Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest

Spain
Member station	Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE)
National selection events	National final 1961–1962 1964–1965 1969 (song) 1970 1971 (artist) 1976 1979 2000–2001 2005 2007–2011 2012–2013 (song) 2014 2016–2017 2021 (song) Operación Triunfo 2002–2004 2018–2019 Benidorm Fest 2022 Internal selection 1963 1966–1968 1969 (artist) 1971 (song) 1972–1975 1977–1978 1980–1999 2006 2012–2013 (artist) 2015 2020 2021 (artist)
Participation summary
Appearances	60
Host	1969
First appearance	1961
Highest placement	1st: 1968, 1969
Nul points	1962, 1965, 1983
External links
TVE page
Spain's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022

Spain has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 60 times since making its debut in 1961, where they finished ninth. Since 1999, Spain has been one of the "Big Five" countries, along with France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, that are automatically prequalified for the final each year as they are the biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Spain has competed in the contest continuously since the country's debut in 1961. The only country with a longer run of uninterrupted Eurovision appearances is the United Kingdom, ever-present since 1959.

Spain has won the contest twice, first in 1968 with the song "La, la, la" sung by Massiel and again in 1969, when Salomé's "Vivo cantando" was involved in a four-way tie with France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The 1969 contest in Madrid is the only time Spain has hosted the event, since lots were drawn after 1969's four-way tie and the 1970 contest was hosted by the Netherlands. Spain has also finished second in the contest four times, with Karina in 1971, Mocedades in 1973, Betty Missiego in 1979 and Anabel Conde in 1995, and third in 1984 with Bravo. The country finished last with nul points three times: in 1962, 1965 and 1983, and also finished last in 1999 and 2017.

Since 2005, Spain has only twice reached the top 10, with both Pastora Soler (2012) and Ruth Lorenzo (2014) finishing 10th, and has now failed to reach the top 20 in 10 of the last 16 contests, including for six consecutive contests (2015–21). Spain is the current participating country with the longest active victory drought, with a total of 52 years (1969–2021).

Selection process[]

Spain has regularly changed the selection process used in order to find the country's entry for the contest, either a national final or internal selection (sometimes a combination of both formats) has been held by the broadcaster at the time. 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.^[1]

From 2000, Spain has used various selection formats with different results. In 2000 and 2001, TVE organised a national final called Eurocanción (Eurosong), where the Spanish representative was selected for the contest.^[2] From 2002 to 2004, the reality television talent competition 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^[3] and brought three top 10 results in a row, until TVE decided not to host any further editions of the series. In 2005, the national final Eurovisión 2005: Elige nuestra canción (Eurovision 2005: Choose Our Song) was organised, where the audience chose their favourite 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.^[3] 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.^[4] 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).^[5]

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 organise a national final to select her song.^[6] 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.^[7] In 2014, TVE decided to return to a multi-artist national final procedure, called Mira quién va a Eurovisión (Look who's going to Eurovision); five artists were invited to participate by TVE. A top ten result was achieved for the second time in three years.

In 2015, for the first time since 2006, both the artist, Edurne, and the song were selected internally by TVE. On 18 December 2015, TVE announced that it would organise a national final in order to select the Spanish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. Six acts competed in the national final named Objetivo Eurovisión, and Barei won the selection process. The same format was used in 2017, and Manel Navarro won the selection process; it turned out Spain's first last-place result since 1999.

In 2017, TVE commissioned a new season of Operación Triunfo, which returned to TVE after 13 years, and the series served for the fourth time (after 2002, 2003 and 2004) as the platform to select the Spanish entry for the 2018 contest.^[8][9] The result was disappointing (23rd out of 26 entries), but the 2018 Eurovision final was the most-watched in Spain since 2008.^[10] A further season of the talent show chose the Spanish entry for the 2019 contest with another disappointing result (22nd out of 26 entries).^[11]

For the 2020 contest, TVE selected the Spanish entry internally, with Blas Cantó and the song "Universo" chosen.^[12] Following the cancellation of the contest due to the COVID-19 pandemic, TVE was one of the first four broadcasters (the other were Greece's ERT, Netherlands' AVROTROS and Ukraine's UA:PBC) that confirmed its participation for the 2021 edition with the same artist who would have participated for 2020, in this case Cantó.^[13] His 2021 entry "Voy a quedarme" went on to finish in 24th place with 6 points, marking the sixth time in a row that Spain has finished outside of the top 20.

