SPAIN: Rodolfo Chikilicuatre kitsch reggae-rapper and pop parodist is Spanish entry for Eurovision Song Contest

Record ID: 572575

  • Title: SPAIN: Rodolfo Chikilicuatre kitsch reggae-rapper and pop parodist is Spanish entry for Eurovision Song Contest
  • Date: 25th May 2008
  • Summary: (L!3) MADRID, SPAIN (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SPANISH TENOR PLACIDO DOMINGO SEATED AT NEWS CONFERENCE AT THE ROYAL THEATRE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SPANISH TENOR, PLACIDO DOMINGO, SAYING: "Spain represented like that in such an important festival, that's bad ---there are obviously worse things in this world, I agree, lots of them, but entering a song whose music and lyric have no meaning, a song that carries no message whatsoever, well that to me is really strange."
  • Embargoed: 9th June 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Spain
  • Country: Spain
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAB400B56I7AEOIRXFD84JQBPSM
  • Story Text: A spoof singer with a tiny pink child guitar and oversized nerdy-styled-glassless spectacles, David Fernandez - best known as Rodolfo Chikilicuatre - is warming up his engines to compete in one of the world's longest running television shows: the Eurovision Song Contest.
    His kitsch 'reggae rap' "Dance the Chiki Chiki" includes references to actors, politicians and a grandma waving a pair of knickers up in the air. The peculiar entry has quite a creative process history, to say the least.

    "The inspiration came to me one night, as I was sleeping next to my nephew - I don't have a girlfriend but I do have a nephew, an endangered species - we were suddenly hit by, I don't know, a nightmare or something. We woke up and my nephew, a genius in the shadow, cried "chiki!" and I had a revelation: there was a song there. We began the brainstorming and the stretching of the chiki, we added and extra chiki... I couldn't hold back my tears, it was enormous," said Chikilicuatre, a comical character on a national television late night show.
    Spain's Eurovision hopeful is an exaggerated version of Elvis Presley.
    The comedian sports a moustache, a massive wig or inflated toupee, extra-large sideburns, the mentioned pointless glasses and pretends to play a tiny pink girlish guitar.
    The 38-year-old actor David Fernandez put away his own self to act for a slightly younger, 36, Argentinean comedy character Rodolfo Chikilicuatre 24/7.
    An overwhelming two million voters decided a few months ago in a televised public poll on 'Let's save Eurovision' that Chikilicuatre should represent Spain in Belgrade on May 24. That for him was worth putting his life on hold, although he has confessed that his performance is a truth becoming a dream rather than the opposite.
    Fans have translated the absurd and satirical "Dance the Chiki Chiki" into a number of languages and the catchy lyrics have already yielded juicy revenues in ring tone downloads.
    But Rodolfo Chikilicuatre is ambitious. He wants to win the popular contest and turn his tune into a major summer hit.

    "I'd love to see everybody partying to Chiki Chiki world-wide --that would be absolutely beautiful, the Chiki Chiki uniting cultures and, I'd like to say achieving world peace but that is a top model line, so simply seeing people partying to the rhythm would do it for me," he said.
    But not everyone is amused. Spanish tenor Placido Domingo, 67, had a comment for the song representing his country in the Eurovision contest while presenting his new album.

    "Spain represented like that in such an important festival, that's bad ---there are obviously worse things in this world, I agree, lots of them, but entering a song whose music and lyric have no meaning, a song that carries no message whatsoever, well that to me is really strange," said the opera star currently playing Ottoman emperor Bajazet in Handel's opera Tamerlano.
    He adamantly explained that he fails to grasp the meaning of Chikilicuatre's song, that it belongs to a different 'music dimension'.
    Domingo was voted the best all-time tenor in a recent BBC survey.
    Rodolfo agreed with him.

    "Unbelievable, how could he say such a thing? Well, truth be told it really has no message. Placido, let me say you have discovered the Americas. The song is indeed messageless, if anything the only message is to party. If the intention would have been to send a message across then I'd have sang 'poor little dying trees' but that was not the case so what I say instead is to party and have fun," he said.
    In any turn of events, the hit has translated into serious dancing across the country. To many, a proof that Spaniards have a sense of humour.

    "At least this time we are going to have a laugh with Chikilicuatre. All the previous entrants from every different country have been equally ludicrous. The difference this time is that it's a comedian we are talking about, so he should win," said club goer Katia.
    Some can only see a true competitor in Ireland's rubber turkey puppet Dustin, or at least expect them to give each other a good run in the kitsch bets of this year's contest.
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