Tenerife 'Eurovision Festival' aims for world record number of Abba costumes

TENERIFE'S island capital is aiming to get into the Guinness Book of Records next month – for the most people in one place dressed up as the legendary Swedish band Abba.

To do so, a minimum of 10,000 are needed at the 'Eurovision Carnival' between June 18 and 19 – an eagerly awaited event starring key performers from the contest over the years.

Now the longest-running televised musical competition on earth, reaching audiences of up to half a billion on occasion, Santa Cruz de Tenerife plans to celebrate it with its first-ever 'Eurorainbow', a festival that pays tribute to the huge diversity of song styles, cultures, languages and customs that the contest always showcases.

Sweden's Loreen, Austria's Conchita Wurst and Ukraine's Jamala will be among the household names performing.

The first 'Eurorainbow' festival will feature what the organisers are calling a EuroReto, or 'EuroChallenge': Beating the world record for the most people dressed as Abba members Agnetha, Frida, Björn and Benny – whose career really took off when they, themselves, represented Sweden at the 1974 Eurovision with Waterloo.

An official judge from the Guinness Book of Records will be on site to verify the achievement, if enough people join in.

An Abba tribute band will be playing, along with former, successful Eurovision contestants.

Conchita Wurst, the famous 'bearded lady' from Austria who won the contest in 2014 with Rise Like a Phoenix, is reportedly living as a man at present but largely gender non-conforming and is still referred to as 'she/her' in the media.

Jamala's win for Ukraine in 2016 was highly topical then and has become so again now – the song 1944 was a call for the best of European values and tolerance in the face of the Russian invasion of the Crimean peninsula, referencing World War II, and became a hit all over the continent.

Only a few months back, Jamala had to flee her home country with her children, and are currently living as refugees in Turkey.

Loreen, who is Swedish but of Berber northern African origin, sparked a sensation a decade ago with Euphoria which, as well as netting her the 2012 Eurovision trophy, went straight to number one in the charts in several countries, including Spain.

During the weeks she was in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku rehearsing for the show, she was the only contestant who visited local refugee camps.

This year's fourth-placed contestant, Cornelia Jakobs, representing Sweden with Hold Me Closer, will also be at the Eurorainbow festival, and one of the hopefuls for representing Spain this year, Chilean-born Javiera Mena – now a household name in electro-pop after more than 10 years on the music circuit – has confirmed she will be holding a gig.

Javiera was one of the candidates at the recent Benidorm Fest, the purpose of which was to choose the 2022 entry for the Eurovision.

Her Italian counterpart, who is actually from the Canary Islands, Cristina Ramos, will be on home turf at the Eurorainbow, having now made herself internationally famous through performing on talent shows in México, the USA and China.

Details of the festival in Santa Cruz de Tenerife were released before the Eurovision on Saturday, so it is not yet known whether the stars of 2022 will be there.

One of these is none other than Spain's candidate, Chanel Terrero, who came an incredible third with SloMo – the highest placing for the country in 27 years, which until now was Pastora Soler's momentous 10th position in 2012.

Chanel was only beaten by the UK's equally-amazing second place – again, an extremely rare and much-merited result for Sam Ryder with Spaceman, but in a contest where Ukraine's win was almost a given from the start and which viewers and competitors across the continent agree it fully deserves.

The band Kalush, with Stefania, backed heartily by many voting countries, did not actually receive any points from Spain – the 12 went to Azerbaijan, 10 to Italy, eight to Australia, seven to Sweden, six to Serbia, five to Belgium, four for Romania, three for the UK, two for Greece and one for Switzerland.

Spain got 12 points from eight countries out of the total of 40 – San Marina, North Macedonia, Armenia, Ireland, Malta, Portugal, Sweden, and Australia – and 35 voting nations overall gave Chanel points.

She did not receive any from Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Finland or Italy.

The UK and Belgium each gave her 10 points.