La Década Prodigiosa

La D├®cada Prodigiosa (English: The Prodigious Decade), also known as La D├®cada, is a Spanish music group formed in the mid-eighties that participated in the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest. La D├®cada Prodigiosa came up in 1985 as a project directed by Javier de Juan (drums), Manel Santisteban (piano) and Manuel Aguilar (bass) to produce an album of medleys of popular Spanish songs from the sixties. Several session singers collaborated in this first album, "Los A├▒os 60, Vol. I". Due to the success of the album, a band of eight members was formed in 1986 for the second album ("Los a├▒os 60, Vol. II"): Manolo Rodr├¡guez, Cecilia Blanco, Ana Nery, Carmelo Mart├¡nez and Jose Subiza joined the three creators. The band toured Spain with their own show. In 1988, La D├®cada was internally chosen by broadcaster TVE to represent Spain at the 33rd Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin with one of their first original songs, "La chica que yo quiero (Made in Spain)". As only six people were allowed on stage by EBU rules, Javier de Juan directed the orchestra and Manolo Rodr├¡guez stayed backstage. La D├®cada finished eleventh out of 21 entries.