For the 2022 contest, it was announced that TVE would use Benidorm Fest, a revamped version of the Benidorm International Song Festival to select the nation's entry among 13 candidates.^[14][15][16] The broadcaster signed a contract with the regional government of the Valencian Community to hold the event for four editions.^[17]

Spain and the "Big Five"[]

Since 1999, Spain, along with France, Germany and the United Kingdom, have automatically qualified for the Eurovision final regardless of their results in previous contests.^[18] These countries earned this special status by being the four biggest financial contributors to the EBU, and subsequently became known as the "Big Four". Italy returned to the contest in 2011, thus upgrading the countries to members of a "Big Five".^[19]

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 Daniel Diges's performance of "Algo pequeñito" was disturbed by notorious Catalan 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.

Participation overview[]

Table key

1	Winner
2	Second place
3	Third place
◁	Last place
X	Entry selected but did not compete
†	Upcoming

Year	Entrant	Song	Language	Final	Points	Semi	Points
1961	Conchita Bautista	"Estando contigo"	Spanish	9	8	No semi-finals
1962	Víctor Balaguer	"Llámame"	Spanish	13 ◁	0
1963	José Guardiola	"Algo prodigioso"	Spanish	12	2
1964	Tim, Nelly and Tony	"Caracola"	Spanish	12	1
1965	Conchita Bautista	"¡Qué bueno, qué bueno!"	Spanish	15 ◁	0
1966	Raphael	"Yo soy aquél"	Spanish	7	9
1967	Raphael	"Hablemos del amor"	Spanish	6	9
1968	Massiel	"La, la, la"	Spanish	1	29
1969	Salomé	"Vivo cantando"	Spanish	1	18
1970	Julio Iglesias	"Gwendolyne"	Spanish	4	8
1971	Karina	"En un mundo nuevo"	Spanish	2	116
1972	Jaime Morey	"Amanece"	Spanish	10	83
1973	Mocedades	"Eres tú"	Spanish	2	125
1974	Peret	"Canta y sé feliz"	Spanish	9	10
1975	Sergio and Estíbaliz	"Tú volverás"	Spanish	10	53
1976	Braulio	"Sobran las palabras"	Spanish	16	11
1977	Micky	"Enséñame a cantar"	Spanish	9	52
1978	José Vélez	"Bailemos un vals"	Spanish, French	9	65
1979	Betty Missiego	"Su canción"	Spanish	2	116
1980	Trigo Limpio	"Quédate esta noche"	Spanish	12	38
1981	Bacchelli	"Y sólo tú"	Spanish	14	38
1982	Lucía	"Él"	Spanish	10	52
1983	Remedios Amaya	"¿Quién maneja mi barca?"	Spanish	19 ◁	0
1984	Bravo	"Lady, Lady"	Spanish	3	106
1985	Paloma San Basilio	"La fiesta terminó"	Spanish	14	36
1986	Cadillac	"Valentino"	Spanish	10	51
1987	Patricia Kraus	"No estás solo"	Spanish	19	10
1988	La Década	"La chica que yo quiero (Made in Spain)"	Spanish	11	58
1989	Nina	"Nacida para amar"	Spanish	6	88
1990	Azúcar Moreno	"Bandido"	Spanish	5	96
1991	Sergio Dalma	"Bailar pegados"	Spanish	4	119
1992	Serafín	"Todo esto es la música"	Spanish	14	37
1993	Eva Santamaría	"Hombres"	Spanish	11	58	Kvalifikacija za Millstreet
1994	Alejandro Abad	"Ella no es ella"	Spanish	18	17	No semi-finals
1995	Anabel Conde	"Vuelve conmigo"	Spanish	2	119
1996	Antonio Carbonell	"¡Ay, qué deseo!"	Spanish	20	17	14	43
1997	Marcos Llunas	"Sin rencor"	Spanish	6	96	No semi-finals
1998	Mikel Herzog	"¿Qué voy a hacer sin ti?"	Spanish	16	21
1999	Lydia	"No quiero escuchar"	Spanish	23 ◁	1
2000	Serafín Zubiri	"Colgado de un sueño"	Spanish	18	18
2001	David Civera	"Dile que la quiero"	Spanish	6	76
2002	Rosa	"Europe's Living a Celebration"	Spanish, English	7	81
2003	Beth	"Dime"	Spanish	8	81
2004	Ramón	"Para llenarme de ti"	Spanish	10	87	Member of the "Big 4"
2005	Son de Sol	"Brujería"	Spanish	21	28
2006	Las Ketchup	"Bloody Mary"	Spanish	21	18
2007	D'Nash	"I Love You Mi Vida"	Spanish, English	20	43
2008	Rodolfo Chikilicuatre	"Baila el Chiki Chiki"	Spanish, English	16	55
2009	Soraya Arnelas	"La noche es para mí"	Spanish, English	24	23
2010	Daniel Diges	"Algo pequeñito"	Spanish	15	68
2011	Lucía Pérez	"Que me quiten lo bailao"	Spanish	23	50	Member of the "Big 5"
2012	Pastora Soler	"Quédate conmigo"	Spanish	10	97
2013	ESDM	"Contigo hasta el final"	Spanish	25	8
2014	Ruth Lorenzo	"Dancing in the Rain"	English, Spanish	10	74
2015	Edurne	"Amanecer"	Spanish	21	15
2016	Barei	"Say Yay!"	English	22	77
2017	Manel Navarro	"Do It for Your Lover"	Spanish, English	26 ◁	5
2018	Amaia and Alfred	"Tu canción"	Spanish	23	61
2019	Miki	"La venda"	Spanish	22	54
2020	Blas Cantó	"Universo"	Spanish	Contest cancelled[a] X
2021	Blas Cantó	"Voy a quedarme"	Spanish	24	6	Member of the "Big 5"
2022	Chanel	"SloMo"	Spanish, English	Upcoming †
2023	Confirmed intention to participate †[20]

Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest[]

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

Entrant	Language	Song	At Congratulations				At Eurovision
			Final	Points	Semi	Points	Year	Place	Points
Mocedades	Spanish	"Eres tú"	Failed to qualify		11	90	1973	2	125

Hostings[]

Year	Location	Venue	Presenter
1969	Madrid	Teatro Real	Laura Valenzuela

Awards[]

Marcel Bezençon Awards[]

Year	Category	Performer	Song	Final	Points	Host city	Ref.
2003	Fan Award	Beth	"Dime"	8	81	Riga	[21]

Barbara Dex Award[]

Year	Performer	Host city	Ref.
1999	Lydia	Jerusalem	[22]

Related involvement[]

Conductors[]

Year	Conductor[b]	Notes	Ref.
1961	Rafael Ferrer		[23]
1962	Jean Roderes	[c]
1963	Rafael Ibarbia
1964
1965	Adolfo Ventas
1966	Rafael Ibarbia
1967	Manuel Alejandro
1968	Rafael Ibarbia
1969	Augusto Algueró	[d]
1970			[24]
1971	Waldo de los Rios	[e]
1972	Augusto Algueró
1973	Juan Carlos Calderón
1974	Rafael Ibarbia	[f]
1975	Juan Carlos Calderón
1976	Joan Barcons
1977	Rafael Ibarbia
1978	Ramón Arcusa
1979	José Luis Navarro
1980	Javier Iturraide		[25]
1981	Joan Barcons
1982	Miguel Ángel Varona
1983	José Miguel Évora
1984	Eddy Guerin
1985	Juan Carlos Calderón
1986	Eduardo Leiva
1987
1988	Javier de Juan
1989	Juan Carlos Calderón
1990	Eduardo Leiva
1991
1992	Javier Losada
1993	Eduardo Leiva
1994	Josep Llobell
1995	Eduardo Leiva
1996
1997	Toni Xuclà
1998	Alberto Estébanez

Heads of delegation[]

Year	Head of delegation	Ref.
1991–2001	María Teresa Segura	[citation needed]
2002–2016	Federico Llano	[26]
2017–2021	Ana María Bordas	[27][28]
2022	Eva Mora	[29][30]

Commentators and spokespersons[]

