Spanish Euorovision Song with Zero Points / Escalfament

As a child I used to travel quite a lot with my parents and younger sister, but never to Spain. So forget about Franco, forget about oranges and forget about the trips to Mallorca or the Canary Islands which so many of my class mates went on. When I look back it was probably only at the age of 12 when I formed my first impression of the country where we now live.

At that time, although I already had an interest for the Eurovision Song Contest, my taste of music was even less developed than today. Sweden was always my favourite and then I used to think that songs got worse the further away we came from Scandinavia. However, there usually was a limit, that is until 1983 when barefoot Remedios Amaya represented Spain. She ended up with zero points and I remember thinking that that was exactly what she deserved.

¿Quién maneja mi barca? is not without qualities, but why was not this woman sent to a world-music festival? What did she do in the Eurovision?
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Viure a Espanya – això és un somni per a molts suecs, però quan vivia a Suecia jo no era un d’ells. Els meus pares no solien buscar el sol durant les vacances i per tant no anavem al Sud d’Europa tot i que viatjavem molt.

Avui, dissabte, se celebrarà l’Eurovisió i he de confessar que una de les meves primeres impresions de l'estat on vivim ara era la canció ¿Quién maneja mi barca? de 1983. Diuen que el Chikiliquatre d’aquest any és un candidat “freaky” però os asseguro que a mi, llavors amb dotze anys, m’hauria sorprengut menys ell que la descalça Remedios Amaya.

La seva canció no és dolenta però com tampoc és típica d'Espanya, de veritat no entenc com va arribar fins al final. Sembla que els jurats de la resta d’Europa van pensar el mateix ja que es va quedar amb zero punts.