Jorge González’s regret with Eurovision that became a pending account

It’s funny how life takes turns, especially when it comes to Eurovision. The festival is part of the collective imagination and, in some way, many artists have it in some corner of their heads as an option to take into account when the time comes. For Jorge gonzalezFor example, Eurovision has always been a goal, a dream to fulfill, and it has been pursued not once, not twice, but three times.

The first time he was encouraged by the idea was two years after his Triumph operation. It was 2009 when a very young Jorge González took the stage of a traditional preselection orchestrated by Spanish Television. It was called Eurovision 2009: The Return and divided the artists by musical genres (pop, indie, metal…). MySpace even participated! Jorge went through phase after phase with If I come to make you fall in love, a proposal inherited from Ricky Martin. But when push came to shove it didn’t work. He came ninth and Soraya was chosen. I still remember the boycott she was subjected to The night is for me…But let’s return to the topic at hand: Jorge González and his long career towards the Song Festival.

The defeat tasted bitter to the most versatile singer in OT 2006 and he wanted to try again five years later in another similar preselection and a song that embraced the Latin that at that time seemed unthinkable that would have a place in Eurovision. Curiously, the great winner of that time, Ruth Lorenzo, was the one who is currently presenting the Benidorm Fest. Because yes, Jorge didn’t do particularly well on that occasion either. He came second to last and with that defeat he decided to move away from the tortuous Eurovision path for a while.. In fact, later, in an interview with WECB where he took stock of that, he revealed that he did not see himself prepared to assume the title of representative of Spain.

He said that if he had been chosen, he would have regretted it. However, at that moment, he seemed totally convinced, with the same conviction that we see in him now. “One’s dream is one’s dream and sometimes you don’t realize that it’s not the time. When I showed up it was all a bit chaotic. He called us TVE and asked us if we would like to go to a Eurovision preselection in which there were going to be six participants,” he explained. “We were delighted to say yes and they then told us that we had seven days to present a topic. In seven days it is impossible to present something, but you can sleep. The mistake would have been to have won and gone because it was not a song with which I felt identified.”.

According to what he said, he would have been carried away by the dream and, if he had been chosen, he would have had to defend a candidacy with which he did not feel completely comfortable. “Now, as I get older, I think that it’s a good thing I didn’t go because right now I’d be saying: ‘oh shit’without detracting from the work that was done at that time.”

I did this interview with him in January 2021 and, despite what was said, he also made it clear that among his goals was still going to Eurovision, he had a pending account with the Spanish Eurofans. “It’s my dream. I would love to wear the flag of my country, to wear a bit of Spanish essence. That’s clear to me. Furthermore, Europe awaits it. Our music has become popular thanks to Rosalía.” So it was.

Ten years after that Look who’s going to Eurovision and three after those statements, Jorge González is about to fulfill the dream of his life with the Benidorm Fest and with a theme that includes precisely those elements he was talking about: Spanish essence and, according to him, what Europe expects of a ‘made in Spain’ candidacy. And never before had he been so close to reaching it. It has the support of televoting and demoscopic voting. And, although the competition is tough, there are many who predict that their time may have finally come. We just have to wait and discover if, indeed, what were once fears and doubts become a dream come true and fulfill that eternal pending account that has been had with the Eurovision Song Contest.