Review: Operación Triunfo Final Gala
Three months of music, a 24-hours camera and constant gossip just reached the end. Last Monday 5, Amaia Romero won the ninth edition of the Spanish TV show Operación Triunfo with an impressive and genuine performance of ‘Miedo’ by M-Clan. But it was not the only recognition she received: she had been chosen to represent Spain in the Eurovision Festival alongside her co-participant and boyfriend Alfred García just the week before.
At 10:30 pm, the Final Gala kicked off with an opening song by the five finalists with Spanish singer Raphael. Then, the real competition started and all music genres were met. Alfred García sticked to his style with Don’t Stop The Music, but a distracting choreography distanced the audience from the song and singer. Ana Guerra, who tends to cover Latin genres, chose the classic tango Volver, that resulted in a strong but vocally poor performance. Aitana Ocaña shone with a breathtaking and emotional Chandelier by Sia. But the great surprise of the night was Miriam Rodríguez, who got the third position after singing Invisible, by Malú. Despite her passionate and a bit struggled performance, her nervous and emotional speeches enchanted the public.
After singer Pablo Alborán went on stage, the second part of the gala consisted in another performance by the three most-voted finalists: Amaia, Aitana and Miriam. In social media, the public looked quite surprised with Alfred’s fourth position, as he was one of the favourites to win due to his peculiar voice and musical talent.
The program suffered an embarrassing ending because of the sound problems that damaged singer David Bisbal’s expected performance and created really awkward situations for a while. However, this did not stop the 4 million viewers and the night ended at 2 am, with all the participants singing together in the extremely successful closing of the talent show.
Amaia’s great voice and sweet personality made her one of the most loved participants in the show. Every week, her comments and extremely observed relationship with her co-participant Alfred García were target of gossip newspapers and Social Media. The couple was shipped since the beginning, when they sang a wonderful La La Land’s “City of Stars” cover that went viral seconds after it was aired.
Operación Triunfo 2017/18 is over, but its clever use of social media and their bet for sexual diversity and gender equality created a difference with other talent shows. Nevertheless, the fact that the program was mainly a reality show triggered criticisms regarding the opportunity that Televisión Española might have lost by not promoting culture the right way. Everyone is keeping an eye on the winner Amaia and other remarkable participants such as Alfred or Aitana, but the truth is that their future is uncertain. Hopefully, this program will serve as a showroom for musicians, but actually, the possibility of music getting lost between commercial interests and gossip magazines is high. We will have to see what happens after Lisbon’s Eurovision Festival.
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