Mery Bas (55 years old) and Mark Dasousa (47 years old) have been married for more than two decades and are parents of two children. It wasn't until 2018 that they became an artist couple. He is an experienced producer in the Valencian music scene at Atomic Studio. And she is an opera lover. He asked his wife to record some lyrical vocals for one of his experimental projects. And so they were inspired to form a duo with the essence of the 80s synth pop that influenced them so much in their youth. The song Zorra follows the irreverent, unjudgmental and powerful line of some of her previous songs. It came to the stage this Tuesday at the Benidorm Fest as one of the most listened to proposals among the 16 candidates. And he triumphed alongside Angy Fernández in the first semi-final of the competition. It is already among the favorites to represent Spain at the Eurovision 2024 festival.
Questions: His success at the Benidorm Festival shows that it is a very tolerant format. Even accepts heterosexuals.
Mery Bas: Yes, it is. When I sent the proposal, I didn't expect it to be so well received. Especially because of the title. And for its message itself, for what the song stands for.
Mark Dasousa: With this path that Rigoberta Bandini opened and that we try to follow, this will grow. Next year others will think what we thought when we saw them: “Well, we could show up too…”.
Q: What was it like to give concerts for a few dozen people in a single night and to do so in a full hall and in front of millions of viewers on television?
Maria: Our age makes us look at things differently, even though the situation is impressive. I was a little afraid that people's euphoria, the desire to sing the lyrics, would make me lose focus. It felt bad not being able to improvise anymore, but we had to respect the gala's guidelines.
To mark: Not much will change for Saturday's final, except maybe ourselves. Let's try to enjoy it a little more.
Q: His proposal recalls a generation of interconnected Spanish artists such as Luis Miguélez, Fabio McNamara, Nacho Canut, Glamor to Kill…
To mark: Yes, the whole lot. And La Mode, Pegamoides, Paralisis Permanente, Radio Futura, Golpes Bajos… And we mixed it with a more Anglo-Saxon side, from The Cure to Blondie.
Maria: But we also draw on Madonna and Kylie and look at non-musical aspects of current artists such as The Weekend, Bad Bunny, Rosalía and Miley Cyrus.
Q: Mark, is it easy to make a living from music outside of Madrid or Barcelona?
To mark: I haven't stopped working since I joined the scene of bands that sang in Valencia, such as La Gossa Sorda [cuyas letras proclamaban la independencia de los denominados Países Catalanes y recurrían a instrumentos tradicionales de la región]. I toured with them for ten years. They helped me grow and I helped them. We didn't have an industry like Catalonia, which was more used to consuming music in Catalan. In Valencia, ideology had to be included in the lyrics because the political discourse was not as naturalized as it was there.
Q: But Zorra is more hedonistic and remembers, among other things, that women over 50 are not invisible…
Maria: We are not yet at eye level. And that needs to change.
Q: After their performance, they explained that the message wasn't just feminist; which also winks at the LGTBI+ community and all those who feel outside the norm.
To mark: Neo, our 11-year-old son, was at the rehearsals and I noticed him watching César and Josu, our two drag dancers. It was a look between admiration and confusion. I realized that we were bringing him closer to other realities and distancing him from prejudices. And his friends do too. At first I was afraid that this Benidorm party would result in his colleagues telling him: “Your mother is a slut.”
Maria: And he lived it… But the boy knows how to deal with it very well.
To mark: Now the boys have a much more open attitude. When I was a kid, if a man danced, he was called a “lost fagot.”
Maria: I wish Neo liked dancing as much as I did at his age, but he likes football.
to mark: Even when playing football, neither he nor his teammates are afraid of dancing. Because TikTok is all about dance.
Q: Did you have LGTBI+ credentials?
Maria: Through dance. Although many people from my city of Ondara (Alicante, population 6,800) had to go there. It must be very sad to be ashamed of yourself.
To mark: My mother had a hairdresser friend, Pedro. He was gay. In my case, thanks to him, the homosexual world was naturalized since I was a child. For me he was a great guy who told me that he had experienced La Movida, talked to me about his groups, gave me advice… He opened my eyes without having to leave his hair salon.
Q: Is a song like Zorra necessary so many years after Who Cares?
Maria: Yes! Our song should have been played earlier.
To mark: It seems that in Spain we are always in the time before Revelation. And we haven't gotten over it at all.
Q: Christian Lawyers are very busy these days because of Holy Week in Seville, but are they worried that representing Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest will be their next target?
To mark: It doesn't worry us. We didn't do it with the intention of it being an anthem. This is how it happened for us. People have accepted her as such and it is the best thing that can happen to an artist. It only happens to very few people. We feel very supported. Our only concern would be that Spain would have a good position in the competition. Not for us, because at this point we are not looking for a career. We made our life. It's no problem for us if we're a one hit wonder and disappear next year.
Q: And how could they make it so funny for Poles or Romanians to shout “bitch” without understanding the context or understanding the lyrics?
Maria: Music is universal…
To mark: …and it sells. With Gossa Sorda we toured Croatia and the Czech Republic and sang in Valencian. We thought they wouldn't understand anything. But they had fun. Many people don't fully understand the English lyrics of Madonna or the Beatles… The aesthetic makes the message understandable.
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