Editorials & Opinion

Xtra’s pick of the 70s

Welcome back to our new daily series, as we travel back in time and one of our editors picks out a song each day from Eurovisions gone by and puts it into the spotlight. Today is Tuesday, which means we move to the 70s and Maximiliano brings you his pick from the Eurovision archives.

Spain 1973: Mocedades – Eres Tú (2nd place)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt8GPvQovtk
Besides being one of my all-time favourites and an undisputed Eurovision evergreen, I thought I would also add a few rarities about this song you may not know about.
Even back in the 70s we already had #EuroDrama as this entry was accused of plagiarism due to the similarity it has in some notes with the Yugoslavian entry of 1966 (“Brez Besed” by Berta Ambrož). However, this SKANDAL did not lead to the disqualification of the Spanish song and that allowed it to become the massive worldwide hit it has been for decades.
Mocedades recorded the song in 6 languages (Spanish, English, Basque, German, French and Italian) but other people all over the world have made covers in their local languages (lots of Scandinavian artists, for example). Maybe the most surprising versions are the ones coming from places like Korea and Vietnam. As a token, check out the Korean one below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTwg8KREJTU
But the rarities do not stop there… No way! Even in Argentina, my country, apart from Argentinian singer Estela Raval’s cover, the original song by Mocedades can be found in a slightly-sparkling water ad of 2003, where it is reinforcing the comedy effect of the plot (the older man is talking about how he proposed to his wife 30 years ago and the bored younger man at the end of the table is getting rid of the extra bubbles in his glass of water inadvertently creating the confusion that he is FINALLY going to propose himself!). The part of the song you can hear goes “You are like the water of my fountain”:

So many reasons to be totally in love with this song… Even if you are into other sytles of music like me 😉 Great music never grows old.

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