Was it unabashed love, high self-esteem or simply a desire to go viral that drove the wife of a small-town mayor to belt out a slightly off-key, self-penned song extolling her husband’s virtues? Theories have abounded since Michelle Van Gaalen’s tribute to her husband, Ángel Nozal, was uploaded to the web on Wednesday by the People’s party of Mijas, Spain, where Nozal is campaigning for re-election as mayor in May.
Written to the tune of Resistiré, a 1987 hit by the Spanish group Dúo Dinámico, Van Gaalen’s re-worked version – which she sang at a recent meeting of the party faithful – includes lyrics such as “thank you for those new roundabouts” and “you’ve treated everyone equally”.
“You’ve created an amazing Mijas. You’ve cleaned up beaches, the mountains and the city … I want you as mayor for four more years,” she sings, going on to praise him for lowering taxes, creating more parking spaces and laying asphalt on the roads.
As the video racks up tens of thousands of hits online, many in Spain have revelled in attempting to explain Van Gaalen’s motivations. “One would have to be very out of it, or have really high self-esteem to dare to do what Michelle did,” wrote one blogger for Publico.es. “To turn the song I Will Resist into I Will Repeat, then to allow it to be recorded and uploaded to YouTube. And then to continue living in your town without changing your identity or entering into a witness protection programme in Iowa.”
El Mundo chalked it up to the need for political parties to embrace social media. “Given the success of emerging parties like Podemos, this is the new motto that the Spanish political class must impose on themselves … with no fear of being seen as ridiculous,” the newspaper said.
Others turned to Van Gaalen’s husband for an explanation. “As the election campaign is tough and the perception people have of politicians isn’t good, she wanted to encourage and motivate me,” the Mijas mayor told the Efe news agency, stressing that his wife had never written a song or sung solo in public before.
