Tapas, sangria, castanets and bull fighting: ¡Viva España! Spain’s rich and vibrant culture is apparent to anyone that’s ever been there, but somehow at Eurovision that often isn’t apparent on stage. In emulation of tapas they’ve tried a little of everything at Eurovision, and while they’ve delivered the delicious emotive ballads, they’ve also served up vomit inducing novelty numbers, a painful pixie-haired dance disaster and some seriously creepy clowns. Madrid have averaged 50 points at the six Contests since Belgrade and received 6 sets of 12 Points, averaging one set per year. Andorra and Portugal are unashamedly loyal…

Recent History:

2013: ESDM with ‘Contigo Hasta El Final’, 25th Place with 8 Points

2012: Pastora Soler with ‘Quedaté Conmigo’, 10th Place with 97 Points

2011: Lucía Pérez with ‘Que Me Quiten Lo Bailao’, 23rd Place with 50 Points

2010: Daniel Diges with ‘Algo Pequeñito’, 15th Place with 68 Points

2009: Soraya with ‘La Noche Es Para Mí’, 24th Place with 23 Points

2008: Rodolfo Chikilicuatre with ‘Baila el Chiki-chiki’, 16th Place with 55 Points

Finals Qualified For: Automatic Qualification as a member of the Big 5.

Spain By Numbers:

How many moves in the ‘Baila el Chiki-Chiki’? 4.

If you took Pastora Soler at her word and stayed with her every time she asked you to, how many times would you have to visit her? 10 Times. If you weren’t besties going into the commitment, you will be by the end of it…or enemies.

If you had a Euro for every time Soraya shimmied in 2009, how much richer would you be by the end of her performance? Somewhere in the region of 10-20 Euros, there’s a big gray area on what counts as a Soraya shimmy.

Best Scoring Entry:

Pastora Soler with ‘Quedaté Conmigo’, 10th Place with 97 Points

‘Euphoria’ might have been the one wot won it, but Thomas G:son’s other production for Baku, ‘Quedaté Conmigo’, proved a beautiful ballad, that wowed the juries and demonstrated a real determination from Madrid for an improvement on average to poor results in the late 2000s. The song is cleverly crafted, constantly building to the big note that Pastora knocks out of the park in the live performance and showcases the beauty of the Spanish language, so often overlooked previously in Spanish entries. The staging is a masterpiece in minimalism, and Pastora suffered a particularly cruel fate at the hand of televoters. Perhaps the traditional traits that made the song so strong also counted against it.

Worst Scoring Entry:

El Sueño De Morfeo with ‘Contigo Hasta El Final’, 25th Place with 8 Points
I love El Sueño De Morfeo. It was a rare case on my part of recognition of an act pre-Contest.  ‘Contigo Hasta El Final’ I think is a little like full force ESDM. It’s their signature sound on show – Gallic-tinged pop-rock with an accessible Spanish vocal. It was uplifting and on repeated listen is a breath of fresh air amongst the towering power ballads, pan pipes and deluge of dance numbers. Unfortunately there sound didn’t connect with Europe. Raquel’s live vocal was admittedly off, but I’d refute the accusations of boredom launched at ESDM. I think it comes down to the fact that they had pretty big shoes to fill following Pastora, and while ESDM were definitely capable, Raquel lacked the real vocal punch to match up to Señora Soler.

And here’s what Team Wiwi have to say:

David T: Pastora Soler was robbed! One of the greatest injustices in the history of ESC. She deserved to tie for first with Loreen. Spain gets no respect from Europe – the televoting result was insane.

Zach Thomas: So Pastora was brilliant – we all know that. But Lucia Perez was criminally underrated in 2011. She sang well, her dancers gave a crazy amount of energy and Latin flair to the performance and her song just screams Spain – all she was missing was a pair of castanets! I still shrink from listening to Daniel Diges though. He got to perform twice in 2010…two times too many. And what was up with those clowns? Who thought that would be a vote-winner?

Wiwi: Pastora Soler was robbed in 2012! Girl should have made Top 5 with ease. Algo Pequeñito was good too, but Jimmy Jump shouldn’t have run on stage.

