Rodolfo Chikilicuatre"Chiquilicuatre" means "busybody", "good-for-nothing" in Spanish.
Chiquilicuatre
' and
chiquilicuatro
' at the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española. (; born 1972) is a Spanish comedic character played by David Fernández Ortiz (born 24 June 1970) and first introduced in the Spanish late night show ''Buenafuente'' as an improvisational act. Rodolfo was interviewed as the inventor of the vibrator-guitar. The character rose to fame after he was later presented by the show's host,

Andreu Buenafuente Andreu Buenafuente Moreno (born 24 January 1965) is a Spanish Late night television, late night show host and founder of the group El Terrat. He has worked in TV3 (Catalonia), TV3, Antena 3 (Spain), Antena 3, laSexta and Cero (TV channel), #0. ...

, with a song called "

Baila el Chiki-chiki "Baila el Chiki-chiki" (; "Dance the Chiki-chiki") is a novelty song recorded by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre. It in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, placing sixteenth. Background Conception Rodolfo Chikilicuatre was a comedic character –perfor ...

" (Dance the Chiki-chiki), a parody of

reggaeton Reggaeton (, ) is a modern style of popular music, popular and electronic music that originated in Panamanian reggaetón, Panama during the late 1980s, and which rose to prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s through a plethora of Puert ...

music filled with jokes and political references. The show's host decided to enter the song into the Spanish selection process for the

Eurovision Song Contest 2008 The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the 53rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Belgrade, Serbia, following the country's victory at the with the song "" by Marija Šerifović. Organised by the European Broadcasting Unio ...

, where it was chosen. Rodolfo landed Spain's best placement since

Eurovision Song Contest 2004 The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the 49th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Istanbul, Turkey, following the country's victory at the with the song " Everyway That I Can" by Sertab Erener. Organised by the European B ...

Creation of the character

In a new phase for the '' Buenafuente'' (BFN) show on

La Sexta La Sexta (; ; stylised as laSexta) is a privately owned Spanish free-to-air television channel that was founded on 18 March 2001 as Beca TV and began broadcasting on 1 April 2001. By 21 July 2003, the channel ran into debt and was shut down, bu ...

, David Fernández, in the short-lived ''Actor de Guardia'' section, started to play various characters related to current issues, chosen at random. On 21 January 2008, based off the news of the invention of a

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

which was connected to a vibrator, he played the role of the

Argentinian Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

character ''Ricardo Rosanti'', who claimed to be the device's inventor. Then, on 5 February, he reappeared, now under the name ''Rodolfo Chikilicuatre'' and, as a thank you, played Buenafuente a

-style song named '' Baila el Chiki chiki.'' The piece was presumably composed by

Santiago Segura Santiago Segura Silva (born 17 July 1965) is a Spanish filmmaker and actor. He also worked to a lesser extent as a television presenter, voice actor and comic book writer, as well as being a collector of original comic books. At 12, he began ...

(lyrics) and

Pedro Guerra Pedro Manuel Guerra Mansito (born 2 June 1966), better known as Pedro Guerra, is a Spanish singer-songwriter. He originally performed under the name Pedro Manuel. Biography Pedro Manuel Guerra Mancito was born in Güímar, Tenerife, on June ...

(music), as reflected in many media outlets. The sketch was entirely a parody for the programme.

Eurovision Song Contest 2008 and "Baila el Chiki-chiki"

For the

, the Spanish broadcaster

RTVE The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española (''Spanish Radio and Television'', RTVE), is the Spanish national public Broadcasting, television and radio broadcaster. It is a state-owned enterprise f ...

decided to make the song selection process more democratic, so, in an agreement with

MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

, a webpage was created where the general public could vote for any of the artists who were interested in participating, possibly discovering new talents. Any aspiring singer could upload a video to enter the contest. The top 5 voted videos, along with 5 more entries selected by a jury, went to a televised final where the Spanish Eurovision Song Contest 2008 entry would be chosen. More than 530 songs were submitted, the comedic act of Rodolfo Chikilicuatre and his "Baila el Chiki-chiki" song among them. The song was heavily promoted by late night show ''Buenafuente'' and television channel

that aired the show, and ended up being selected by a landslide, earning 56.28% of the votes, well ahead of the runner-up, which earned only 14.6%. The winner was chosen through

text messaging Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile phones, tablet computers, smartwatches, desktops/laptops, or ...

. This selection was met with a certain degree of controversy, as many considered it a gimmick song, and not worthy of representing Spain. It also met controversy because Rodolfo Chikilicuatre was a comedic act, with no prior songs, and was backed by a particular show (''Buenafuente'') and a private broadcaster (LaSexta). RTVE stood by their choice of voting system. On March 11, 2008, Rodolfo announced some changes to the lyrics of his song to comply with the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest, thus removing partially the names of the politicians included in the song (

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (; born 4 August 1960) is a Spanish politician and member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He was the Prime Minister of Spain being elected for two terms, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections. O ...

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; ; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician, Bolivarian Revolution, revolutionary, and Officer (armed forces), military officer who served as the 52nd president of Venezuela from 1999 until De ...

and

Mariano Rajoy Mariano Rajoy Brey (, ; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a 2018 vote of no confidence in the government of Mariano Rajoy, vote of no confidence ousted his government. A m ...

). Even if Chávez's name was completely removed, a reference to a previous incident with Spanish King

Juan Carlos I Juan Carlos I (; Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, born 5 January 1938) is a member of the Spanish royal family who reigned as King of Spain from 22 November 1975 until Abdication of Juan Carlos I, his abdic ...

was kept. A non-political reference to Serbia was added. The song was also made longer, as the original was considered too short, going from 1:20 to 2:56 minutes, and several verses in English were added. The new version was presented on March 14, 2008.Eurovision 2008 site at RTVE
/ref> Rodolfo performed the "Chiki-chiki" theme with other singers: King Africa, Tata Golosa, Mojinos Escozios and

Dustin the Turkey Dustin the Turkey, a character performed by John Morrison is a former star of RTÉ television's '' The Den'' between 1989 and 2010 and from 2020. He has been described as "the most subversive comedy force on Irish television". A turkey vultur ...

. During the final contest of the Eurovision 2008 on May 24, 2008, the song "Baila el Chiki-chiki" reached sixteenth place with 55 points, tied with Albania.

Singles

References

External links

Official website archived in 2008, inactive as of 2012
(in Spanish)
TVE's Eurovision 2008 website
(in Spanish)
Eurovision's Spain country profileSite
at

Tumblr Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...

Pictures
at the

Flickr Flickr ( ) is an image hosting service, image and Online video platform, video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was previously a co ...

account of El Terrat producing company
Buenafuente website
(in Spanish)
LaSexta website
(in Spanish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Chikilicuatre, Rodolfo Living people Spanish satirists Fictional singers Comedy television characters Male characters in television Spanish television personalities Year of birth missing (living people) Eurovision Song Contest entrants ca:Rodolfo Chikilicuatre fr:Rodolfo Chikilicuatre gl:Rodolfo Chikilicuatre pl:Rodolfo Chikilicuatre pt:Rodolfo Chikilicuatre

Creation of the character

Eurovision Song Contest 2008 and "Baila el Chiki-chiki"

Singles

See also

References

External links