It could not have been, but they have stayed close: rooms in the final. He Official Contest of Carnival Groups (COAC) de Cádiz ended on Saturday morning, after a long and fun session at the Great Falla Theater of Cádiz after which they have announced the winning groups of 2023. Los mi alma, the chirigota del Bizcocho and in which he has participated this year Jose Yelamoa journalist from Cádiz and presenter of laSexta Xplica, have been at the top of the list of favorites throughout the contest, but finally they have remained in fourth position.

Despite not having been first in the final, it is already a great success to make the leap they have made compared to COAC 2022, when they did not go beyond the semifinal. The hard effort they have made this year has made them the fourth best chirigota of the year and they are more than proud of their position. yélamo, who has participated in this chirigota for the first time, assures that he will always keep this experience in his heart. “It has been the most intense and beautiful experience of my life, every time I remember everything I went through last night tears come to my eyes”, he has confessed emotionally. For the journalist “the best is yet to come”, in reference to the reception they will have on the streets of Cádiz this Sunday. “That’s going to be tremendous,” he says.

The road to the end in the Great Rift

The truth is It has not been easy for the presenter from Cádiz getting to where he has done it: although it is his first time participating in the COAC, and he has done it in style, it has cost him dearly, especially in time and work. Since the last week of September, Yélamo had to go down “every week to rehearse” to San José de Rinconada, in Seville, where this chirigota is from. “It’s a very big sacrifice. It’s exhausting…”, she said, still in the preliminaries phase, when they had only acted for one day.

Yélamo had always wanted to participate in the COAC —”I am a picao Of the carnival since I was little”, he assured laSexta.com at the beginning of the contest, but he had never had the opportunity. Born in Cádiz, the journalist had to leave the city when he was still very young, at 16 or 17 years old, and live far from Cádiz did not make it easy for him.The rail connections between Madrid and the Andalusian capital of carnival They are not the best and having professional obligations during the week makes going to rehearsals not easy.

But then the plan came up… why not accompany Bizcocho from Seville? the chirigota of Antonio Álvarez is from San José de la Rinconada, and Seville does have good train connections with Madrid. This was added to two other factors: a good friend of Yélamo —Juanmi, “whom I love very much”— was a member of this chirigota; and the other, the lyrics of their repertoires. “Bizcocho’s humor is black, it has a very intelligent double meaning. It’s what I like the most about him, I think It is an oxygen ball for the chirigotasin need of the type of humor that he does”, he explained to laSexta.com proudly. “The truth is that his chirigota met all the conditions and they have also made it very easy for me,” he thanked.

Once the Carnival started, everything went smoothly: although the official scores are not released until the contest ends, the unofficial and alternative juries publish the points they give to all the groups in each phase, making their COAC own classifications. In all phases, Los mi alma have been far ahead of the others. Their lyrics, their music, their staging, their ghost costumes and everything have brought them here.