In a contest that was not without controversy, Spanish-Cuban singer Chanel Terrero won against all odds at the Benidorm Fest, and will be the next representative of Spain at the next Eurovision Song Contest. The 66th edition of the popular contest will be held between May 10 and 14 in Turin, Italy.

The author, who especially captivated the jury with her song "SloMo," was not among the favorites. The popular Rigoberta Bandini and Tanxugueiras, who finally came in second and third place respectively, seemed to be better positioned to win. Other finalists were Rayden, Varry Brava, Xeinn, Gonzalo Hermida — who could not participate because he tested positive for COVID-19 — and Blanca Paloma. Chanel had a strong showing in the semifinal on Wednesday, Jan. 26, which was the preamble to her definitive victory in Sunday's final.

In addition to being a singer, Chanel is an actress and dancer. She left her native Cuba at the age of three for Spain with her mother, who emigrated for love. She forged her career in popular musicals such as Nine and The Lion King.

"I practically come from another world," she said of her musical theater background. After being proclaimed winner, she promised to give a show at Eurovision and come in first.

With a daring and sensual choreography, the singer was the winner in a voting system that was split 50/50 between a professional jury and the popular vote. Overall, Chanel got 96 votes, compared to 91 for Bandini and 90 for the Tanxugueiras trio.

"Europe smells like Chanel. There is nothing about this challenge that makes me dizzy," celebrated the winner.  

Due to the pandemic, the gala was limited to a capacity of 1,300 seats, mostly occupied by organizers, aspirants and the press.

The choice of the winner, however, has generated controversy in Spain.

Political parties and trade unions protested to Televisión Española (organizer of the event) to clarify the prejudice suffered by Tanxugueiras, who won broad support from the popular vote but was not as popular among the professional jury. There were also protests regarding the composition of the jury, as it was pointed out that dancer Miryam Benedited, a member of the jury, had a previous personal relationship with Chanel. Both participated together in the program Tu cara me suena on Antena 3.

In addition, Televisión Española informed that the lyrics of the winning song "SloMo" will be evaluated to assess whether they comply with the rules set for the contest. According to the rules, at least 35% of the lyrics must be written in the language of the country (Spanish). After a first evaluation, only 33% of the lyrics were written in Spanish. The rest of the lyrics are written in English. The mixture of languages is present in almost every phrase:

"El mundo está loco con este body, si tengo un problema no es monetary" ("The world is crazy with this body, if I have a problem it's not monetary"), sings Chanel at the beginning of the song. In the face of the controversy, internal unions of the TV channel demanded an annulment of the final result.