¡España ha hablado! Major hype surrounded the six acts competing in tonight’s Objetivo Eurovisión, but ultimately only one could cut through it all to win the Spanish ticket to Stockholm. After 90 minutes of song and drama Barei emerged victorious with “Say Yay!”.

Throughout the three-minute song she demonstrated major swagger — she was a ball of attitude in a shiny black frock, popping and locking and even performing the infamous “slut drop”. The opening notes sounded slightly tentative, but she eventually came into her own. Riding a wave of adrenaline, she sang with conviction, which is requisite when dealing with themes of perseverance.  The backing vocalists were a tad off — they were for every act — but she managed to keep the focus on her with her energy and hunger. Barei came here to collect — and boy did she!

Barei’s “Say Yay”: The Winner’s performance

Barei wins in Spain (Our Reaction)

Judges’ results

Loreen Edurne Points Spain Barei

Full results

Barei – 114
Xuso Jones – 94
Salvador Beltrán – 72
María Isabel – 68
Maverick – 66
Electric Nana – 66

Split results

While we waited for the results we were treated to a medley of Spain’s all-time Eurovision favourites. Loreen, who was part of the on-stage jury with Edurne and Il Divo’s Carlos Marín, even reprised her 2012 winning entry “Euphoria”.

Spain says yay! But what do you think of their choice? How does “Say Yay!” rank amongst your top six? Let us know in the comments box below.

Interview with Barei

FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SPAIN Eurovision 2016 NEWS

102 Comments
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Hugh
Hugh
8 years ago

@juas juas bien, pero en las pasadas 50 an~os, cada an~o, su cancion es en castellano – porque no catalan? O unos de las otras idiomas de su pais? If language is such an important factor, it’s represented the same slice of Spain year after year after year.

juasjuas
juasjuas
8 years ago

En inglés a mi no me representa.

John Christian
John Christian
8 years ago

Robyn Gallagher: I really object! Whether you like it or not, Douwe Bob, Serhat, Barei, and Iveta Mukuchyan are WEAK, WEAK, WEAK! And I would love to see them embarrassing in the Globe on May and turn their backs on them! I would love to see their demise when NED, ARM, and SMN failedto qualify and ESP going to last place!

Denis
Denis
8 years ago

Am I the only one getting a gospel vibe from it?
Not a bad song at all, but could use a lot of training to really shine and stand out.

Lolitaz
Lolitaz
8 years ago

Love Barei <3 Love her song <3
My top 6:
1-Belgium
2-Spain
3-Belarus
4-Albania
5-Ireland
6-Malta

Fatima
Fatima
8 years ago

I agree with Musika, it reminded me a little of Black Smoke and I think it will get a similar result. But I think she did very well considering she was drawn first. She might well be first to sing on May 14th, it would be a super act to start the contest.

KV
KV
8 years ago

YAAAAAAAAAAAAS BASLAY!

Roelof Meesters
Roelof Meesters
8 years ago

Good song but….

THOSE BACKING SINGERS NEED TO BE DELETED!!!!!!!

Luca
Luca
8 years ago

Happy for Barei. She came across as a nice person in the Wiwibloggs interview. Yet again, the Spanish hype machine is in overdrive.

Carl
Carl
8 years ago

I really don’t like any of the selected songs so far. Horrible edition so far!

mawnck
mawnck
8 years ago

The song is a mediocre knockoff of Heroes. Same structure, same tempo, with yay yay yays instead of whoa whoas. Her performance is fine. I often defend Spain’s audio mixes (they were used as an excuse for Edurne’s poor live performances for way too long) but this time you’re right – the audio mix on this show was abominable. I would expect this act to land on the middle right of the scoreboard, but again – where’s its competition? If everybody submits a loser, then one of them has to win. Apparently everybody is going to compete on presentation this… Read more »

paco
8 years ago

A ver que pasa en Mayo en esta nuestra Europa, que todo lo mira con lupa, ella mas que nadie se merecia representar a Spain en ESC.Por autentica , por ponerle ganas de cantar en ingles por primera vez en la historia y sobre todo por no tener no tiene ni casa de discos, Mucha suerte Barei en todo lo nuevo que emprendas.Para mi eres la candidata que mas me convencio anoche.

oooops
oooops
8 years ago

My top 6 of Objetivo Eurovision after show
1. Salva
2. Maverick
3. Barei
4. Electric Nana
5. Maria Isabel
6. Xuso Jones

Nitzan
Nitzan
8 years ago

Not a perfect performance but she has plenty of time to make it shine. Great song, great voice and stage presence. Needs new backing vocalists, new choreography and maybe a couple of dancers. But the starting point looks good for Spain this year. Congrats!

