Following Blas Cantó’s 24th place finish at Eurovision 2021, Spain has now failed to reach the top 20 for the sixth contest in a row. In amongst the criticism from fans and former participants, this string of poor results may have finally stirred some changes within Spanish broadcaster RTVE.
The broadcaster’s new Executive President, José Manuel Pérez Tornero, is expected to announce changes in the Eurovision and Entertainment division of RTVE this week.
Changes reported for Spain’s Eurovision delegation
Tornero was elected to the role of RTVE’s Executive President at the end of March. Only two months later, and he is reported to have proposed a number of changes to the corporation.
According to Bluper, the subsection of online Spanish newspaper El Español that reports on television matters, both Head of Delegation Ana María Bordás and Head of Entertainment Toñi Prieto could be leaving their jobs.
Bordás joined the Spanish delegation in 2017, after the abrupt exit of Federico Llano following the heavy Eurodrama at Objetivo Eurovisión that year. She was supposed to handle the job temporarily, yet problems with RTVE’s renewal of direction have delayed her exit.
Despite the poor placings at Eurovision, Bordás has managed to bring Spain back to Junior Eurovision, where the country has achieved two top three results. She’s also recently been appointed to the EBU’s Television Committee.
Prieto, on the other hand, is usually signalled by Eurovision fans as the main problem within Spain’s delegation and RTVE’s inability to climb the scoreboard at Eurovision.
Former Eurovision stars and fans criticise RTVE over poor results
Spain’s result at Eurovision 2021 is in stark contrast to other nearby countries. Neighbours France and Portugal both reached the left hand side of the scoreboard, while fellow Mediterranean nation Italy went on to win. As a result of this, Spanish media and past Eurovision stars seem to have moved on from the traditional “Europe hates us” rhetoric and towards blaming broadcaster RTVE.
One of the most significant criticisms came from Eurovision 1971 star Karina. The star, who came second in Dublin and is still a well-known face in Spain, directly pointed at RTVE during an interview on TV channel La Sexta:
“First of all the song has to be made to measure for the singer. Then, and most importantly, and I’m saying this with a bit of anger, RTVE needs to believe in Eurovision. RTVE doesn’t believe in the contest, and thus we can’t blame it on the singers neither the songs, they need to believe in Eurovision.”
El monumental enfado de #Karina con #TVE @cristina_pardo pic.twitter.com/BlCL4aTEuH
— TVMASPI (@sebas_maspons) May 23, 2021
She’s not the first to speak out against the broadcaster. Eurovision 2009 representative Soraya Arnelas also hit at RTVE some months ago. Speaking in a colloquium in April, she stated: “The problem is not RTVE, it’s the people working in it. Some absolutely don’t care about Eurovision, they’ll get their wages every month equally”.
“I’m talking about people who have been there for a long time, and they will not fire them because it would cost them a fortune. They are a group of bigots. Then, it’s the artist who has to carry the can. We have such a bad time wherever we have to go”, she said.
Eurovision 2011’s entrant Lucía Pérez pointed out something similar speaking to Cadena SER: “RTVE lacks illusion towards Eurovision”.
“Why doesn’t Spain do well at Eurovision?”
Just like in the United Kingdom, Eurovision fans in Spain have criticised the media in previous years because of their take on the results. However, things appear to be changing following Eurovision 2021. Instead of the regular “Europe hates us”, a lot of mainstream outlets have been asking the question: “Why doesn’t Spain do well at Eurovision?”.
The headlines of some major Spanish news sites have been alike. El País asked: “Why did Italy win? What should Spain change?”. El Español’s Bluper had a similar question: “Why does Spain always do bad and what should it do to improve?”.
Meanwhile El Mundo put the blame on Blas Cantó’s entry “Voy a quedarme”. Quoting James Carville, they wrote “It’s the song, stupid”. La Vanguardia also pointed out how fans await for changes coming from the new RTVE president.
RTVE: “Not winning does not mean failure”
Fans are clearly not amused at the broadcaster either. Most of the Spanish Eurovision twittosphere has hit back at RTVE after a long wait for a decent result. While many asked for self-criticism from the broadcaster, a couple of actions from RTVE’s side have upset the fans even more.
First there was this tweet on Sunday, where the broadcaster claimed: “Not winning Eurovision is not a symptom of failure. There are many songs who did not get the glass microphone, yet they remained in memory. We’ve revisited some of them on El Telediario [the news bulletin].
