Spain 2022- Chanel with ‘SloMo’

Thanks to Moldova's leapfrogging, pun lovers can rejoice that our 5th song of the 2022 season comes from Chanel…

On first listening to the Benidorm entries, there were three that stood out to me- ‘Tera’, ‘Secreto De Agua’ and this (yes no Rigoberta). Of course revisiting in January and seeing the odds, streams and what was being talked about, this did not appear to be a contender. Having by far the best and arguably only professional standard performance (Rayden perhaps aside) in the field brought Chanel right back into it but I do believe SloMo as a song was and maybe still is underrated regardless.

Time for the annual ‘Fuego’ argument and there are pro's and con's here. Chanel could double for Eleni and the performance is pretty damn close it. I’d like to see different outfits to a bodysuit at the least tried just to mix something up rather than repeating every step. The strobe lighting is effective and rtve should certainly be keeping that and save some money on pyro.

On the flip side, it will have been 4 years (even if the fandom hasn’t moved on) and back in the mid 2000s countries were harmed none by sending similar ethno pop entries consistently. The fact this is Spain, will also allow them more credibility sending this. Its not Cyprus trying to repeat past success, or a northern or central European country jumping on the band wagon- Spain get a pass. In fact, it's the type of thing they should be sending more often. Of course, my view remains that “if this type of thing was ever to win, ‘Fuego’ would have just won anyway” given the competition, draw, semi stats and momentum so there is a limit to how high this will go and it isn’t close to the win regardless.

Also something I always like to remind on with these national final results- the field is always stronger at Eurovision and Chanel will not be such a standout professional act in Turin and therefore won’t be hoovering up jury votes there to the same extent which pushed her through Benidorm. Being third behind Rigoberta and Tanxugueiras can be explained, but being closer to the likes of Vary Brava is a bit of a concern. Different dynamics of course, but in essence we have a televote friendly song that needed a huge push through by the juries so there are some doubts here over how well this does. Perhaps come May television audiences are more ready for a summer ‘bop’ than the end of a cold January.

This is a fairly strong package and Spain have took a step in the right direction this year and should see an improved result. I want to see more on how the field develops, but left hand side is within reach.

Personal Rating: 9/10

Competitive Rating: 7/10

Early Prediction: 10th- 15th