Eurovision 2020: Meet Spain’s Act, Blas Cantó

Eurovision’s Big Five are not messing about this year with the UK already announcing the abandonment of the traditional ‘You Decide’ format in favour of a partnership with record label BMG. Spain have taken things a step further by officially announcing their chosen artist, Blas Cantó. We thought it would be nice to dig into Señor Canto’s career and examine a few highlights of his musical CV.

The 27 year old Murcia native reached #1 in the Spanish album charts with his debut solo release Complicado in September 2018. The album mixed Spanish language pop tracks with a few English numbers. Somewhat reminiscent of slick pop artists like Adam Levine and Olly Murs – Cantó’s English tracks showcase his vocal range, accompanied with nostalgic funk-tinged dance backing – tracks such as Drunk and Irresponsible and In Your Bed exemplify this.

Whilst the English tracks are handy as a quick go-to for non Spanish speaking audiences, Cantó’s singles in his native language are undeniably a higher artistic quality. Él no soy yo, Si te vas and No volveré (A seguir tus pasos) are all top-notch Latin pop ballads with jaunty romantic Spanish guitar and charismatic vocals – each fitting of a Eurovision hit. Cantó is yet to have a massive solo hit in his native Spain yet experienced numerous hits as part of teen pop band Auryn.

The five-piece boyband Auryn had a string of hits from their four albums from 2009 to 2016. The group again mixed English and Spanish tracks, asserting themselves as regular visitors to the Spanish Top 40. The group competed for Spain’s 2011 Eurovision place through Destino Eurovisión reaching the Top 3. The group’s multitude of hits include Puppeteer, Make My Day and Who’s Loving You (ft. Anastacia). The group are on a hiatus to pursue solo projects.

Our next question will be, what sound is Cantó heading towards for his Eurovision entry? He joins Belgian act, Hooverphonic, as one of the only announced Rotterdam 2020 artists this far.