Fine, let’s get the Eurovision-y stuff out of the way: Blas Canto released a balled called Voy A Quedarme.
It’s well performed but it’s a ballad by a sadboi. I’m not the target audience. Spanish fans seem to like it, so job done. Has it fulfilled the brief for Eurovsion? Yes. Is it going to win Eurovision? No.
What I really want to focus on is the quote that appears at the beginning of the video:
Yes, you know – Emily JANE Bronte, not the other one. (There is no other one. It’s that Emily Bronte, aka Ellis Bell, and I have no idea why Blas added in the extra identifying information!)
The above is quote from the book Wuthering Heights, and it basically translates to: “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
Awwww. What a nice sentiment! Especially when introducing a video where Blas is mourning his dead grandmother (?), a person who seems like his kindred spirit. I’m glad Blas got to celebrate this connection in song.
EXCEPT
EXCEPT
The quote is from Wuthering Heights. No, not the Kate Bush song, but the novel that’s full of pining on the moors and star-crossed lovers and brooding and two people who claim an undying connection BUT CAN’T HOLD A SIMPLE CONVERSATION.
Let’s recap: Cathy and Heathcliff are in love (and also weirdly sort of brother and sister). Cathy gets engaged to another man DESPITE loving Heathcliff because she can’t deal with the fact that he’s poor and low class. Heathcliff runs away, Cathy marries, and THEN Heathcliff comes back a rich man. He’s determined to do that thing where he shows his ex what they missed out on, but instead of just flirting with another woman, he straight up marries Catherine’s SISTER IN LAW and gets her pregnant. Catherine’s husband bans him from the house, and Catherine – who by the way is PREGGERS – locks herself away and refuses to eat. She’s reunited with Heathcliff on her deathbed and he asks her to haunt him forever.
Yup. That’s the “love story” from which the quote “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” derives.
Now, I don’t know about you, but if my soul was the same as someone else, maybe I’d marry them, instead of choosing potential riches over love? Or showing the depth of my devotion by asking to be haunted for the rest of my living days? Or, you know, maybe having a sensible conversation like adults about whether or not this relationship should go any further. But I think we can all agree that this quote is not about a love connection!
I just wish that someone on Blas’s team had maybe googled Wuthering Heights before making this video to say, “Oh, let’s not associate our song with one of the most emo and unhealthy relationships of all time”, instead of just browsing the Goodreads quote section and going, “Ooooh, that sounds romantic.”
I mean, the only way this makes sense to me in the context of the video is if Blas Canto is the ghost who is haunting the old woman. She’s his former love and he’s kept his promise to stay by her all her life, even if that means mostly haunting an near-empty room with sheets over all the furniture.
Look, maybe the moral of the story here is: Eurovision artists, don’t make references to stuff that’s going to cause obsessive people like me to overthink your intentions! Just keep it simple! Leave out the literature quotes and let the song stand for itself!
dudepoints.fun 