Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest

Spain
Participating broadcaster	RTVE
Participation summary
Appearances	53
First appearance	1961
Highest placement	1st: 1968, 1969
External links
TVE page

Spain debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961, finishing 9th. Since 1999, Spain is one of the "Big Five" (along with France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy) and therefore automatically allowed to participate in the final because they are the five biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union.

Spain has won the contest twice, first in 1968 with the song "La, la, la" sung by Massiel and second one year later, when Salomé's "Vivo cantando" was involved in a four way tie with Lulu's "Boom Bang-a-Bang", representing the United Kingdom, Frida Boccara's "Un jour, un enfant", representing France, and Lennie Kuhr's "De troubadour"", representing the Netherlands. Spain has only hosted the contest once, in 1969, since lots were drawn after 1969's four way tie, and the contest was hosted by the Netherlands.

Spain has competed in the contest continuously since the country's debut in 1961, having already appeared in 52 consecutive contests. The only country with a longer run of uninterrupted Eurovision appearances is the United Kingdom, ever-present since 1959.

Spain was represented in the 50th anniversary special of Eurovision Congratulations by their 1973 entrants Mocedades, singing the song "Eres tú". The song had made it into the top 14 for the special after being selected in an online vote by the voting public across Europe.

Selection process

Between 1977 and 1999, Spain's entries were selected internally by TVE. Before that, internal selections and national contests, like Pasaporte a Dublín (Passport to Dublin) in 1971, were alternated. From 2000, Spain has used various selection formats with different results. In 2000 and 2001, TVE organized a national preselection show called Eurocanción (Eurosong), where the Spanish representative was selected for the contest. From 2002 to 2004, the reality show Operación Triunfo (the Spanish version of Star Academy) was used to select the entry, a format that renewed the Spanish audience's interest in the contest and brought three top 10 results in a row, until TVE decided not to host any further editions of the show. In 2005, the national final Eurovisión 2005: Elige nuestra canción (Eurovision 2005: Choose Our Song) was organized, where the audience chose their favorite song among a pre-selection made by TVE of unknown artists submitted to them by record labels. The result in the Eurovision final was not good and for 2006, the selection was made internally for the first time since 1999, with a similar result. In 2007, Spain's entry was decided through the Misión Eurovisión 2007 show, with a disappointing result once again.

From 2008 to 2010, the Internet was the key element of the competitions used by TVE to select the Spanish entry. In 2008, the social networking website MySpace was involved in the national final Salvemos Eurovisión (Let's Save Eurovision). A website was created to make it possible for anyone to upload a song and proceed to a televised final if chosen by online voters or an expert jury. The result improved a little, but not much; nevertheless the interest of the Spanish audience was revived again. For 2009, MySpace was still involved in the selection process Eurovisión 2009: El retorno (Eurovision 2009: The Return), although some changes were introduced in the format. The result was the worst in the 2000s (decade): 24th place. In 2010, a similar format, Eurovisión: Destino Oslo, selected the Spanish entry, with the best result since 2004 (15th).

In 2011, Internet voting was scrapped from the new selection method Destino Eurovisión. After a further disappointing result (23rd), for 2012, TVE decided to approach an established act, Pastora Soler, and organize a national final to select her song. A top ten result was achieved for the first time since 2004. The same procedure was repeated in 2013, with El Sueño de Morfeo as the established act, which turned out one of the most disappointing results (25th out of 26 entries) in the country's Eurovision history; some critics, however, blamed a less-than-stellar performance of an otherwise solid song.

Spain and the "Big Five"

Since 1999, four particular countries have automatically qualified for the Eurovision final, regardless of their positions on the scoreboard in previous Contests. They earned this special status by being the four biggest financial contributors to the EBU (without which the production of the Eurovision Song Contest would not be possible). These countries are the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain. Due to their untouchable status in the Contest, these countries became known as the "Big Four". Italy returned to the contest in 2011, thus becoming part of a "Big Five".

Interrupted performances

Only three times in the contest's history has a non-winning entry been allowed to perform again, and in two of these instances, the entries in question were Spanish representatives (the other one being the Italian entry in 1958, "Nel blu dipinto di blu" by Domenico Modugno). The first time this happened to a Spanish representative was in the 1990 contest in Zagreb, when Azúcar Moreno opened the contest with the song "Bandido." The orchestra and the recorded playback began the song out of sync, which caused the singers to miss their cue. The singers left the stage after a few seconds, and no explanation was given at the time. After a few uneasy moments, the music began correctly and the song was performed in full. Azúcar Moreno and "Bandido" went on to place fifth in the final vote tally, though the juries at the time actually awarded their points after watching the dress rehearsal performances, so the restart did not affect Spain's overall result either positively or negatively.

