Cobi

Malta

I just woke up. Thanks for the silver medal @Dnl!

My second pick for the Festival of Music is going to be Puerto Rico. This song was extremely popular in Spain (and I think that in a few other Spanish speaking countries) when it was released in 2002. PUERTO RICO Chayanne - Torero

URUGUAY Jorge Drexler - Todo se transforma Uruguay has very prolific industry music considering that the population of the country is slightly below 3.5 million people. There are several authors from this country I usually listen to, but I have decided to present Jorge Drexler, one of my favorites cantautores in Spanish, with very ingenious lyrics. This particular song might not be the best one, but it was the first one I listened and probably the most popular one in terms of views on YouTube. Side note: I totally recommend you to discover Montevideo Carnival and murgas.

My first pick is going to be .

The level is very high this year... There are 24 songs I am considering giving points after my 2nd listening. It is going to be hard to discard half of them.

I didn't know about the Mirandês language, but it sounds very close to Medieval Spanish and the current Leonese (which is not widely spoken and it is not an official language, but it stills exists in small towns). It is also funny that this language is spoken in a Portuguese town named Miranda do Douro, when in the other side of Spain we have Miranda de Ebro, and the football team is precisely the C.D Mirandés. Another relationship with Spain is the title, "burgalesa" is the demonym of the inhabitants of the region of Burgos (Castilla).

SPANISH ENTRY La Casa Azul (The Blue House) has been selected to represent Spain in the Totallympics Open International Song Contest 2020. La Casa Azul is an indie pop and electronic music band created by Guille Milkyway in 1997 which virtually consists of five members (David, Virginia, Oscar, Clara and Sergio). However, Guile Milkyway is in fact the sole performer on the records and uses the band "members" (who do not give interviews and whose last names have never been disclosed) in order to project an image. The song selected is called "La Revolución Sexual" (The Sexual Revolution). It is the most popular song of the band and finished in third place at the 2008 Eurovision National Final. I hope you enjoy it! La Casa Azul - La Revolución Sexual Letra (Español): Lyrics (English):

is in. 10th participation of the country

I want to congratulate both @OlympicIRL and @mrv86 for successfully hosting the event. Personally, I was lucky with the draw, because I don't think would have reached the Round of 16 with the traditional format. Anyways, thanks to all the jurors who voted for the song at least once. In general I really liked the songs, so I had some troubles judging 4 or 5 matches, and changed my mind a few times during the competition, but finally this is my top7:

¡Felicidades Costa Rica !

My ranking: 1. London 2. Beijing 3. Athens 4. Sidney 5. Rio I was not sure about the order of London and Beijing. I loved both and Beijing was more innovative, but the rythm of London was almost perfect for me.

These days I have been re-watching all the opening ceremonies since Barcelona 92, and Rio 2016 was the worst for me. I realized that I remember better the ceremonies of Beijing and London compared to Rio. Is this an unpopular opinion?

I just checked the dictionary and apparently the word "Saudade" appeared in the 1780 edition of the Spanish dictionary, translating literally the definition from the Portuguese dictionary: "Voz portuguesa, que segun su diccionario significa finísimo sentimiento del bien ausente, con deseo de poseerlo. Han usado algunos autores castellanos de esta voz." It was eliminated in 1817 and included again in the 1992 edition as a synonym of "morriña". To be honest I had never heard or read this word before in Spanish. It's fascinating to see that Galician/Portugeuse make a distinction between "saudade" and "morriña" when both words describe so similar emotional situations.

It is funny to see luge in Spain consdering that we do not have a single athlete . The only Winter sport slightly popular in Spain is figure skating, specially since the appearance of Javi Fernández. A few years ago, alpine skiing was also popular, with some World Cup events being shown in public TV, as well as ski jumping with the Four Trampolines, but nowadays nobody cares about Winter sports.

If you would have asked me yesterday to guess which songs from Group B would move to the next round, Puerto Rico wouldn't have been in my top3. I am also quite surprised that the song did so well against one of the strongest entry of the whole tournament, at least in terms of popularity.

I guess one of the reasons why "La Vuelta al Mundo" has so many views is because of the lyrics. From the perspective of a non-Spanish speaker, the song might sound like simply a guy talking, without any artistic talent. However, what makes this song so interesting is the meaning and how the writer structured the song. The song basically tells how a man realizes that his life sucks. He has spent his whole life studying to get a good job, and once he has the job and a good salary, he is not happy because he is not doing what he really likes. So after a while, he decides to quit after proposing to his girlfriend. The story is quite simple, but from a literary point of view, the lyrics are very interesting to read as a poem, since they play with the double sense of some words and expressions, and the writer uses this to criticize some aspects of the society he doesn't like. In fact, they became popular in Spain and Latin America during the early 2010s because of the way they wrote... The music is not the only thing to determine if a song is a good one or not. Just to be clear, writing this comment does not mean that I entered the song.

Good day for Spanish-speaking countries, with both Puerto Rico and Guatemala winning their matches. Very impressed with Calle 13 victory over Dua Lipa.

Question 1: Would you like to see a once-off special contest to be held this summer with the final being held at some point during the old Olympic schedule? (a) Yes (b) No Question 2: Would you like it to be a themed contest? For example (sports themed, movie themed, instrumental themed, talent show themed, any other themed)? (a) Yes (b) No Question 3: If we have a themed contest, which type of theme do you prefer? Please answer even if you answered "No" to Question 2. (a) Festival of Music style - representing the nations who have not participated in TISC (b) Sports themed (c) Movie themed (d) Instrumental themed (e) Talent Show themed (f) Dance Music themed (g) Dance themed (h) Other theme - please specify

I was doubting between two songs of the same artist for this year's entry. The other option was Vas a quedarte, just in case you want to listen it. At the end I chose Más because had more chances to finish top10 due to the style, but I like Vas a quedarte more and I want to share it with you:

Congrats Canada! 6th place for Spain again, which is our best result ever at an Annual contest

I had to leave and I didn't see it, but thanks @Federer91 for the Spain 12!

Fun fact: I have never had a 12

I think the Argentinan song is more "canción de autor" rather than Latin pop, and the strongest point of the canción de autor is usually the lyrics. Personally, I loved the meaning of the song, but I think that for non-Spanish speakers will be difficult to vote the song unless they understand the lyrics

Thank you for sharing it! I have listened it a few more times after sending the votes and now I like it even more.