No ganar #Eurovision no es sinónimo de fracaso
Hay muchas canciones que no lograron el micrófono de cristal y que han quedado grabadas en nuestra memoria
En el @telediario_tve han repasado algunos de esos temashttps://t.co/pRWzfd2hwF
— RTVE (@rtve) May 23, 2021
Theses lines did not go down well with the fandom, as it was read as a lack of self-criticism.
In fact, the tweet was quoted over 400 times, and people were not exactly mentioning their favourite entries who did not take the trophy…
¿Desde cuándo tener seis bottoms consecutivos no es un fracaso? Si no contribuyeseis tanto a la UER y pasáramos por semifinales, llevaríamos AÑOS sin pisar una final… https://t.co/LjrfXBTGG1
— Hale ??? (@cocretono) May 24, 2021
(Six bottom placings in a row is not a failure? If you didn’t contribute so much to the EBU, we wouldn’t have qualified from the semis for years)
no ganar siendo A million voices de Polina no es lo mismo que no ganar siendo Voy a quedarme de Blas https://t.co/6S375hLDDC
— estelå ?? (@estelafieratto) May 24, 2021
(Not winning with “A million voices” by Polina Gagarina is not the same as not winning with “Voy a quedarme” by Blas Cantó)
No ganar, no. Quedar 6 años seguidos entre los 6 últimos SÍ.
En una empresa privada la delegación de #Eurovision al completo estaría en la calle desde hace años.
Es intolerable la indolencia, pasotismo, soberbia, falta de autocrítica y despilfarro de recursos públicos de @rtve https://t.co/iqrgBxLrqT
— Carlos Viader Castro (@ViaderCarlos) May 24, 2021
(Not winning is not a failure. Coming bottom six in the last six years is. In a private corporation, the whole delegation would have been fired years ago. Such apathy, arrogance, lack of self-criticism and waste of public resources is unacceptable).
Then, on Monday, fans were not happy with the reaction to the Eurovision 2021 results on RTVE’s morning show La Hora de la 1.
Many criticized the fact that one of the opinions shown live said: “The better option would be not taking part, but if they have to be there, they need a total change. Enough ballads, let’s bring a little bit of happiness, although we wouldn’t even win with that”.
"¿Qué hay que hacer para ganar #Eurovision?", se han preguntando en el infoshow de #LaHoraDeLa1.
Quizá dar prioridad a voces críticas antes que al típico mensaje cuñado. pic.twitter.com/EFu4BKjlou
— JuanMa Fdez (@juanmafdez) May 24, 2021
Spain’s streak of bad results has the fans up in arms against the broadcaster. In fact, some fans have started a campaign to stop following RTVE’s Eurovision account on Twitter.
TV ratings have also dropped this year, though Eurovision 2021 was still the most watched show of Saturday evening with a 29.4% share of viewers on average. Just over four million people tuned in for the full broadcast – that’s lower than 2018 and 2019, but better than 2017.
Do you think changes are needed within RTVE for success at Eurovision? Do you see a left-side finish for Spain in the near future? Let us know in the comment section below!
how difficult is to send a reggaeton song or a flamenco one something that represents Spanish culture. Look at France!
While I think Voilà! represents French culture (and I may be wrong, of course), I have to say that reggaeton is from Latin America, not Spanish. And flamenco only represents part of Andalusia, not all Spain. That being said I wouldn´t mind any of those music genres representing Spain in Eurovision.
wow tv ratings were so low for Spain, they are usually very into Eurovision so RTVE better wake up because they are damaging a big brand due to their incompetence. I think they need to STOP sending ballads, i mean we’re sick of them. Spain is all about fiestas. They had a catchy song in 2019 but they ruined it with that revamp and messy staging. Also, Muerdeme was the Fuego of 2019, yet they didn’t vote for it and they gave it to a boring singer… RTVE should hire a brand new team with one goal: to smash Eurovision… Read more »
they should just get rosalía to do it
as if she wants to do it???
Nyno Vargas.Maka.India Martinez.Galvan Real.There are so many amazing modern flamenco singers in Spain!I just mentioned few of my favourites,there are more.As well there are quite a few young and talented rappers.And yes Alvaro Soler.Country is FILLED with talents!
The only flamenco-ISH acts at ESC I can remember now were Joci Papai and Conan Osiris lately.Makes me sad because that’s one of my favorite singing style ever.
Why doesn’t Spain hire latin american song writers and producers? they’re the ones making top hits aroudn the world right now. Send flamenco with a modern beat. Another option would be Alvaro Soler, he’s very popular in italy, poland, germany…
It happened once that a famed Latin American producer was hired. Spain’s 2004 entry was written and produced by Miami-based Colombian producer Kike Santander. He had previously worked for Jennifer Lopez (“Let’s Get Loud”), Gloria Estefan or Luis Miguel, among others.