Twenty years later, at the 2010 contest in Oslo, Spain was drawn to perform second in the running order, and singer Daniel Diges's performance of "Algo pequeñito" was disturbed by notorious pitch invader Jimmy Jump. However, Diges performed the song in full, despite the invader's intrusion and subsequent removal from the stage by security personnel, receiving warm applause for continuing from the spectators at the Telenor Arena. After the exhibition of Serbia, co-presenter Nadia Hasnaoui announced that, according to the rules, Diges would be given a second chance once all the remaining countries had performed. Nonetheless, the juries ranked the dress-rehearsal performance of "Algo pequeñito" 20th out of 25 with 43 points, whereas the televoting results ranked Spain 12th, with 106 points. The combination of jury and televote results gave Spain a 15th-place.

Contestants

Year	Artist	Language	Title	Final	Points	Semi	Points
1961	Conchita Bautista	Spanish	"Estando contigo" (Being with You)	9	8	—	—
1962	Victor Balaguer	Spanish	"Llámame" (Call me)	13	0
1963	José Guardiola	Spanish	"Algo prodigioso" (Something Wonderful)	12	2
1964	Nelly, Tim & Tony	Spanish	"Caracola" (Seashell)	12	1
1965	Conchita Bautista	Spanish	"Qué bueno, qué bueno" (So Good, So Good)	15	0
1966	Raphael	Spanish	"Yo soy aquél" (I Am That One)	7	9
1967		Spanish	"Hablemos del amor" (Let's Talk About Love)	6	9
1968	Massiel	Spanish	"La, la, la"	1	29
1969	Salomé	Spanish	"Vivo cantando" (I Live Singing)	1	18
1970	Julio Iglesias	Spanish	"Gwendolyne"	4	8
1971	Karina	Spanish	"En un mundo nuevo" (In a New World)	2	116
1972	Jaime Morey	Spanish	"Amanece" (It's Dawning)	10	83
1973	Mocedades	Spanish	"Eres tú" (It's You)	2	125
1974	Peret	Spanish	"Canta y sé feliz" (Sing and Be Happy)	9	10
1975	Sergio y Estíbaliz	Spanish	"Tú volverás" (You Will Return)	10	53
1976	Braulio	Spanish	"Sobran las palabras" (You Don't Need Words)	16	11
1977	Micky	Spanish	"Enséñame a cantar" (Teach Me How to Sing)	9	52
1978	José Vélez	Spanish, French	"Bailemos un vals" (Let's Waltz)	9	65
1979	Betty Missiego	Spanish	"Su canción" (Your Song)	2	116
1980	Trigo Limpio	Spanish	"Quédate esta noche" (Stay this Night)	12	38
1981	Bacchelli	Spanish	"Y sólo tú" (And Only You)	14	38
1982	Lucía	Spanish	"Él" (He)	10	52
1983	Remedios Amaya	Spanish	"¿Quién maneja mi barca?" (Who's Steering my Boat?)	19	0
1984	Bravo	Spanish	"Lady, Lady"	3	106
1985	Paloma San Basilio	Spanish	"La fiesta terminó" (The Party is Over)	14	36
1986	Cadillac	Spanish	"Valentino"	10	51
1987	Patricia Kraus	Spanish	"No estás solo" (You Are Not Alone)	19	10
1988	La Década Prodigiosa	Spanish, English	"La chica que yo quiero (Made in Spain)" (The Girl That I Love)	11	58
1989	Nina	Spanish	"Nacida para amar" (Born to Love)	6	88
1990	Azúcar Moreno	Spanish	"Bandido" (Bandit)	5	96
1991	Sergio Dalma	Spanish	"Bailar pegados" (Dancing Closely)	4	119
1992	Serafín Zubiri	Spanish	"Todo esto es la música" (All of This is Music)	14	37
1993	Eva Santamaría	Spanish	"Hombres" (Men)	11	58
1994	Alejandro Abad	Spanish	"Ella no es ella" (She's not Her)	18	17
1995	Anabel Conde	Spanish	"Vuelve conmigo" (Come Back to Me)	2	119
1996	Antonio Carbonell	Spanish	"¡Ay, qué deseo!" (Oh, Such Desire!)	20	17	14	43
1997	Marcos Llunas	Spanish	"Sin rencor" (No Ill Feelings)	6	96	—	—
1998	Mikel Herzog	Spanish	"¿Qué voy a hacer sin ti?" (What Will I Do Without You?)	16	21
1999	Lydia	Spanish	"No quiero escuchar" (I Don't Want to Listen)	23	1
2000	Serafín Zubiri	Spanish	"Colgado de un sueño" (Hanging From a Dream)	18	18
2001	David Civera	Spanish	"Dile que la quiero" (Tell Her I Love Her)	6	76
2002	Rosa	Spanish	"Europe's Living a Celebration"	7	81
2003	Beth	Spanish	"Dime" (Tell Me)	8	81
2004	Ramón	Spanish	"Para llenarme de ti" (To Get Filled With You)	10	87
2005	Son de Sol	Spanish	"Brujería" (Witchcraft)	21	28
2006	Las Ketchup	Spanish	"Un Blodymary" (A Bloody Mary)	21	18
2007	D'NASH	Spanish	"I Love You Mi Vida" (I Love You My life)	20	43
2008	Rodolfo Chikilicuatre	Spanish	"Baila el Chiki-chiki" (Dance the Chicki-Chicki)	16	55
2009	Soraya Arnelas	Spanish, English	"La noche es para mí" (The Night Is For Me)	24	23
2010	Daniel Diges	Spanish	"Algo pequeñito" (Something Tiny)	15	68
2011	Lucía Pérez	Spanish	"Que me quiten lo bailao" (They Can't Take the Fun Away from Me)	23	50
2012	Pastora Soler	Spanish	"Quédate conmigo" (Stay With Me)	10	97
2013	El Sueño de Morfeo	Spanish	"Contigo hasta el final" (With You Until the End)	25	8

