Spain brings a delightfully – and visually – cheeky swipe at the double standards applied to men and women in Zorra. The cleverness of the lyrics stems from the gendered variations of the masculine zorro and feminine zorra. The first is applied to men in a praising way, celebrating his sexual voraciousness, but disapprovingly to women judging them for similar characteristics. Nebulossa is having none of it, boldly reclaiming the word and exposing its one-way misogyny.
Musically this is joyful. It’s playful and upbeat pop with a positive, fuck-you message. You could hear just how much Spanish fans had already taken it to their hearts when they spontaneously sang along during Benidorm Fest, so full-throated it almost drowned out the artist at times. The performance also subverted sex stereotypes by playing male dancers in corsets and showing plenty of ample booty. I’m fully here for this championing of women’s equality.
Of course, there are some who like to spoil the fun attacking it all-too predictably on other fronts by claiming it’s not family friendly and won’t someone think of the children. Quite what they need to be protected from is unclear. Bums? Have these people never been to a beach?
Pleasingly the sniping neatly illustrates exactly the hypocrisy the song exposes. Where were all the criticisms of Chanel showing off just the same amount of booty-hypnotic flesh in SloMo? Oh, silly me; they were women. Add in a clear bit of queer coding on stage and it’s so very easy to see from where this tiresome criticism stems.
Photo: EBU