MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH
Spain Eurovision 2023 Reaction Blanca Paloma - Eaea (FutureEurovisionist)
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5:33
Video page URL
https://multimedia-english.com/videos/esl/spain-eurovision-2023-reaction-blanca-paloma-eaea-futureeurovisionist-6962
Description

This crazy guy reacts to one of the songs going to the Eurovision Song Contest, "Ea ea", from Spain. It's an ethnic song, nothing like what people around the world are used to. Can you guess if this boy likes it or hates it? Do you think this song will fare well in the European festival?

Transcript

Hey guys, welcome back to my YouTube channel.
Oh my gosh, I'm so excited for this reaction!
This was the hardest pre-elimination.


I didn't watch. I just wanted to wait for the winner and react with you guys together.

After last year's bop. I don't want to be negative, but I don't ever think that Channel and "Slow Mo" will ever be topped on Eurovision for a couple of years.
But I'm so excited for Spain like- I- This is the country I was the most excited about on the videos, and now it's time! We're gonna see Spain's Eurovision song.

I don't- I don't wanna wait. I don't wanna waste time. Let's start reacting to Spain.
It's Blanca Paloma, from Spain, and the song is called "Ea ea"... I don't know.
Let's react to it together. I'm so excited.

Come on. Come on, come on. Be good. Be good. Be good.

Oh My gosh! I didn't expect this.
Wow! Españe

Oh my God, this is amazing! Spain!

Wow
Oh my God, this is-. Oh my God, you know I love me some cultural stuff.

Her voice is amazing, wow!

Oh, Spain! Nooo!
I'm so sorry if the volume is up but I- I'm dying right now.
Didn't expect this one.

One second. Let me watch.

Wow, wow, wow, wow!

Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Do we have a winner?

Wow, I love it so much! I love it so much!

Wow!

Yes, Come on, come on, come on, come on!
Look at me. I'm just giving a stupid reaction, but- I'm so sorry, but, like, this is amazing, amazing!

Wow, this is... the winner! This is a winner.

Spain really wants it. Spains really wants it.
Come on, Paloma! Or Blanca, I don't know.




This is amazing. It's amazing.



Wow! Her voice!

Aaaaah. Yay, yes!!

Oh my gosh! Oh my God! Oh my gosh! My excitement was real!
España, wow!
This is like... just amazing!

Ok. Oooh! Hold them breath. Everything is gonna be good.
I was scared. As I said in the beginning of the video, Channel and "Slow Mo" is never gonna be topped, like, it-d- I don't know, it's so hard.
I was scared that Spain would try something, some similar, like Channel, 'cause it was so successful... I was so scared. But they didn't. They didn't. This is so unique, this is so amazing, this is Eurovision. It's so different, it's so cultural, it's so Spanish. Her voice, the performance, everything is great. I don't have anything to say. This is the winner for me for now, and it's gonna be so hard to get topped. So hard.

So guys, as you know, at the end of my videos I always do my top 3, and this has changed for sure after Spain's entry. My third place is Norway. My second place goes to... I'm sorry, Belgium. And my new number 1 is... Spain! Oooh! Oh my gosh, I'm so excited!

Thank you guys for watching my videos. If you liked it don't forget to give me a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel and don't forget to follow me on my TikTok. Videos will come very soon. Don't you ever forget that one day I will be on that Eurovision stage too, just saying "bye".

Explanations

GUYS (esp. AmE)= A formula to address people in general (men and women).


REACTION= Reacting to videos has become a popular subgenre in YouTube, especially reacting to music for the first time. People record themselves watching a video and you can see their reaction.


YOU GUYS (esp. AmE)= The plural form of You.


BOP= (coll.) A hit song that you like very much and people love dancing to.


SLOW MO= The title of a song sang by Channel, who represented Spain in 2022's Eurovision Song Contest. For some reasons it was voted number 3, but it was the most successful song and it became an instant European hit.


