Corina Mrazek González has been crowned the Queen of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Carnival 2024. After a show of more than two and a half hours, the votes from the official jury and the public were decisive in awarding the crown to Corina Mrazek González, the contestant representing the Añaza Carrefour Shopping Center with a design by Santi Castro titled The World.
And the young has a court of honor that will accompany her in this reign. Lucía Hernández Alonso is the First Lady of Honour, thanks to a design by Alexis Santana named The Birth of Venus to represent McDonald’s and El Día – La Opinión de Tenerife.
The second Lady of Honour is Anikirian Idariana Marcano Cartagena, who showcased the Euforia design by Jorge González Santana to represent the Arona City Council while the third Lady of Honour is Nancy González Bethencourt, with the Joan of Arc design by Juan Carlos Armas to represent Dormitorum and The Taste for Wine.
The court of honor is completed by the fourth lady, Rosalva Morales Benítez, representing Repsol Grupo González Canarias and showcasing a design by Yanira and Cristian Santana named Zibá.
Corina Mrazek, Queen of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Carnival / Andrés Gutiérrez
The Spectacle Plunges with an Overload of Joint Performances
The show began with an exaltation of Carnival, a poetry of wit thanks to the mastery of scriptwriter Abraham Gómez and defended by his brother, the comedian Aarón. The beginning was a declaration of love for the Carnival, but when the third and final block of candidates finished, it turned into a variety show from the television of the late XX century. A comparsa, then another, and another, and another… Too much overload of comparsas.
The promising start was diluted with so many comparsas. And another comparsa came out. Some of them danced better in the show than in their contest. The show’s director, Jep Meléndez, struggled with the opening, which ended up causing disappointment by generating expectations that were not met. And to add insult to injury, he lost control of the timing. The timer went half an hour off, Mónica Naranjo left without an encore…
The Parade
The first to parade, Náyade Martín, with a fantasy by David Hernández that highlighted the back, however… the second candidate, Corina Mrazek, from Azaña Carrefour Shopping Center and a favorite to win the crown. The dress, a magnificent creation by Santi Castro. If she won, she would enter the ‘club of magnificent designers’ reserved for those who have achieved three consecutive crowns. A spectacular dress.
Like a candidate dress from the seventies, when the comparsas were presented, Isabel Ávila paraded in a creation by Creaciones Santana, paving the way for another favorite. Another favorite arrived with McDonald’s and EL DÍA-La Opinión de Tenerife, with Alexis Santana debuting a new sponsor and budget to create a costume without limitations. And the costume seemed like a giant figure of Bohemia, encrusted. A work of art and a lot of effect to recreate The Birth of Venus with which they closed the first block.
Without respite… Second block of candidates.
The first walk surprised with the quality in the one-on-one between Santi Castro and Alexis Santana, who raised the bar; and the new generation is making a strong impression with the fantasy of Cristian Santana, sponsored by Repsol ‘La Chasnera’ which marked its high-profile debut, considering that he had already won the title of adult queen in 2018. Next, in a sweet tradition, the representation of RP Designs followed.
Jorge González Santana came to reaffirm himself with a fantasy that grew as it turned on stage, transitioning from yellow to red and maroon to end in yellow. A beautiful effect with which Jorge González asserted himself, winner of adult queens in 2015, 2017, and 2018. Perhaps the choice of music with the song Tatoo did not match the splendid costume.
The block closed with the candidate with a design from the Carnival Association Nira where Arganda Lorenzo burst onto the stage with one of the most striking structures of all that had paraded up to that point, and, moreover, innovating the use of brown in the color palette of queens’ costumes.
Joint performance of musical groups, directed by Juani Febles for the second year.–>Sequentially to make way for the third and final block of aspirants, the representative of Alcampo took the lead, leaving behind Sedomir Rodríguez de la Sierra -presenting in Las Palmas this year, not in Santa Cruz- to bet on Eduardo Martín Quintero. He returns to the gala after five years with a fantasy that incorporates movement in one of the arcs of the costume, which gets lost among other feather structures. It shook with the lateral elements and the rear pyramid.
Next was Saida Prieto, who has already surpassed the stage fright in the galas because this is her third time participating. She showcased the best fantasy ever made by Jonathan Suárez, including Pasodoble Islas Canarias. What a surprise with Jonathan Suárez.
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Home Stretch
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While the jury began deliberating to choose the queen, the representative of Hogar Canario Venezolana paraded with Carnival characters, while Elvis Sanfiel paid tribute to Miss Peggy and Chiquito de la Calzada, the latter who passed away last January.
The gala came to a halt. A video summary of the eleven candidates was projected for the audience to refresh their memory before voting by phone. And then, the comparsas. One after another, a brief summary of their contest. Rhythm on the stage, but the gala turned into a variety show. The same magic of the opening turned into bad taste in some jokes and in including the drag reference, especially when it took time away from the winning murga Los Bambones, which nailed a historic year, to include ‘that’… The show threatened to collapse.
The charm of the opening was forgotten, as evidenced by the same Equipo C, which took to the stage and brought a drag queen, which was not quite appropriate at the Carnival Queen gala of Santa Cruz. However, the same team that rattles off names of Carnival groups errs in trying to be humorous when making Kike Pérez say “the queen doesn’t need a scepter because she already has it incorporated”…
With the gala transformed into a variety show after the candidates’ parade, it was time to regain composure so that the opening was not an oasis of quality, alongside the exquisite designs of the candidates claiming their spotlight.
QUEEN ELECTION GALA OF THE SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE CARNIVAL / Ramón de la Rocha
Tonny Tun Tun appeared among the audience and with his medley of songs, made the devoted fairground crowd dance to ‘Saturday Night’ at this Wednesday’s gala. Jep Meléndez showed that he is a versatile director, as he could touch the sky with the opening and then plunge into the depths of the sea with the repetition, for the second time, of the summary of the candidates’ parade.
Second block of comparsas. It didn’t seem like the Carnival had so many comparsas until this Wednesday’s gala. The director does not hide his preference for the dance and party corps… a pity that it did not appear in a murga, to avoid leaving Bambones without immortalizing some of the best repertoire of this category in the last twenty years. A repeated note; just as repeated was the second block of comparsas.
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The third block of aspirants ended and Jep Meléndez lost control of the timing, accumulating a twenty-minute delay from the scheduled timing. And another comparsa. And another. And another, giving time to remember the bad taste of the joke with the risk of trivializing the opening if it hadn’t lasted for 20 minutes.
In an attempt to bring sanity back to the gala, a carousel with the eleven queen title candidates, amidst cheers and shouts of queen for the representative of Santi Castro, Alexis Santana, and especially, Jorge González Santana. ‘Euphoria’.
To conclude, Jep Meléndez entrusted Mónica Naranjo, who performed two songs: ‘Pantera en libertad’ and ‘Sobreviviré’, the latter more as a wish to salvage the night.
