The duo Tony Grox & Lucycalys won Benidorm Fest 2026, the first edition of the music competition to be independent from Eurovision, this Saturday with their song T AMARÉ, earning a total of 166 points. The performance, which blends their flamenco roots with cutting-edge electronic music, comes with a prize of 100,000 euros for the artists and another 50,000 euros for the song’s authors, as well as a golden siren statuette. The win is poised to elevate the duo’s profile in the Spanish music scene and beyond. Univision has offered them a trip to the United States to record a single with one of the most recognized producers in the Latin music industry, and Spotify has invited Asha, the young author of hits like Lola Índigo’s Yo ya no quiero ná, to record a track at its flagship studio in Stockholm after competing with her song Turista.
Whereas the music competition no longer selects a representative for Eurovision, it has become the unofficial selection process for the theme song of the Vuelta a España cycling race. Judging by the views on YouTube, the song T AMARÉ by Tony Grox & Lucycalys already has a dedicated following anticipating its use during the public broadcaster’s September broadcasts. That, according to observers, is the true prize of this edition. The minimalist staging, with the DJ table integrated into a fountain in an Andalusian patio, was one of the successes of Sergio Jaén, the new artistic director of the competition, and his team.
The professional jury, whose votes account for 50% of the total points, supported Asha and her song Turista (94 points), a surprising choice for many. The yellow color of the tram featured in the performance’s staging is no coincidence; it references the Limón Exprés, Spain’s first tourist train, inaugurated in 1971. The train ran from Benidorm to Gata de Gorgos, with its wooden balcony cars painted lemon yellow, mirroring the aesthetic of the final performance. The choreography and overall aesthetic evoked the musical film La La Land. The jury’s second-highest rated entry was T AMARÉ by Tony Grox & Lucycalys, with 82 points.
The demographic vote, worth 25% of the total, favored the Bruno Mars-inspired pop of Izan Llunas, with 48 points, and the electric copla of Rosalinda Galán with 44 points. However, the public vote, accounting for the remaining 25%, ultimately propelled Tony Grox & Lucycalys to victory. Rosalinda Galán closely followed in audience preferences. A complex, yet seemingly simple, interplay of colors and shadows crowned the solid and highly elaborate proposal of the Andalusian artist and her fragmented electric copla, Mataora, which every 30 seconds feels like a completely different song and was a favorite to win until the very end. But the jury awarding it 40 fewer points than the winning duo dashed her chances.
Reclaiming the insult and the trope
Beyond the musical performances, the Benidorm Fest television spectacle offered significant value. The show’s presenters (Jesús Vázquez, Javier Ambrossi, and Inés Hernand), along with the audience and many of the aspiring artists, enjoyed a safe space. Throughout these three live broadcasts, participants felt free to joke about themselves, about tropes surrounding women and the LGBTQ+ community (such as Álvaro Mayo’s “twink” aesthetic and his ambitious performance of Tócame, the perceived lack of gay interest in soccer, and even promiscuity), without needing to apologize or ask permission. Vázquez, Ambrossi, and Hernand did just that, unafraid of censorship from their superiors at RTVE, who were reportedly honorable enough not to censor them or dictate how they should approach reclaiming these topics.
As with reclaiming an insult or a symbol, applying irony to certain tropes (often trivial) surrounding a collective is a form of resistance that only makes sense when carried out by the collective to which it refers.
“I’ve been a postcard fox in Benidorm, but now I’m a Blanca Paloma,” Vázquez confessed during the first half of the final. “Well, just the opposite for me,” Ambrossi replied. It’s been a while since viewers have seen Vázquez, recently leaving Mediaset, so enthusiastic about hosting a program. During the show, he supported, through laughter and irony, Javier Ambrossi, who has been open and generous as the Benidorm Fest presenter, much like he was in a recent interview for La revuelta.
In his commitment to this television spectacle, the filmmaker starred in a recurring joke during the semi-finals, appearing in several moments disguised as Jesús Vázquez, whom he defines as his first reference point during his adolescence. Ambrossi admitted hours ago with naturalness to the media that he had read some of the criticism he had received for it. An openly gay icon from a generation marked by HIV receives the admiration of a man from a generation marked by VHS, and some prefer to see it as a suspicion of sexual harassment. Together they joked about the matter on stage during these days. In recent weeks, Ambrossi has demonstrated what some suspected: that he is the soul and talent behind the Javis phenomenon, a brand whose enormous success, he himself has admitted, was robbing him of his individuality.
Some of the musicians aspiring to the Golden Siren also knew how to use self-parody in their proposals as a precise barometer of others’ intelligence and (subpar) intentions. Rosalinda Galán embraced the absurd by including a “It’s Mataora, bitch” in the lyrics of her song, reaffirming to Inés Hernand that she “sings with her chest” and shouting to the audience “see you soon, queens” after finishing her performance. Julia Medina and María León winked at social media by defining themselves as enjoyably divorced, a term that new generations have stripped of its negative connotation, as this article in S Moda explained.
And Miranda! fueled their kitsch side with a sale-aesthetic staging of their Despierto amándote, while Juliana Gattas, the female half of the duo, ironically claimed the term “slut” in some of the interviews prior to her performance. Turning an insult, a symbol, or a trope on its head is what linguist Lola Pons already explained in the past as the best method to destroy its illocutionary force. Because nothing is insulting in itself, but it is us who build it insulting, she argues. And there was a lot of that healthy reclaiming in this Benidorm Fest 2026.