One could even be cynical and tell this public broadcasters that they would make way more money by putting more effort (= money) into Eurovision than by doing the bare minimum and not caring about the results. Interest in Eurovision has been steadily increasing with the great results of this decade, and RAI broke viewership records on Saturday. Imagine the numbers next year! That is all money.
I’m gonna make a bold claim here: remember how when Salvador won, everyone was getting worried that the age of bops was over, and everything was going to be maudlin and boring? That didn’t happen, then the worries came back with Duncan but dissipated with the huge slate of bops this year. The ACTUAL harbingers of change are the entire top five this year, specifically Måneskin, Barbara, and Go_A. The televote LOVED these songs, significantly more so than fan-hyped songs like “El Diablo,” “Je me casse,” and – deep, heavy sigh – “Adrenalina.” Bops by committee are on the way… Read more »
This is all to say, so I’m not totally derailing the topic of conversation here, that broadcasters like Spain are having a bit of an existential crisis because they can’t fall back on their formulas. This is the third time they’ve brought in a big-name staging director that didn’t deliver, and that’s their idea of effort. They should be coming to terms with the fact that they’ve relied on aesthetics too long, and they’re treating their adult Eurovision audience more like children than their Junior Eurovision audience.
I’ve never understood the hype around Fuego, I don’t and I won’t. It was literally no different than those cheap pop songs in early 2000s.
It’s just am much about the performance as the song – and fuego was quite something to watch
well, those crap 2000s songs you talk about were forgotten the time the next song came in. Fuego was a monster hit like any other in many countries. Here In Spain you can still listen to it sometimes around. It proved many people who didn’t watch Eurovision that the contest could be cool and popular after many years of obscurity.
eleni wasn’t a fluke. Fuego was quality.
Fuego rode a latin pop wave well and Eleni had bucketloads of charisma. Also in 2018 a lot of songs were more sedate and contemplative or mid tempo, part of why Israel and Cyprus were so successful in Lisbon. Even if a bop is not that great and made by committee, if the 40 other songs are ballads it’ll do well because it’ll stand out.
See it to believe it. This words give me hope but I still think Toñi Prieto won’t leave her job. Bordás is a little bit more professional but it isn’t still enough. We need a different team with more inquisitiveness, willing to take risks and modern that knows how the music industry works. Anyway, I believe the whole broadcaster needs to be reworked from the basis. It is completely rotten and old-fashioned. The problem here in Spain is that people, and specially those in charge, tend to be very tradional, narrow-minded and oriented towards the statu quo. Fingers crossed so… Read more »
Spain’s issue this year was the song was pleasant but forgettable. Pleasant doesn’t cut it when you need to be in top 10 (of 25) of a country’s jury or televote to get any points. The song was too bland and beige to be in many jury or televote top 10. That said Spain 2019 should have done much better. Lots of (western) countries have upped their game over the last decade such as France, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland etc so there is no reason that Spain can’t do the same. Buena suerte
The last two years have been huge comebacks for Western countries. The contest has become wide open in a way I’ve never seen it before.
I think there is no “magic formula.” This year’s ranking speaks for itself: rockers have triumphed by singing Italian, Barbara second with a magnificent French song, Gjon third with another song in French, but in an airy style, GO-A has defended Ukrainian culture while bringing a breath of modernity to it… These artists are all very different from each other, yet all of them have reached the hearts of the audience. There is no mystery in this, everyone felt their sincerity, their authenticity. They came up with great songs AND their personalities. The reign of superficial songs seems to have ended,… Read more »
I remember Jessy Matador getting some minor airplay in Germany back then – something that used to be highly unusual for an entry that wasn’t the German one and didn’t even win. I also remember watching 2014’s Grand Final at my sister’s place. Her husband was French, yet didn’t bother about Eurovision, so he only wanted to get a notice when Twin Twin came on. He saw it for the first time and said something like ‘That’s not even THAT bad’, while my sister and me actually liked it. Next time he cared was after the results were in, and… Read more »
Yes Sébastien Tellier is another missed opportunity. The song finished 19th in the contest and … after that it made it to the US billboard, which is a performance for a non-US song. Some Sébastien songs can be heard in Sofia Coppola’s films, it’s crazy! There again I think we had bet on someone too far ahead of the time, and too different and original to please to the French audience elsewhere. While today we hear artists of the “French electro” everywhere. Whether it’s our DJs, our electronic music composers, or complete artists like Christine and The Queens … Tant… Read more »
No problem, CyxCy 🙂
Yup, Tellier definitely was ahead of his time. His song ‘La Ritournelle’ still stands firmly as one of the best songs I’ve ever come across and I know it topped many critics’ lists back then. And I’m 100 % sure ‘Divine’ would have achieved a was better result in 2011 or 2016.
