They're already here.
Apart from all the OT songs, Chayanne has come with Torero and David Civera with Detenedla ya.

Maybe Capitán Canalla and las Ketchup could have some summer hits.
We're expecting for more songs ...

Thanks Miguelito! Keep us posted! Any chance of posting sound clips?

Go to 40 Principales site to see a list of the current hits and listed to sound clips.

hey everybody

ive always used 40 principale for update for whats hot and whats mild and whats pretty cold in the music thats selling in spain

But radio stations don't always play what's REALLY going on! You have to go out to the clubs or what's going on at the beaches! And I know this from experience!

I just logged onto the 40 principales site to see what was on and they were playing Eminem....I can listen to the local radio with better quality for that! (as if I wanted to...)

I want to give everyone a better picture of this topic: Every summer here in Spain a group of songs is somehow chosen and played EVERYWHERE for the next several months. They're the songs of summer. Then in September, they go off the air and you basically never hear the songs again.

Now get this, the songs normally are either copied from or copied by television commercials (not sure which comes first) during the same time they're on the air (artistic integrity anyone?). My first summer here had songs like "Bomba","Arroba, arroba love punto com." and "Mi limon." You couldn't listen to the radio or watch TV or go to a bar without hearing them. These are not songs from stars like Alejandro Sanz, these are throw-away pop-songs that obviously are made just to make money however possible.

There is definitely some sort of marketing-conspiracy or cabal going on. Case in point: Today I had to run a few errands and I was running late so I caught a couple taxis, both had different radio stations playing, however, the topic of both was Rosa's Eurovision song "Europe's living a celebration." They had live feeds from people on the street singing it, the announcers were talking about it like it was the best song they've ever heard (it's not) and how important it is, etc. TWO different stations.

My point is, there's obviously no separation between commercialization of songs as products and the artistic merits of the songs themselves. These songs aren't being heard because everyone likes them, they've been chosen by some conglomerate and now are the most played. It would be interesting to see how much money Operation Triumfo and other song publishers pay the radio and television stations to get their song to be the big hit for the summer...

In case you say that this is similar to the U.S., I would say that there is a huge difference between big labels paying zillions of dollars for marketing and "pushing" the songs up the charts than a company "buying" the #1 song for the summer, whether the people like it or not.

-Russ

Yes, it's a good picture. Anyway I find some differences between Operación Triunfo and summer songs, while OT has been number one in the list, summer songs usually sound everywhere but nobody buys them. Although they're not good songs, they're usually funny. And there are some songs that are obviously summer songs, and some others that are in between. I enjoy a lot talking about this, I have to go now. The phenomenon of summer songs started long time ago, I can remember it since I was kid. I'll try to tell more things other day.

Miguelito!

I think the rest of the Operacion Triumfo stuff was normal POP music - hitting the charts because it was popular.

However, that "Europe's living a celebration" (does that even make sense?) is DEFINITELY a song of summer. You have no idea how many times I heard it today alone. I hate it already. On TV before "El Rival Mas Debil" (Spain's "Weakest Link" that just started...) there were "reports" about the song and Rosa's family singing it (she's got these two HUGE brothers), etc.

Someone's paying BIG bucks to have that song be "popular"...

-Russ

Okay. So I'm an idiot... I live in a world within a world here in Spain, always figuring out stuff way too late.

The Eurovision contest is tomorrow night. I've never seen it, but supposedly it's this 30+ year old television program where the chosen representatives from each county in Europe perform live to see who's the best performer. Rosa is representing Spain and her song is the 'celebration' song that I've been so annoyed about. That's why it's been in the news so much today.

It's a horrible song and Rosa is chubby and not particularly good looking or charismatic. She's got a great voice though, but this song does nothing to show it off. I give Spain a 2% chance of winning.

-Russ

Hey Russ,

I just have one thing to say....WE'RE GONNA WIN TONITE!!!!!
(And it's about time too. You have never watched this song contest before, the rest of the songs are bound to be even tackier!)

GO ROSITA, GO!!!

Have a good party tonight pim! I'll be watching it too!

Jo Waterloo Dingadong Congratulations Boom Bang a Bang (why can't I remember the names of some more recent ones!!! )

I agree with pim, Rosa is going to win!!!. The other 22 countries in the competition don´t have a chance. One country, I can´t remember which, is featuring a group of croos-dresses. A few other nations will offer similar trash. But, Rosa will be singing the song that may repalce Beethoven 9th as the official hymn of EU, then again perhaps not. In short, I´m ready for six hours of enlightening TV tonight: 3 hours of pre-Eurovision with Carlos Lozano, and 3 hours of the real thing.
Rosa is great, although I can only understand her when she sings. I swear she speaks with cotton in her mouth. When she wins Eurovision perhaps the Seguridad Social will be willing to pay for speach therapy.
2 hours to go, I neeed to buy my pan and jamón for bocatas during the marathon event. This could be better than the Superbowl, especially the last one (I am suffering Ram´s fan).

7th...

Not too bad considering the competition. I only saw the first 6 acts (Rosa was fifth) and I must say that they were all really poor, though the Latvia chick was hot. I can't believe how long the competition was, actually. We turned it off and watched a video and I thought I would need to go online to see who won, but when the video was over they were JUST counting votes. Wow.

Shawn, did this show just SCREAM European? No seriously, it was like a parody of a European variety show. Everyone was talking and singing in incredibly accented English (though you couldn't hear them very well with the Spanish over-dub) and the hosts were somewhat good-looking only-famous-in-Europe types in nuevo-70s outfits. It was unnerving to say the least.

What is WITH the lip sinking here in Europe?

-Russ

P.S. They rebroadcast the show this morning, I caught some more acts... oof. I've seen better choreography in 9th grade air-band contests.

When I was on Madrid a couple weeks ago, I saw on TV in the hotel a talk show, with various spanish singers. And Rosa was one of them. Then on the streets I saw lots of bootlegged CDs for 3 euros, (so I bought 2! :p ) One Shakira, and on Rosa. I heard her music everywhere too, but never heard of her before here in North America. I did a search on the internet. Has she just (Rosa) become famous recently? And all some of songs original? or just she just do renditions of others music like Say a little prayer or Celebration?

Eurovision was a blast, other than Rosa not walking away the champ. It was great to see the countless parodies of the Backstreet Boys . In all honesty, I would have to give the lemon of the evening to the Greek "boy-band". I couldn´t stop laughing during their performance with their Road Warrior looking outfits and weak lyrics. Of course, there were the pop diva types and for the most part I discovered a new appreciation for Brittaney Spears after seeing them.

I found the dubber kind of annoing, with his specualtion of how each country would vote while they were announcing their votes.

Oooh! What a dissapointment! Oh well....

Germany, Sweden OR Spain were supposed to win, and at the end, they even did worse than us!!!

France gave us 12 points....what a shocker!

Wow, Russ and Shawn, it must have been QUITE a European experience for you two!

I wonder what the results would have been like, if instead of all those "new European countries" such as Latvia, Estonia, or Lithuania, etc..., we would have had more of "the oldies" participating (countries like Portugal, Italy, or Holland weren't there!!!)

Rosita's still fantastic!

I am about to cry thinking how the past 2 summers I have been in Spain for these summer songs and this summer I must content myself by playing Caribe 2000 and Caribe 2001 loudly in the car while driving around the USA, but anyway, please someone post the names and artists of this year's "Bomba," "Yo quiero bailar," etc. so I can make myself a new CD! Thanks!!!!