May is the month of flowers, the Virgin Mary and the Eurovision Song Contest. Its fans—devotees of the lightest, most festive, and most irresistibly catchy pop music—make a spring pilgrimage en masse to the mecca of this ever-expanding song contest (even Australia is now a member of the club). Eurovision fever blooms with the pollen, and to help keep it watered (with its next edition taking place on the 17th in Basel, following Switzerland’s win last year) the series La canción premieres on the Movistar Plus+ platform on 8 May. Created and written by Pepe Coira and Fran Araújo (who previously collaborated on the series Rapa [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche série]), it is directed by Alejandro Marín, known for the joyful gay manifesto Love and Revolution [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film] and the series Queer You Are.

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But it turns out that Spain has only won this kitsch Olympiad once on its own (it won again the following year, but in a four-way tie). In 1968, Madrid-born singer Massiel with her joyful anthem La, la, la triumphed over none other than the British favourite Cliff Richard, who had been tipped to win with his catchy song Congratulations. Before that moment of Spanish euphoria at London's Royal Albert Hall, many things occurred—some amusing, some downright unbelievable. That is the story told by this series which, based on real events and using archive footage, very loosely recreates what happened in the shadows and in front of the cameras in those dizzying weeks leading up to the contest.

In a festive spirit, mixing reality, conjecture, playful nods, Eurofan devotion and bursts of fiction, La canción begins with news of a desire voiced by Spain’s then-leader himself (the dictator Franco) to cleanse Spain's poor international reputation by winning the Eurovision Song Contest. To achieve this, he enlisted his high-profile minister Manuel Fraga Iribarne, who used his considerable influence to ensure that Televisión Española would seek out a sure-fire medal contender for the melodic contest to be held in London.

And so begins a pleasant and good-natured pop odyssey which, despite the audience knowing how it ends, offers moments of humour, social commentary and an overdose of sweetness. Even Franco himself is depicted as a quiet man (sic). This is a far cry from the parodic spirit of the hilarious American film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020) by David Dobkin and featuring Will Ferrell in full unhinged mode.

Also, the protagonist of this series is not really Massiel (played by recent Goya winner for Undercover [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film] Carolina Yuste), nor the initial choice to represent Spain, Joan Manuel Serrat (portrayed with much mimicry by Marcel Borràs). Instead, it is the poor executive at Televisión Española tasked with orchestrating a strategy to secure favourable votes across Europe, played by Patrick Criado (The Red Virgin [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film], Las noches de Tefía [+lire aussi :
critique
fiche série]). Initially sceptical, cold, stiff and ambitious, this character will, through his Eurovision ordeal, experience a conversion. By the end, he becomes a Eurofan (with everything that entails), thanks to the miracles of the Virgin Massiel and the holy Eurovision. Amen.

La canción, consisting of three 50-minute episodes, is an original series from Movistar Plus+ in collaboration with Buendía Estudios.