Remedios Amaya

Biography

Remedios Amaya (born María Dolores Amaya Vega) (born 1962 in Seville) is a flamenco singer. She was one of Camarón's favourite cantaoras (female flamenco singers), and they worked together on several occasions. She is one of the best contemporary cantaoras of festive styles. It is the happy palos (forms) which allow her to express all of her talent: bulerías, tangos, alegrías... but she is also comfortable executing other palos, like the soleá and seguiriya. In her artistic career it is possibl...

Remedios Amaya (born María Dolores Amaya Vega) (born 1962 in Seville) is a flamenco singer. She was one of Camarón's favourite cantaoras (female flamenco singers), and they worked together on several occasions. She is one of the best contemporary cantaoras of festive styles. It is the happy palos (forms) which allow her to express all of her talent: bulerías, tangos, alegrías... but she is also comfortable executing other palos, like the soleá and seguiriya.

In her artistic career it is possible to identify two periods that are clearly separated by the style of her singing. Her first records (Luna nueva, 1983, and Seda en mi piel, 1984) were a clear gamble on so-called flamenco-rock. The disastrous result of her participation representing Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest 1983, (up to date the only nul points score for Spain since the current voting system was established in 1975) when flamenco did not arouse the same international interest, and did not enjoy the same recognition as it does today, appeared to have persuaded Remedios Amaya to retire from the stage. This was until she reappeared more powerfully than ever in 1997, alongside Vicente Amigo, doing what she really wanted to do. The work was called Turu Turai (1997). It sold 150,000 copies. It has been followed by other records that have had the same strength, the same success and the same quality. Remedios Amaya is undoubtedly one of the most inspired cantaoras of the last few years.

Eurovision Song Contest 1983 - Munich
Entry for Spain

Performer: Remedios Amaya
Song title: ¿quién Maneja Mi Barca?
Song writer(s): Isidro Muñoz
Song composer(s): José Miguel Evóras

Sang in Position: 7
Final Position: 19
Total Points: 0


For the second time since 1957, the Eurovision Song Contest was held in Germany, this time in the Bavarian capital, Munich. The presenter of this year's song contest was Marlene Charell who presented the performers in three languages, German, French and English, but she was very nervous and made 13 mistakes in the voting alone. She also mixed up the names of the performers and the conductors much to the displease of the artists. Due to the trilingual presentation, the contest lasted more than 3 hours for the first time ever.

The total number of participants rose to 20 again as Italy, France and Greece returned. The 1983 Eurovision Song Contest didn't have filmed postcards to present the artists as they were not ready in time. The set was quite small but unique as the stage was arc-shaped surrounding the orchestra section.

This year marked the first performance of Sweden's Carola Häggkvist who reached the third place and went on to win the contest in 1991 and represented her country again in 2006,coming fifth. Her song Främling became very popular in Sweden, perhaps even more than her winning song from 1991. For France's Guy Bonnet, it was the second time he represented his native country. After coming 4th in 1970, he ended up 6th in the Munich contest. Italian superstar Riccardo Fogli, the 1983 contest ended with a disappointment: after winning the prestigious San Remo festival the year before, he only ended up 11th with his song Per Lucia.

Luxembourg won the 1983 contest with the dramatic presentation of Si La Vie Est Cadeau by French singer Corinne Hermès which marked the country's last victory to date. Unfortunately, Corinne's winning song didn't set the European charts alight and it was even outscored by the Swedish entry Främling and even the Yugoslav song by Daniel who recorded his song in English, called Julie then.
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