Huh
Huh
8 years ago

The Spanish fanbase here are very much alive! Barei’s song is not my cup of tea just like Edurne’s but I’ll be neutral about her.

dutchie
dutchie
8 years ago

@john christian
I’m tempted to say your argument is WEAK 😉

Maybe on the Philippines mr. Blair hasn’t fallen from grace yet.

Ariso Light
Ariso Light
8 years ago

My top 6:
1. Spain I love this song so much! So say yay!
2. Ireland Great song but not a winner in my opinion.
3. Albania Many people don’t like this song but I think it’s a nice song.
4. Belarus At first I thought it was a bad song but I’ve listen to it a couple of times and i’m starting to like it
5. Malta Not a very interesting song in my opinion
6. Belgium I’ve lost interest in this song

Ohi
Ohi
8 years ago

Yay for Barei!

L
L
8 years ago

She was the best option. None of the songs were good or memorable, but at least Barei has charisma and a nice voice. Say yay! won’t win, but it will be fun to watch.

John Christian
John Christian
8 years ago

Robyn Gallagher, you really lost your argument.

Leaf
Leaf
8 years ago

AMAZING, ENERGETIC, MODERN ……… WELCOME BACK SPAIN !!!!!!!!!!!!

Marco
Marco
8 years ago

1.Belgium
2.Belarus
3.Albania
4.Ireland
5.Spain
6.Malta

Fabio
Fabio
8 years ago

Horrible. Didn’t even finish the full three minutes.

dutchie
dutchie
8 years ago

She’s a really good singer, and very energetic, but her performance was three minutes of ‘pick me! pick me! pick me!’ which eventually becomes a bit too much. Take it down a notch, let a professional work on the choreo and the graphics, and this could do quite well.

The backing singers were okay, some of you guys don’t know what a real human voice sounds like anymore in these auto tuned times. The chorus relies a bit too much on those backings though, it creates a weird dynamic.

Laburnum
Laburnum
8 years ago

1. Spain
2. Malta
3. Ireland
4. Belgium
5. Albania
6. Belarus

Slowly turning into a good year I think! 🙂

dorian
dorian
8 years ago

1.Belgium
2.Belarus
3.Albania
4.Spain
5.Ireland
6.Malta

Ben Rafter
Ben Rafter
8 years ago

Well done Barei! The backing vocalists were horrendous but she was the best! Shocked that Salvador finished ahead of maria! Salvador only came third because of the jury giving him the top mark!

oooops
oooops
8 years ago

My tops have now been put together and these are the results(Ireland will be ranked 1 in the first top 6)
1. Ireland (3 pts)
2. Albania (5 pts)
3. Spain (6 pts)
4. Belarus (7 pts)
5. Malta (10 pts)
6. Belgium (11 pts)
But I agree with AndersP, the backing singers sang too loud and shouted.

olivia
olivia
8 years ago

This song is a diamond in the rough and, with some proper arrangements, it may win the whole enchilada for Spain for the first time in almost 50 years!! It sounds modern and refreshing, and the singer has a great voice and a really cool attitude. This is my new favorite and I don’t think that will leave my top 5 for a while. Good job SPAIN!

oooops
oooops
8 years ago

Based on live vocals, this is my top 5
Ireland N/A
2. Albania
3. Belarus
4. Malta
5. Spain
6. Belgium
But it changes a bit when it comes to songs:
1. Spain
2. Ireland
3. Albania
4. Belarus
5. Belgium
6. Malta

jr esc nl
jr esc nl
8 years ago

Yay! Spain is my new #1! 🙂

Europafan23
Europafan23
8 years ago

Great song!! I liked Xuso more but this is a good choice to….
1-Belgium,Still my favorite <3
2-Spain,Good Choice
3-Albania
4-Ireland
5-Malta
6-Belarus

ESC 4ever
ESC 4ever
8 years ago

1.Spain Yasssss!!!
2.Belgium
3.Malta
4.Ireland
5.Albania
6.Belarus

#SayYayYayYay
#SayYayYayYay
8 years ago

Their best song in years. I hope it will be on Top 10 in May.

DenizNL
DenizNL
8 years ago

New favourite! At one point I thought Xuso was going to win, but I was really happy with the overall results. I think for Eurovision it would be cool to get a longer dress and maybe her hair down. I think it would be cool to do something fun with the placement of the backingdancers too.

eurofan
eurofan
8 years ago

Barei directly to my top1 so far.
Do we have the next winner of Eurovision in front of us?
Congrats Spain! A wonderful choice!

