Simon Hunter
SPAIN had a disappointing showing at last night’s Eurovision final in Liverpool, with entrant Blanca Paloma only managing 17th place with 100 votes and scant support from the public for her flamenco-infused song Eaea.
The winner of the night was Sweden, thanks to the song Tattoo from Loreen. The artist, who took 583 points and swept the board for the professional vote, has now won the competition twice.
Finland came second with 526 points with Cha Cha Cha from singer Käärijä.
The result for Spain was in contrast to the popularity of Paloma in the run-up to the competition, and the artist was in the top-five favourites ahead of Saturday night’s gala.
This was partly thanks to the so-called ‘Chanel effect’ from last year’s event – the Cuban-Spanish artist finished in third place last year with her single SloMo, the best placing for the country since 1995.
Paloma, 33, said after the competition that she was ‘very proud’ of what she had done but that there was ‘work still to do’.
“Flamenco still needs to be exported,” she told Spain’s state broadcaster TVE. “It’s a seed that we have planted.”
She added that she was ‘happy with the execution’ of the song on the night. “It was risky” she added. “I want to encourage people to continue to take risks with different proposals.”
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