Cyprus Protesters Demand Withdrawal of Country’s Satanic Entry for Eurovision: “El Diablo”

The influence of music and movies on the human brain shouldn’t be underestimated.

AP:

Dozens of Orthodox Christian faithful held up wooden crosses and sang Church hymns outside of Cyprus’ state broadcaster on Saturday to demand the withdrawal of the country’s controversial entry for the Eurovision song contest — titled “El Diablo” — that they say promotes satanic worship.

Some of the protesters, including families, held up placards reading in Greek, “We’re protesting peacefully, no to El Diablo,” “Repent and return to Christ” and “Christ saves, Diablo kills.”

The broadcaster and the singer of the song insist it has been misinterprested and the song is actually about an abusive relationship between two lovers.

The protest came several days after the powerful Orthodox Church called for the withdrawal of the song that it said mocked the country’s moral foundations by advocating “our surrender to the devil and promoting his worship.”

The Holy Synod, the Church’s highest decision-making body, said in a statement that the song “essentially praises the fatalistic submission of humans to the devil’s authority” and urged the state broadcaster to replace it with one that “expresses our history, culture, traditions and our claims.”

Last week, police charged a man with uttering threats and causing a disturbance when he barged onto the grounds of the public broadcaster to protest what he condemned as a “blasphemous” song that was an affront to Christianity.

The state broadcaster insisted that the entry won’t be withdrawn, but its board chairman, Andreas Frangos, conceded that organizers should have done a better job explaining the core message of the song, whose lyrics include, “I gave my heart to el diablo…because he tells me I’m his angel.”

Even the Cypriot government waded into the controversy, with Presidential spokesman Viktoras Papadopoulos saying that although the views of dissenters are respected, the government cannot quash freedom of expression.

The Government fully respects creative intellectual and artistic freedom that cannot be misinterpreted or limited because of a song’s title, and unnecessary dimensions should not be attributed,” Papadopoulos said in a written statement.

If the singer says the song is about an abusive relationship between two lovers, it could still be about Satan and her.

Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt though, maybe the song is harmless.

It looks pretty demonic.

But maybe the lyrics are okay.

Lyrics:

(Intro)
I fell in love, I fell in love
I gave my heart to el diablo, el diablo
I gave it up, I gave it up
Because he tells me I’m his angel, I’m his angel

(Verse 1)
Tonight we gonna burn in a party
We wild as fire that’s on the loose
Hotter than siracha on our bodies
Ta-Taco tamale, yeah, that’s my mood
All this spicy melts my icy edges
Baby, it’s true
Tonight we gonna burn in a party
It’s Heaven in Hell with you

(Pre-Chorus)
Mama-mamacita, tell me what to do
Lo-la-lo-la-loca, I’m breaking the rules

(Chorus)
I fell in love, I fell in lovе
I gave my heart to el diablo, еl diablo
I gave it up, I gave it up
Because he tells me I’m his angel, I’m his angel
Oh-oh-oh, el diablo, el diablo
I fell in love, I fell in love
I gave my heart to el diablo, el diablo

(Verse 2)
Tonight we gonna dance in the moonlight
Droppin’ our lashes on the floor
Hair flip-flip, made you look twice
Touch me, touch me, mi amor
All this spicy melts my icy edges
Baby, for sure
Tonight we gonna dance in the moonlight
And then we gonna do it some more

(Bridge)
I love el diablo
I love el diablo
I love el diablo

(Outro)
I love el diablo
El diablo

Whoa, okay, yes. I see what the protesters mean.

It doesn’t matter what they say the song is about, what matters is what they are literally pronouncing when singing it, and they are pronouncing their love for the devil.

But I guess there just weren’t any other songs to choose from, so they had to use this one for Eurovision.