Earlier this week RTVE officially confirmed their participation at Eurovision 2017 in Kyiv.
And by Saturday the rumour mill was already spinning, as Spanish news site Bluper reported that the Spanish broadcaster is considering a multi-show national selection to select the country’s 2017 representative.
Barei at the 2016 national selection Objetivo Eurovision
There’s still no word from RTVE on how the next Spanish representative will be chosen. Their silence isn’t unusual: The broadcaster rarely gives any sign of Eurovision life until November.
Spanish fans have been begging for a Melodifestivalen-like selection for years. Now, according to the Bluper report, the possibility exists. We already gave RTVE some ideas back in May after Barei’s 22nd place finish…
RTVE’s experiments
As a country without a pre-established selection method — unlike Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Hungary and Albania — RTVE has the freedom to experiment.
Spain dabbled with online selections from 2008 to 2011, but that method didn’t get the country higher than 15th place.
In 2007 and 2011, RTVE tried the Lithuanian method: Selecting the artist and the song separately. D’NASH finished in 20th place, and Lucía Pérez in 23rd. Ouch.
Selecting the artist internally, and then having a public song selection, is another option. Spain did it in 2012 and 2013, and while Pastora Soler finished in a respectable 10th place, ESDM ended second-to-last.
All of these experiences have, in a way, proven that Spain’s selections don’t have a direct translation to the result. The cheapest selection of the last few years, in 2014, (held on the stage of Dancing With The Stars) resulted in Ruth Lorenzo’s 10th place. One of the biggest selections — held in 2007 — resulted in D’NASH’s lacklustre finish. Hmmm.
RTVE may not have its selection method down, but it has a pool of artists willing to compete. Over the summer Lorena, Mirela and Ruth Lorenzo all expressed interest. A Spanish national final this year could be extra spicy…if only RTVE managed to sort out the sound in the studio for once…
Are you happy to know that Spain might be considering a national selection? Which method has been your favourite in recent years? Let us know in the comments box below.
It will be anything but Melodifestivalen-like.
I think the most important thing is that RTVE put a genuine team effort into the preparations for the grand final performance once the song has been selected. The messy situation behind-the-scenes this year with RTVE should not be repeated, and RTVE should both respect the artist’s wishes and actively facilitate a productive collaboration with the host broadcaster.
Since 2011, they have always sent great entries but somehow, they usually end up getting lost…
Spain should send Shakira, with Gerard Pique on skates, and Messi with a violin. It is a bad joke, I know. I’m a fan of spanish entries.
España si quieren ganar manden a Ricky Martin o Shakira CON mESSY DOMINANDO EL BALON Y GANAN X QUE GANAN.
The Spaniards are some of the biggest Eurovision fans. Their only problem is they usually send songs that don’t stand out and are thus not worth voting for (or sometimes – *cough* Pastora Soler *cough* – Europe doesn’t vote for talent and quality). A multi-show selection process would help them achieve a great result, in my opinion!
Although Spain’s entries in the early noughties (and most countries enteries actually) were not great, most results from the period 2005-2009 can’t really be counted. 2007, the year of your D’NASH example was rife with block voting, with most countries outside of the former Warsaw Pact not even getting a look in, regardless of what they sent. To get better country result statistics, it’s probably best to look from 2009 onwards, as the block voting was minimised significantly. But anyway, a multi-show selection could work for Spain, I mean the support is there and the artists are more than willing… Read more »
This year were 19 internally selected songs in ESC out of 42 entries, so no selection is perfect, or all selections are fine.