Voting history

As of 2013, Spain's voting history is as follows:

Most points given in the grand finals only
Rank	Country	Points
1	Germany	224
2	Italy	168
3	Portugal	154
4	United Kingdom	149
5	Ireland	146

Most points given in the semis and finals
Rank	Country	Points
1	Germany	224
2	Portugal	193
3	Greece	170
4	Italy	168
5	Ireland	152

Most points received
Rank	Country	Points
1	Portugal	187
2	Switzerland	157
3	France	155
4	Belgium	138
5	Greece	137

Hostings

Year	Location	Venue	Presenter
1969	Madrid	Teatro Real	Laura Valenzuela

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Further information: Marcel Bezençon Awards

Fan Award

Year	Performer	Song	Final Result	Points	Host city
2003	Beth	"Dime"	8th	81	Riga

Commentators and spokespersons

Since the 1969 Contest TVE commentary was provided by television presenter José Luis Uribarri. With the exceptions of 1971-1973, 1977–1991, 2004–2007 and 2009. Uribarri provided the coverage for the contest on 19 occasions between the 1969 and 2010 Contest and was regarded as "the voice of Eurovision". It was confirmed on 8 February 2011 that Uribarri would not return to commentate on the 2011 Contest and on 2 March 2011 it was announced that television and radio presenter José María Íñigo would fulfill the role as Spanish commentator.

Year(s)	Commentator	Spokesperson
1961	Federico Gallo	Diego Ramírez Pastor
1962
1963		Julio Rico
1964
1965		Pepe Palau
1966		Blanca Álvarez
1967
1968		Joaquín Prat
1969	José Luis Uribarri
1970
1971	Joaquín Prat	No spokesperson
1972	Julio Rico
1973
1974	José Luis Uribarri	Antolín García
1975		José María Íñigo
1976
1977	Miguel de los Santos	Isabel Tenaille
1978		Matías Prats Luque
1979		Manuel Almendros
1980		Alfonso Lapeña
1981		Isabel Tenaille
1982		Marisa Naranjo
1983	José-Miguel Ullán	Rosa Campano
1984		Matilde Jarrín
1985	Antonio Gómez
1986
1987	Beatriz Pécker
1988
1989	Tomás Fernando Flores
1990	Luis Cobos
1991	Tomás Fernando Flores	María Ángeles Balañac
1992	José Luis Uribarri
1993
1994
1995		Belén Fernández de Henestrosa
1996
1997
1998
1999		Hugo de Campos
2000
2001		Jennifer Rope
2002		Anne Igartiburu
2003
2004	Beatriz Pécker
2005		Ainhoa Arbizu
2006		Sonia Ferrer
2007		Ainhoa Arbizu
2008	José Luis Uribarri
2009	Joaquín Guzmán	Iñaki del Moral
2010	José Luis Uribarri	Ainhoa Arbizu
2011	José María Íñigo	Elena S. Sánchez
2012
2013		Inés Paz

Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest

Further information: Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest

Artist	Title	Place	Points	Year	Place	Points
Mocedades	"Eres tú"	11	90	1973	2	125

Photogallery

• 
  Conchita Bautista at Naples Eurovision Song Contest 1965
• 
  Julio Iglesias at Amsterdam Eurovision Song Contest 1970
• 
  Ramón at Istanbul Eurovision Song Contest 2004
• 
  D'NASH at Helsinki Eurovision Song Contest 2007
• 
  Rodolfo Chikilicuatre at Belgrade Eurovision Song Contest 2008
• 
  El Sueño de Morfeo at Malmö Eurovision Song Contest 2013

See also

• Spain in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
• Spain in the Eurovision Dance Contest

External links

• Points to and from Spain eurovisioncovers.co.uk