Christine and the Queens would be a brilliant choice, too! Have you ever listened to ‘People, I’ve been sad’? If not, I highly recommend you to. It really is as good as music gets.
I completely agree with you both. And I feel like Amir was a sparkle in France, showing that it was possible. It got french people to think that doing good at Eurovision was possible. And from the reaction since Saturday, Barbara is a full forest fire. A lot of people who didn’t care about Eurovision are incredibly proud of her and are actually excited about who we will send next year. Although I’m not necessarily expecting us to be in the top 3 again just because we did good this year, I hope we will be able to maintain this… Read more »
Yeah, we don’t really have a lot of singers in Spain that do ‘latin’ music. It’s more like a latin american thing. It’s like asking Portugal to bring Samba to Eurovision just because those type of songs are written portuguese.
Let’s hope RTVE and the BBC both pull their fingers out of their arses
I´m eurofan and Spanish and I would like to share the feeling of these last days. There are various points on the participation of Spain. On the one hand, TVE does have something to do with it and even more the of the the things that Soraya 2009 and Barei 2016 said about TVE (simply shameful). There is no illusion for the project, or that is what they convey and as a Eurofan it’s frustrating. On the other hand, the positions of Miki 2019, Edurne 2015 or Bare 2016, I really don’t understand them, I think we should have been… Read more »
First thing Spain should do is stop revamping their songs.
I liked La Venda in the first version but the revamp took the energy out of it (and the staging was messy).
I don’t understand why they brought a different version of Voy a quedarme to Eurovision. I didn’t like that version at all; I was a big fan of the ‘normal’ version.
Exactly.
I really liked the video version of Voy a quedarme and even loved the english version.
But the weird long acapella and then suddenly very high tempo eurovision version
just didn’t sound good to me.
Agree. Barei had an absolute banger before the revamp made it feel kind of flat.
I always find it hard to say why a song wasn’t a hit.It’s easy to say and see why a song won or reached top 5 but you never can explain why a song did bad. At best I would say it was the staging which was unremarkable. A giant moon as prop, how inspiring. It didn’t make you care or feel for the song, in contrast to say Italy or Switzerland.Those might have not been everybody’s favourite but the staging left an impression and you felt it.I also think that Spain and UK share the same common problem: the… Read more »
Generally agree, but “Voy a quedarme” has not worked for the national market either. It has not charted at all, did not get Spotify or Youtube plays. “La venda” was much more successful. Quite a pity, cause when Blas was internally selected, he did have a recent legit hit, “Él no soy yo”. But the three song he has presented for Eurovision these last two years have gone completely unnoticed.
I think you have a point re Spain and the UK but I’d take it one step further. Spain’s and the UK’s entries feel like the second tier version of what works in the domestic market. I’m not saying they should send Rosalia or Adele, but they should send something that the public wants (Operacion Triungo and You Decide clearly don’t work).
By the way, you mentioned Bluper in the entry, and they featured another article that got me thinking. It was about whether TVE could find its way back to the top of the Eurovision board by collaborating with a private network on the selection process. And considering Telecinco has done a far better job of promoting Eurovision this year than TVE, it might make sense. What do you guys think, could a collab solve (at least some of) Spain’s Eurovision problems?
Collabs with Mediaset (which owns Telecinco) or Atresmedia will never happen. Even if it was possible, I think that would be a very short-term solution. TVE needs to get their act together, their problem comes from a lack of vision, not a lack of resources or personnel.
It really worked for Germany (NDR and ProSieben) from 2010 to 2012.
Spain RTVE, let me make this easy for you, send Rosalia. You’d have my 5 votes. Thank me later. Yo x ti, tu x mi
Rosalia is already a huge star now, i doubt she would want to risk her career like that. Also, it’s not like she’s shown any interest in the contest whatsoever.
Ask her, nothing to lose. Maybe she’d feel patriotic. Do something! Have Mahmood call her. Anything. I want her!
