Quien Maneja Mi Barca-Remedios Amaya, 1983 No, she is not singing out of tune!
Remedios Amaya is one of the most popular and successful of the current Flamenco artists. Her performance at Eurovision was a monumental achievement for the Gitanos of Spain, as they were representing the whole country in this famous and super popular European song competition. (It would be the same as if a Chicano represented the U.S.) I love how despite the glitz and glamor of the show, she sings barefoot, recognizing her Gitano roots. Remedios singing Flamenco in her younger years.
Se Tiene Que Ir-Tijeritas
I don’t know much about Tijeritas except that he is extremely popular in Spain. I came across the video while doing my weekly Youtube searches for Flamenco videos. This song has a certain charm (a song about leaving his mother) and his look is best explained by this comment left on his video “Que bueno el tijeritas! …y ese look garrulo los 80 calcetines blancos con mocasines, pantalones elasticos como los heavys,jersey enorme, que gracia me ha hecho, lo que monto en el diario eso por la pasta o por popularidad le saquen no tenia ni pies ni cabeza.” A more Flamenco-ish Tijerita song.
I know not everyone’s gonna enjoy this week’s video selections and to be honest, that’s why I picked them. I often like music that makes no sense, that’s neither interesting nor cool but I’ve never cared about such things. However, I think these two videos do happen to be very interesting as they both represent an attempt at pop music with a Flamenco sensibility. It’s strange that on this blog I haven’t discussed much my love and study of Flamenco, mostly because I’ve kept the discussion over on my other site for :dos lunares. More (authentic) Flamenco coming soon!
Remedios’ performance at Eurovision went down in history as the greatest debacle ever. She received zero votes, unheard of, and dropped out of sight afterwards for many years until Vicente Amigo resuscitated her career. Fortunately, she’s been able to keep it going this time and enjoys a large following.
Estela Zatania
Deflamenco.com
Thanks for your comment, Estela!
Was it her performance or the song that created the debacle? I first became familiar with the recorded version of Quien Maneja Mi Barca many years ago and the music was so unlike anything I’d heard before. It’s a very strange song but it gets under my skin or in my head, however one wants to put it. I only recently saw this clip on Youtube and was impressed by her performance. It’s a shame to hear she received zero points.