The incipient cult of Blanca Paloma, the winner of the consensus edition of the Benidorm Fest

Sunday at 12 noon. A small group of people wait for Blanca Paloma, the winner of the Benidorm Fest 2023, in front of the Balcón del Mediterráneo viewpoint in the city. “Ya, eaea, ya, eaea / Little Tears of the Nile, sleepless nights”, they chant, as a call, impatient for him to leave the premises where he attends to the media while the bells of the church of San Jaime ring and Santa Ana. Minutes later, when he goes to meet her, a rain of “beautiful” is carried away with a noise similar to that of the processions of the Virgin of El Rocío.

“I wanted to create a song that people could sing along to,” she says, satisfied. The public begins to know the artist who will represent Spain in Eurovision with eaea, after achieving a consensus victory in the contest organized by RTVE. She was favorite for the professional jury and for the televoting and second in the demoscopic sample representative of the Spanish population. The victory was clear almost from the beginning of the voting, when the jury awarded him 14 points more than the next classified, Agoney.

Perseverance has been, she explains, the secret of this success. Not only did she perform again at Benidorm Fest after achieving fifth place last year, she has also been gradually advancing her position on stage in recent years, from working as a set designer for other people’s stories, to building with a team of professionals from the theater the proposal of eaea, aware that in contests such as Eurovision and Benidorm Fest the production and staging are as important as the musical proposal. She says that she will go to Liverpool surrounded by the same group of women that she has sung with in Benidorm. That circle of female protection inspired by classical theater and that of Lorca, she believes will make a difference in May before an international audience. “Others will sing or dance better, but we want to create a trance that reaches everyone,” she explains.

The tribute to her grandmother Carmen, who introduced flamenco to her veins, dominates Blanca Paloma’s story with her eaea, which the artist from Elche intentionally connects with the Eurovision failure of Remedios Amaya in 1983 to vindicate an entire genre. The fringed curtain inspired by her grandmother’s shawl will also travel with her. “Now they can go preparing in Liverpool to comb fringes,” she warns.

decline in audience

The absence of controversy compared to the choice of Chanel and her justmo last year it has been noted in the result of the audiences obtained by the public channel at the gala broadcast on Saturday. The results were positive, although far from those of the flip flop.

With a 14.7% audience share and an average of 1.9 million viewers, La 1 was the leader in the night and also in the 25-44 age group (with a 22.6% share), which rejuvenates the network’s audience. It remains 6.3 points away from the 2022 final and improves the disappointing data from the recent semifinals, around 10% of the quota.

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