Benidorm Fest may be held in mid-February without too much hype, taking into account that the winner in this case will not represent Spain in Eurovision, because our country is not going to participate in the contest. But it may also be that the staging, with the supervision of Sergio Jaén, ends up going viral after appearing on TV. Let’s remember that if ‘Nochentera’ was a hit, it ended up happening once it had that exposure to millions of viewers, after having given some signs before. Now, RTVE has to work on another type of hype with teasers, fragments on networks and other forms of promotion, and the 150,000 euros that are at stake for the winner are part of the way.
At the moment some songs that have stood out in streams are those of Luna Ki, which we will review shortly; Kenneth’s, which has become the 2nd most listened to in recent days; and Miranda’s! with bailamamá, which remains the most listened to and close to a million streams on Spotify. ‘I wake up loving you’ is the Song of the Day today.
We are looking at the typical colorful and somewhat strident production of Miranda!, one of the most successful groups in Argentina: they came to Benidorm Fest with about 11 million monthly listeners, more or less the same as Aitana, to give us an idea.
Focused on electropop in this case, it could have worked very well in Europe because of what it has of French Touch and because of what it has of Italo. His influences seem to be Cerrone, Moroder, Daft Punk, John Carpenter and, if we pay attention to that vampire keyboard, the horror soundtracks of the 70s and 80s, giallo included. If it were a song that has already competed in Eurovision, it would be ‘Vampires Are Alive’ by Swiss DJ Bobo, and if it were a song that has already competed in Benidorm Fest, it would be ‘Culpa’ by Javiera Mena.
But the great hook of ‘Despierto loving you’ is that “iaiai, oaiai” that refers to ‘Dragostea Din Tei’, the “one hit wonder” of 2003 that, in the hands of the Romanians O-Zone, many people mistakenly associate with Eurovision. This is the case of this reddit user, who was wondering if anyone else remembered seeing this song at the festival. Miranda!’s theme, which was already good and memorable per se, goes to another level of iconicity with this part, and we burn with the desire to see what representation it has live.
The song is a song to the love of someone who wants “too much” to the point of being able to exhaust the other person. She is played mainly by Juliana Gattas on Miranda’s part! and bailamamá, which is presented as the new “composition, production and DJ” project of Óscar de Varry Brava, who already successfully passed through Benidorm Fest with ‘Raffaella’. However, the composition credits for ‘Despierto amtamos’ only include Alejandro Sergio, co-leader of Miranda!, here mainly the choirs; the Argentine producer Cachorro Lopez and Didi Gutman of Brazilian Girls.
