Revealing #9 of our top 10 songs this year!

At number 9, we have Spain. Spain chose Nebulossa’s “Zorra” through their national final, Benidorm Fest. As part of the Big Five countries, Spain automatically has a spot in the final. However, this year Nebulossa will be performing right after Latvia in the second semifinal (9.5th).

Nebulossa is a musical duo consisting of María Bas and Mark Dasousa (who have been married for 20 years and have been making music together since 2018). The song “Zorra” calls out the double standards in the Spanish word for fox. While the masculine “zorro” has positive connotations such as the cunning masked bandit Zorro, the feminine “zorra” carries very negative connotations with meanings like vixen, slut, or bitch. You can see this yourself by going to Google Translate and typing in zorro and then changing the “o” to an “a.”

When this song won, there was some concern that the EBU (the European Broadcasting Union in charge of overseeing the contest) would not allow the word “zorra” to be included in the lyrics due to the “no profanity” rule. Fortunately, they saw reason (or the irony of banning the word used in the context of the song) and allowed the original lyrics to stand. The official English translation according to them is “vixen.”

In the song, Nebulossa uses the gendered assumptions around the word “zorra” and attempts to reclaim and reframe its derogatory connotations, all with a fun disco beat. While the official music video is good and, apparently references iconic moments in Spain’s women liberation movement, the live national final performance is the real reason “Zorra” is ranked so highly for us. (Plus the back-up dancers are very memorable, though they also are flirting with the EBU’s “no nudity” rule). 

Back to Nebulossa…

Nebulossa can put on a really good show. Their staging and dancing is polished and captivating. And even though María may not be the strongest singer of the competition, the song is fun and dance-worthy. But, the joy of “Zorra” is not really about the song or the performance; it is about what the song and performance do to the crowd when she performs it live. The most impressive part of their national performance was the way the crowd at Benidorm CHANTED “Zorra!” along with the song. If Nebulossa can elicit the same enthusiastic response from the crowd in Malmö, it will be a sight to behold.