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Year	Commentator	Spokesperson	Ref.
1961	Federico Gallo	Diego Ramírez Pastor	[31]
1962		Luis Marsillach	[31]
1963		Julio Rico	[31]
1964			[31]
1965		Pepe Palau	[31]
1966		Blanca Álvarez	[31]
1967			[31]
1968		Joaquín Prat	[31][32]
1969	José Luis Uribarri		[31][32]
1970			[33][32]
1971	Joaquín Prat	No spokesperson	[31]
1972	Julio Rico		[31]
1973			[31]
1974	José Luis Uribarri	Antolín García	[33]
1975		José María Íñigo	[33][32]
1976			[33][32]
1977		Isabel Tenaille	[31]
1978		Matías Prats Luque	[31][32]
1979		Manuel Almendros	[31]
1980		Alfonso Lapeña	[31]
1981		Isabel Tenaille	[31]
1982		Marisa Naranjo	[31][32]
1983	José-Miguel Ullán	Rosa Campano	[31]
1984		Matilde Jarrín	[31][32]
1985	Antonio Gómez		[31][32]
1986			[31][32]
1987	Beatriz Pécker		[31][32]
1988			[31][32]
1989			[31][32]
1990	Luis Cobos		[31][32]
1991	Tomás Fernando Flores	María Ángeles Balañac	[31][32]
1992	José Luis Uribarri		[33][32]
1993			[33][32]
1994			[33][32]
1995		Belén Fernández de Henestrosa	[33][32]
1996			[33][32]
1997			[33][32]
1998			[33][32]
1999		Hugo de Campos	[33]
2000			[33]
2001		Jennifer Rope	[33][32]
2002		Anne Igartiburu	[33][32]
2003			[33][32]
2004	Beatriz Pécker		[31][32]
2005		Ainhoa Arbizu	[31][32]
2006		Sonia Ferrer	[31][32]
2007		Ainhoa Arbizu	[31][32]
2008	José Luis Uribarri		[33][32]
2009	Joaquín Guzmán	Iñaki del Moral	[31][32]
2010	José Luis Uribarri	Ainhoa Arbizu	[33][32]
2011	José María Íñigo	Elena S. Sánchez	[31][34][35][32]
2012			[34][31][35][32]
2013		Inés Paz	[34][31][36][32]
2014		Carolina Casado	[34][31][37][32]
2015	José María Íñigo and Julia Varela	Lara Siscar	[38][31][32]
2016		Jota Abril	[38][31][39]
2017		Nieves Álvarez	[38][31]
2018	Tony Aguilar, Julia Varela and Víctor Escudero		[38]
2019			[40]
2021			[41]

Stage directors[]

Year	Stage director(s)	Ref.
2008	Mayte Marcos	[42]
2009
2010
2011	Lola González	[citation needed]
2012	Francis Viñolo	[43]
2015	Tinet Rubira	[44]
2016	Niccolò Piccardi and Florian Boje	[45]
2017	Hans Pannecoucke	[46]
2018	Tinet Rubira	[47]
2019	Fokas Evangelinos	[48]
2020	Nicoline Refsing	[49]
2021	Marvin Dietmann	[50]
2022	Kyle Hanagami	[51]

Photogallery[]

• 

  Conchita Bautista in Naples (1965)

• 

  Julio Iglesias in Amsterdam (1970)

• 

  Trigo Limpio in The Hague (1980)

• 

  Ramón in Istanbul (2004)

• 

  D'NASH in Helsinki (2007)

• 

  Rodolfo Chikilicuatre in Belgrade (2008)

• 

  Daniel Diges in Oslo (2010)

• 

  El Sueño de Morfeo in Malmö (2013)

• 

  Ruth Lorenzo in Copenhagen (2014)

• 

  Edurne in Vienna (2015)

• 

  Barei in Stockholm (2016)

• 

  Manel Navarro in Kyiv (2017)

• 

  Amaia and Alfred in Lisbon (2018)

• 

  Miki in Tel Aviv (2019)

See also[]

• Spain in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Junior version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Spain in the Eurovision Dance Contest – Dance version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Spain in the Eurovision Young Dancers – A competition organised by the EBU for younger dancers aged between 16 and 21.
• Spain in the Eurovision Young Musicians – A competition organised by the EBU for musicians aged 18 years and younger.
• Spain in the OTI Festival – A competition organised by the OTI (Iberoamerican Telecommunications Organisation) Between 1972 and 2000

Notes and references[]

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• Points to and from Spain eurovisioncovers.co.uk