An Xtra Happy Birthday; January 10th

Yesterday we celebrated two Eurovision birthday girls; Aminata and Mary Roos. Today, however, we have to cut that in half, as we only have one Eurostar to wish an Xtra Happy Birthday. Today’s birthday girl is remembered for many reasons, among them both her entry and her performance. Perhaps especially the beginning of it. We give you Encarna Salazar!

Encarna Salazar, 57

Encarna represented Spain at the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest in Zagreb. She did so as half of the duo Azúcar Moreno. The other half of the duo was her sister, Toñi Salazar. From starting position one, they performed the very dramatic, flamenco influenced entry “Bandido”. When all the votes had been counted, they finished in fifth place, having received 96 points.
In addition to the wonderful song, the classy performance and the great result, they will also be remembered for the technical “scandal” that happened at the start of their performance. As you can see in the video below, there was a loooooong delay to the start of their backing track, which led to them missing their cue. They left the stage, and the whole thing had to start over again. Many singers would have become nervous after an incident like this, but not these two. They came back out and gave us possibly the fiercest performance in the history of Eurovision.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htXKfmjdIRo
All of us here at escXtra wish Encarna Salazar the very best of birthdays!