Ct greece
Ct greece
8 years ago

She was clearly the best of the bunch, especially in the vocal part, but when it reaches the chorus the song lacks some oomph and relies to much on the backing vocals. Maria Isabel was also quite good and oozed self-confidence. I am surprised she didn’t do better.

Xuso and Electric Nana were by far the worst. He displayed Aram MP3-levels of awkwardness and I don’t even see how anybody can describe him as good-looking.

Hugh
Hugh
8 years ago

Alright, finally got around to watching the show. The hostess is pretty good, literally every other aspect of the show was done poorly. The backing singers, as everyone else have said, need to go. Barei was easily the best, and I actually liked the dance moves – just maybe slightly less come Stockholm 😉 Salva was easily the other best performance on the night, but Xuso did better than I had expected so I’m alright with him doing well too. Maria Isabel and Electric Nana were not on point. Maverick is so damn good looking, but does nothing else for… Read more »

Thiefo
8 years ago

criticca already said what I was going to say. I’m glad Salvador got a very respectable third place, and got the top spot with the international jury. Way to go Salva! I can’t say I’m surprised Barei won at the end, she was the great favourite from the beginning, and don’t get me wrong, she seems like a great and likeable girl, so I’m happy for her, it’s just that I’m still not convinced by her song, and I really don’t get why is so liked, besides for being very radio friendly, sung in english and with a very generic… Read more »

John Christian
John Christian
8 years ago

The only way to increase Spain’s chances is to send Maria Isabel instead. Barei is very magniloquent. Her song topped on iTunes and she liked most online. But when it comes to the public, they deceived and so Barei will “Say Yay” to Stockholm. With that, she will join Douwe Bob, Serhat, and Iveta Mukuchyan as the artists who won’t win in Stockholm because all of them are in the words of Tony Blair to John Major: WEAK, WEAK, WEAK!

Loxxa
Loxxa
8 years ago

Just hated it. Even though, I liked her attitude. She needs to do a great stage performance, otherwise she will get nul points for me.

Donna
Donna
8 years ago

I’m perfectly fine with Say Yay winning but the backing singers should not come to Stockholm – at least replace them with Barei’s fellow contestants from Objetivo because those people know how to harmonize better (as evidenced with what they did to “Te Deum” at the beginning of Objetivo). It would have been better though if Maria Isabel won – she didn’t need backing singers to deliver a good performance and her live version sounded way better than the studio version which surprised me. And of course, my Top 6: 1. Ireland 2. Albania 3. Belarus 4. Spain 5. Malta… Read more »

Ewan
Ewan
8 years ago

The beat song probably won, and her voice really is outstanding. She can growl like no tomorrow.

The song itself is ok, it just lacks a bit of punch in the first chorus, especially during that performance with the poor sound. It sounded almost as if she was singing without any music at one point. If they can fix that and get the staging right she’ll do really well.

Again its never going to be my favourite, but it’s definitely the best of the current entries.

Radek
Radek
8 years ago

I don’t know, I might be wrong, but I’m seriously afraid Spain might end up getting the infamous “nul points”…
And what a terrible waste, not singing in such a beautiful language as Spanish…

Nikos
Nikos
8 years ago

The backing vocals were terrible all night, each song would have been better off with no backing vocals!

I was between Xuso and Barei so overall I am happy. Buena Suerta Espana!

Ronnie
Ronnie
8 years ago

This is really just average. It will place outside the top 10 nowhere near a winning material.

MarioMario
MarioMario
8 years ago

My fave so far, by far. Congrats to Spain for making the right choice. Spain is always overhyped and over-criticized at the same time. This time they finally made a great choice.

DR
DR
8 years ago

Every one who says Madrid 2017. The biggest two arenas in Spain are in Barcelona and Barakaldo in Greater Bilboa. They both have over 20,000 for concerts. Madrid’s biggest is 15,000. I’d prefer Barcelona. Beautiful city. But we have to see who wins in Mayo.

Shijie Yu
Shijie Yu
8 years ago

ohhhh,, terrible song plus terrible vocal

Richard Yudistira
Richard Yudistira
8 years ago

Good choice Spain! I’m so happy that at least one of big 5 is on fire competing in eurovision. I love ‘Victorious’ too.. Maria Isabel was my first fav, but her song is a mess.