• The Eurovision 2023 final will be held in Liverpool (United Kingdom) on Saturday 13 May. It will be broadcast live on France 2 from 21 p.m. Until the day before D-Day, 20 Minutes offers you a daily close-up of a candidate to follow.
  • This Friday, we present the Spaniard Blanca Paloma.
  • His song that mixes flamenco and contemporary sounds is entitled Eaea. It is a tribute to his grandmother Carmen. "The idea is to invoke our ancestors, especially women, to bring their message to the present, to include it in music, in art, and to transmit it to future generations by reminding them of the heritage of those who came before us," explains the artist about his scenography.

From our Special Envoy in Liverpool (United Kingdom)

Three mesmerizing minutes. This is what Blanca Paloma will propose in the final of Eurovision, Saturday night, in Liverpool. "We wanted to create a mysterious atmosphere, ritual, catharsis," explains the Spaniard to 20 Minutes. His song Eaea, is a tribute to his grandmother Carmen.

The scarlet fringes floating above the stage are "the most important" of the scenography. They symbolize the threads of the shawl that his grandmother wore on his shoulders. "It's like she's hugging me and welcoming me into a space where I feel protected," says Blanca Paloma. At the beginning of the performance, you see my fragility and, gradually, you see me gain confidence, courage. »


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Also, his time on stage, inspired by the aesthetic of Carlos Saura's films "who knew how to highlight Spanish culture", has a mystical feel. "The idea is to invoke our ancestors, especially women, to bring their message to the present, to include it in music, in art, and to pass it on to future generations by reminding them of the heritage of those who came before us. Thanks to their struggles, we are freer, we have more rights, it's a way to honor them," adds the 33-year-old artist.

"It's a song I think is necessary"

"My child when I die, let me be buried on the moon and every night I will see you. (...) Ah, my child, my little child, child of my loves, that every night illuminate me with your sunny eyes, "she sings in this nursery rhyme that mixes flamenco with more electro, contemporary sounds, which give the whole strength and strangeness.

"These are ingredients that I identify with, as well as the Spaniards and, I hope, also the Europeans. It's a song that I think is necessary because it's a way of expressing our roots. It's different and risky," says Blanca Paloma.

She knows that her song is not mainstream and does not necessarily enter the canons of Eurovision. But it is in line with Salvador Sobral, the Portuguese winner in 2017, or a Barbara Pravi, who offered France a second place in the competition in 2021. "The presence of non-mainstream artists is important for the diversity of the competition," she says. It would have to insist other artists in these registers to come forward. »

"Maybe I have something to bring to Eurovision"

The twenty-year-old finds herself in Liverpool after winning, at the beginning of February, the Benidorm Festival, Spain's national selection for Eurovision. She had already taken part last year, and finished fifth with Segreto de agua. "I wasn't the one who took the step of going. I was called," she says. His atmospheric song was the theme song of a successful documentary series Lucía en la telaraña.

"When life offers me such an opportunity, I like to think about it and think that maybe I have something to learn from this experience. I think maybe I also have something to contribute to Eurovision, to music, that's why I applied to Benidorm with Eaea. It's a song that represents who I am, as a woman and as an artist. »

Victory, she admits to thinking about, "necessarily". But Blanca Paloma is preparing for "all scenarios". "I never imagined being an artist," says the one who, as a child, had "no playroom, but a music room with cassettes and vinyls". "The music called me and here I am," she smiles. As if everything was written and that, from above, a lucky star watched over his destiny.

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