On 5 October 2019, Spain announced their act for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, Blas Cantó. He is officially the first act from the Big Five and Host City to be announced, although we reckon it’ll be some time before his song gets dropped. He will be jetting off to Rotterdam, the Netherlands come May 2020, where Eurovision will take place at the Rotterdam Ahoy venue.
Spain hasn’t had the best run in recent years at the Eurovision Song Contest, alongside most of the Big Five, this could be due to a number of factors but many believe that heading straight to the Grand Final without competing in the Semi-Finals put these countries in at a disadvantage. In an effort to do well in the contest, the country continues to switch up its selecting process. This is the first time in four years since Spain has opted for internal selection, the last one being 2015’s Edurne with the song “Amanecer”, who placed 21st with 15 points.
The country promised the act would be well-known, and Blas Cantó is more likely fairly-known in Spain, but we’re sure he’ll be amazing live. He’s probably best known for being one-fifth of boy band AURYN. The group even competed to represent Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 where they made it to the final three.
Since then, their career became massive, scoring all four of their albums in the top five of Spain’s album chart, three of which claimed the top spot. They also had a number of hit singles, the majority of which charted in the top 40 – except one, and “Puppeteer” managed to hit number one. The group went on hiatus in 2016 and a few months later announced that they had completely parted ways. Blas Cantó launched his solo career and has been on an upward trajectory ever since.
He has taken part in a number of TV talent shows, starting off way back in 2000 on Veo Veo at just eight-years-old. Four years later, he competed to represent Spain at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004 with the song “Sentir”, where he advanced to the Final but lost out to Maria Isabel who sang “Antes muerta que sencilla” who went on to win the Junior Eurovision for Spain. After AURYN split, Blas Cantó competed on Tu cara me suena (the Spanish version of Your Face Sounds Familiar) which he went on to win during the season finale in 2017 – from which he signed a recording contract with Warner Music Spain and launched his debut single “In Your Bed”, which charted at number 57.
A year later, he scored a hit with the song “Él no soy yo” which charted at number 35 and became certified platinum. It was the third single from his debut studio album Complicado, which charted at number one on the Spanish album charts. He later reissued the album with the release of the single “Si te vas”.
With all this experience we’re totally expecting great things from Blas Cantó on the Eurovision 2020 stage. He’s bound to be one of the ones to watch and we can’t help but love the songs he has released to-date so he does seem to be one we’re going to love; however, knowing that he beat out the likes of Ruth Lorenzo, Diana Navarro, and Cristina Ramos (who were highly rumoured to be in talks with the broadcaster) suggests that he must have something special.
More and more Eurovision 2020 acts are set to be announced; alongside Blas Cantó for Spain, only one other act has been announced, Hooverphonic for Belgium.
The Eurovision Song Contest 2020 will take place at the Rotterdam Ahoy, Rotterdam, the Netherlands after Duncan Laurence won the 2019 contest with the song “Arcade” where he scored a total of 498 points. The two Semi-Finals will be taking place on 12 May 2020 and 14 May 2020, whilst the Grand Final will take place on 16 May 2020.