Katie Wilson: Soraya was amazing! I still don’t understand how it did so terribly in the final, and the only explanation I can come up with is that it performed 25th in the running order. Yes, the English lyrics aren’t very creative but the Spanish lyrics work really well! I like the mix between traditional-ish Spanish music and modern music. It was VERY cheesy. But catchy. ESDM was just sickly sweet and not very nice. Before I even mention the song, that sunshine yellow dress was bloody awful. It almost blinded me! Really Spain? Bagpipes? They really aren’t two things you should mix together, as this song proved. The vocals really weren’t brilliant too as everything seemed unnecessarily high pitched.

Deban: Pastora Soler was the best. No contest. I loved ‘Bloody Mary’ too, but let’s not begin to debate that. 2013 just bombed. It doesn’t get worse. I was blinded by yellow and deafened by the bagpipes.

So what do you all think? Were ESDM an insult to our ears? Did Soraya make you want to shake her? Did Daniel Diges’s clowns give you the creeps? Comments below peeps!

You can read our other country profiles by clicking here.

Angus Quinn contributed this report from the U.K. You can follow him on Twitter at @Angus_Quinn17. Then like our Facebook page to keep up-to-date with all the latest news and gossip.

Photo: Pieter Van den Berghe (EBU)

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SOWRONG
SOWRONG
10 years ago

Katie Wilson couldn’t be more wrong! first of all, bagpipes are traditional in North Spain (you know, there were celts, as well as in west and center iberia). And you think Soraya’s song was “traditional-ish spanish”… that song is originally GREEK, it sounds balkanic-turkish, the only spanish thing in that song are the language and they finally added some spanish guitar, which is barely noticeable, but that’s it. Please, don’t talk about things you don’t know, much less if it’s to say what is traditional of a country you proved you don’t know.

Zack
Zack
10 years ago

Las Ketchup! WOoooo!

paco
10 years ago

querida katie wilson españa no solo es castañuelas y flamenco el norte de españa tiene una gran influencia celta,en cuanto el vestido de raquel de este año,decierte que el color se llama amarillo canario ya que raquel es de gran canaria.y quiso hacerle un homenaje a su tierra ella estava bellisima con ese color y no con el repetivo color blanco como las aburridas divas de norte europeo.te lo dice un estilista de estas maravillosas islas del sol mas brillante de europa y siento mucho que no te gustara su dulce voz y acento cuestion de gustos pero nosotros si… Read more »

D
D
10 years ago

2008 (Rodolfo Chikilicuatre, ‘Baila el Chiki-chiki’) – This song makes me want to shoot myself, I’m serious. Probably the worst song of 2008 and Spain’s worst entry ever, hated it so much. 2009 (Soraya, ‘La noche es para mí’) – Probably my favourite song from Spain, but then again, that isn’t saying much, as I dislike almost every entry Spain has ever sent. Even though it’s my favourite, it’s nothing special. Soraya’s voice is mediocre, the song’s mediocre, basically it’s just absolutely mediocre. 2010 (Daniel Diges, ‘Algo pequeñito’) – Ugh, this was another one of Spain’s entries that I absolutely… Read more »

Celioski
10 years ago

Well, as a latinamerican I always secretly cheer for Spain in the final, even when I know they stand no chance 🙁 I won’t even say how much I loved Pastora’s song. I did and still do. About the other entries, I believe ESDM didn’t deserve to finish last. It was not my favorite song at all, but the performance was good enough. The bagpipes are traditional in Galicia, BTW, if you guys didn’t know, there’s a strong celtic culture there. Soraya…mmmm…I always thought she was ok. I never loved that song but also I never saw that 2nd-to-last place… Read more »

Emily
Emily
10 years ago

@David – The weird thing about the bagpipes? This year, Bulgaria used a bagpipe-like instrument called the gaida.

Emily
Emily
10 years ago

Pastora Soler was AH-MAZ-ING, but Soraya finishing second to last is the true injustice. Pastora did crack into the top ten, but Soraya had good staging, good live vocals and a good song.

Andy
10 years ago

Spain is probably one of my favorite ESC countries – though it is perennially underrated. If they couldn’t challenge for the crown in 2012, I fear that it may not be much that Spain can do to win ESC again. Daniel Diges is still probably my favorite from a personal music choice perspective; though I agree, the staging could have been better.

David
David
10 years ago

I’m sorry Katie, but I guess you didn’t get that they did for sure not use a bagpipe, but a gaita, which is a common traditional instrument in the North-western region in Spain close to Portugal. It is different to the Scottish one; as it has one pipe more /less (I don’t remember).

So it makes sense to present it 🙂

Tiggeh
Tiggeh
10 years ago

Lucia Perez was so underrated.