The eighth artist in our Who Is series for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest is Blas Cantó from Spain.
Blas Cantó was born on October 26 1991 in Ricote in Murcia in southeastern Spain. He made his first television appearance in 2000 in the children’s talent show Veo Veo. In 2004, he took part in Eurojunior, the Spanish national final for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004. He finished fourth in the final with the song “Sentir” (To feel).
In 2009, he founded the group AURYN. The group gained fame after taking part in Destino Eurovisión, the Spanish national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. The group made it to the final three with the song “Volver” (To return) but lost out to Lucía Pérez. AURYN went on to release four albums before parting ways in 2016.
In July 2016, Blas took part in the fifth season of Tu Cara Me Suena (Your Face Sounds Familiar) and went on to win the show. In March 2017, on the same day as the final of Tu Cara Me Suena, he released his first solo single “In Your Bed”. This was followed by a Spanish-language single “Él no soy yo” (I’m not him) in March 2018 and a studio album “Complicado” (Complicated) in September 2018.
Blas was internally selected to represent Spain in Rotterdam, becoming the first internally selected Spanish Eurovision entrant since 2015. He was due to sing “Universo” (Universe) at the 2020 contest before its cancellation. The song was written by Dan Hammond, Ashley Hicklin, Dangelo Ortega, Mikolaj Trybulec, and Blas himself.
Not long after the announcement of the contest’s cancellation, Spanish broadcaster RTVE invited Blas to represent the country at the 2021 contest, which he happily accepted. His competing song was chosen via the selection show Destino Eurovisión, which saw Blas perform “Memoria” and “Voy a quedarme”. The public voted for their favourite, and in the end, it was “Voy a quedarme” that came out on top.
Spain will be performing in the Grand Final of the contest as they are a member of the Big Five.
Image source: Sergio Ramirez Delgado
Spain debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961 and has competed annually since. Spain has won the contest on two occasions the first being in 1968 and the second time in 1969. 1969 is the only year where more than one song has won the contest. The 1969 contest saw a four-way tie between Spain, France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Since 2000 Spain has only managed to finish in the top 10 on five occasions, the last time being in 2014 with Ruth Lorenzo. However, the country has finished 20th or below on ten occasions, the worst placement being 26th in 2017.
