liked his 2020 song, I was hoping for something a bit more Spanish-sounding and a bit more to engage the heart and soul. What is being offered though prompted me to wonder what the Spanish for beige is (beige as it turns out). I’ve listened to the two songs a few times and I still can’t really remember either of them that well. Nor, sadly, is there any great Spanish feel to them (aside from the language). Maybe live performances and those high notes that Blas can hit will help to bring them more to life than in the music videos.
The show, Destino Eurovisión, takes place from 9pm UK time and can be viewed on the broadcaster’s website.
Song 1: “Memoria”
The slightly more up tempo song of the two, I think this is the one I slightly favour from a personal level but it will need to be elevated for its live performance to escape this being just a safe, generic song.
Song 2: “Voy a quedarme”
A slower ballad and more reflective song, this is currently narrowly edging “Memoria” in fan polls, but only by a very narrow margin. Maybe this one does have more potential but let’s see how the live performance goes (“Memoria” remains my favourite for the moment).