You might think that the Spanish representative in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest Lucía Pérez had scuttled away from the scene after her participation. On the contrary, she has not stopped moving. Just a few days ago we found her performing life in a Festival and now we can read her interview with El Diario Montañés with fresh news about her and her projects.
She may have not done quite as well as she would have wished in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest. Her 23rd position might have brought many others quite low down. But Lucía Pérez is not just one more artist. As she sang in Que me quiten lo bailao, her Eurovision entry was a positive experience despite the result. Indeed, she would have no problem in taking a second round of Eurovision, as she said immediately after the show.
Her positive attitude and her hard working nature have been the pillars of her efforts in the past three years. She has been mostly doing life performances but she has been working quite a lot in the album that she released in June this year, Quitapenas. This and much more was covered in the interview that El Diario Motañés held with Lucía.
As Lucía explained, we have not had an album by her after the Eurovision Song Contest due to her commitment to life performances in Spain and Latin America. Still, she used some time to select the songs that would complete the CD that would make her sixth album and which includes Sete chorares, a track in Galician, the language of the region where Lucía comes from. Quitapenas also includes a cover in Spanish of Mike Oldfield’s Moonlight Shadow, titled Sombra de la luna.
The Eurovision Song Contest
When asked whether the Eurovision Song Contest experience had been beneficial or detrimental for her career, Lucía is blunt about it. My experience was a very positive one, something that very few can live. After that, it all depends on what you expect of it. It opened many doors to me and now I am known beyond Galicia; I’m happy because I make a living of what I like.
She recognizes that the perception of the Contest in Spain is a bit negative. It’s sad that in other countries it is taken seriously but here, in the 90s, it went down, though it is now getting back on track. It is the greatest show in the world.
As El Diario Montañés reminds us, Lucía became famous after the Eurovision Song Contest, but before that she had released five records already and she had taken part in the prestigious Viña del Mar Festival in Chile. Actually, as Lucía stated, Quitapenas is conceived mostly for the Latin American audience. and she expects to promote her work soon in Chile, Argentina and Brazil.
New technologies
Lucía Pérez is well aware that the Internet and the new technologies are the future of the music market. If you’re not in the networks you don’t exist, she asserts. Being in Facebook, Twitter or Instagram makes your fans follow you more.
She also recognizes that the newest supports for music are the most adequate ones. CDs are for the most special fans, those who enjoy the booklet with the lyrics and the pictures, but there are little devices to play them. Digital formats permit access to the music through any device. Lucía and her producer Chema Purón even have ideas to develop this market: they believe that it would be a just great if there were vending machines in bars that sold full CDs at 3 euro each for download in a memory stick.
Lucía enjoys what she does, but she knows that she must struggle to continue enjoying it. She believes that releasing a CD is nowadays easy if you have money; and you don’t need much. The promotion of the albums and the support from record labels is important, too, but she finds that the labels usually support artists who are known already. If they don’t support the unknown ones, how will they become known, she wonders. Being a singer is not easy. You must be constant and work hard, she sentences as her final statement.
Lucia seems to know that perseverance is the key. We will probably be hearing of her soon enough.
You can listen to samples of the songs in Quitapenas at Lucia’s website.
Lucía sang Que me quiten lo bailao for Spain in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest.
Read all about Spain and the Eurovision Song Contest on esctoday.com.