TOPPED= If X tops B in a competition, that means that X wins over B, it ranks higher. If a song will never be topped it means that it will stay the best and no other song will be better.


GONNA= (coll.) Going to.


WANNA= Want to.


WASTE TIME= If you waste time you spend time doing something useless.


I LOVE ME SOME= (coll.) I love some. This is incorrect grammar and people who use this expression know it's incorrect, but it is becoming fashionable among young people, so they can say "I love me some chips" instead of "I love some chips". It's a close literal translation from the Spanish construction "Me encanta X" = I love me some X


I'M DYING= (coll.) Nobody dies here, it just means he is enjoying really really a lot.


DIDN'T EXPECT THIS ONE= I am really surprised about this.


A WINNER= If something is a winner, it is good enough to win the competition and it probably will.


THEM= (coll.) That.


CAUSE= (coll.) Because.


UNIQUE= /ju:ni:k/ Different and special from everything else. Original.


PERFORMANCE= The way an actor, singer or artist acts on stage.

Meaning

SONG MEANING ABOUT EA EA


Oh come to me, child of mine”. Blanca Paloma‘s song “Eaea” dives deep into Spanish tradition and takes us on an emotional and empowering journey: Blanca performs a chant to her late grandmother, built upon the musical legacy that she inherited from her.

This song is a traditional buleria (a flamenco subgenre), very traditional Spanish music from the south of Spain, with some modernized elements. Bulerias are mostly sang almost a capella, accompanied by a guitar and a drum-like instrument which is basically a wooden box hit using your palms. In this modernized version they have no guitar, and the wooden box is replaced by some electronic beats imitating a drum, that's all.

This song is a lullaby. Lullabies are used to comfort babies or children, relax them and help them go to sleep, or at least make them stop crying. This version is not going to help anybody go to sleep, because it is faster than usual and the tone is too loud for that, but the essence is right there.

"Ea ea" (pronounced Eh-ah Eh-ah, like the vowel sound in “there”) is not a word, it is a soothing sound used in Spanish to make children calm down, so it is very often used in lullabies. The English equivalente is the soothing expression "There, there".

Blanca Paloma composed this song in remembrance of a lullaby her grand-mother Carmen used to sing to her when she was a child, and that's what the lyrics are all about.

But Blanca confessed, there is another story blended with these memories from her grand-mother. The flamenco style of music is a very old tradition, very emotional and strong. She wants to be worthy of receiving this tradition and being able to pass it on, so the whole song is mixed with a kind of magical ancestral tribal ritual where a group of women prepare an imaginary potion and invoke the spirits to have the energy and worth to keep the tradition alive and passionate.

Both stories are intertwined. The lyrics are a lullaby in memory of her grandmother, and the dancing and choirs are a tribal ritual to get the strength to keep this tradition going.
Paloma was a stage and performance designer, so she included a lot of little things into the performance to make it meaningful and powerful. Let's reveal a few.

The performance on stage is very very symbolic. At the beginning we can see kind of red string curtains surrounding the singer and giving her cover, from which, arms come out to caress her. That scene reflects the way she felt as a baby when her grandmother held her in her lap, the strings are the same as the decoration hanging from the edge of the traditional Manila shawl (see picture) worn by her grandmother, so she was surrounded by those soft "strings" while her granny's arms gave her protection and comfort and her voice sent her pains away.

Her grandmother says she wants to be buried in the moon when she dies, so she can still keep watch over her beloved child and protect her. The first time she sings that part we can see the camera rising up to unveil a rounded spot of white light which represents the full moon, but the black shape of the singer is inside, also representing a watching eye.

There is a moment when Blanca pretends to shoot an arrow. We can't see it clearly on the video but in fact she is aiming at the centre of the stage. As soon as she shoots the arrow the stage turns red with a pulsating light. That image represents love: like Cupid, she shoots her love arrow towards the chest of her grandmother (represented by the round of red strings), and her grandmother's heart responds with passion.

Every word, every move has a meaning. Poetry.


Watch the original music video here.