Well, allegedly they did ask her back in 2017 and she said no. And honestly, if she said no in 2017, she sure as heck is not going to say yes in 2022. That ship has sailed…
TVE’s problems run far deeper than just Eurovision; its entertainment division as a whole has been in need of a major overhaul for years. Sure, there have been exceptions like The Ministry of Time, but overall TVE is losing relevance partly because of Toñi Prieto and company greenlighting formats that already feel outdated by the time they premiere. Even their franchise players MasterChef and Cuéntame are at all-time lows because there’s hardly any other reason to tune into La 1 anymore. (Of course there’s also the issue of the government meddling in TVE’s news division that has been plaguing it… Read more »
They juste need to keep their JESC songs for the adult contest, lmao. “Palante” was such a bop that could have been perfect for the adult contest (maybe not for 2021 because there was already lots of bops sung by female artists, but for anoter year, it would have been easily top 10 with a good staging and artist).
The problem with Spain and the U.K. is that they are neither finding good songs for the fans or getting good results. Neither song had any buzz or a huge fan base. The best compliment people could muster up is respect they weren’t awful. But they did not stand out. Blas song actually does represent music that is consumed in Spain and you hear on the radio but does not stand out outside of home soil—Portugal does these sort of ballads too, but they are not competitive without understanding the lyrics. Spain would’ve done well with Lo Malo but they… Read more »
It always felt like they kind of gave up trying after Las Ketchup flopped.
Most “Latin” singers these days are not Spanish singers themselves and mostly come from Puerto Rico, Colombia, Mexico, and Spanish Speaking Americans. Spanish artists have become irrelevant these days in the Latin Music Industry with the exception for La Rosalia and David Bisbal.
La Venda was a step in the right direction which then became a huge step in the wrong direction because of that staging – I will always wonder what would have happened if they’d kept the OT staging!
I just realised Spain entered the top 20 for the last time in 2014… Yikes!
I agree that not winning is not a failure, and not even placing bottom 6 is a failure. What is really failing Spain is that the broadcaster doesn’t seem to care. If they don’t care, why should juries and public? Rai overhauled their entire Eurovision mindset in early 2010s, with Sanremo’s selection process being grueling for the Director of Music and ferocious and competitive for the applying artists. Spain should take inspiration from that, and try to be more organized and ambitious.
The Entertainment Department of RTVE needs a new direction and it goes beyond ESC, the only thing that gives them ratings these days (in addition to the ESC final) is Masterchef, and that’s a franchise.
It’s interesting how many newspaper articles I’ve read this week about the UK entry that once upon a time would have used the ‘Europe hates us’ excuse, but now squarely lay the blame at the lack of ambition to win from the BBC and the fact we were simply beaten by much better performers and songs. It feels like a big attitude shift in the media.
Right now, the BBC is getting a lot of flack from right wingers and left wingers for a myriad of reasons (regarding its news output for the left and its comedy for the right), so this is probably part of it. Also, there is widespread acknowledgement of how strong the final was, so the idea of the UK just not being good enough is more easy to accept.
problem is that even in generally weak finals UK is always bottom 5. So if you are among the weakest in a weak year, who do you blame?
Ideally, you should start with yourself? I disagree with a few of the bad results the UK got (especially Andy Abraham, Joe & Jake and Engelbert Humperdinck), but generally most of the entries were trashed right after they were published. Sometimes for a lack of creativity (SuRie, James Newman), sometimes for being completely outdated (Josh Dubovie, Michael Rice), sometimes for being outright awful (Scooch, Daz Sampson, Electro Velvet). And at this point, even outside our little bubble everyone understood that not even an alright-ish mainstream pop song will do you any favors. Just look at James Newman’s outcome. Everyone pitied… Read more »
I don’t know RTVE (and, for that matter, the BBC) don’t call on the jurors to explain why they ranked their songs so lowly. If you want to find out what went wrong, don’t guess. Get the facts from the horse’s mouth.
Maybe the EBU forbids it so that jurors don’t get harassed?
It shouldn’t be that hard to understand, honestly. Just look at the countries that did well and take a guess.
Countries like Spain, Germany and the UK like to blame others for their poor results. But, the matter of fact is, it is entirely their own fault sending such bland and mediocre songs, year after year. Italy and France are Big 5 and were 1st and 2nd, respectively. Because they sent awesome songs. The old meme of that Eurovision is an Eastern European contest has also completely been exposed for nonsense now that we had 4 Western European countries in this year’s Top 5. Western countries winning it in the last decade. Only 2 out of 10 winners were Eastern… Read more »
We’re some shift on the coverage of mainstream media in Spain, articles in major newspapers like El País and El Mundo point to TVE’s mediocrity. There’re still some clueless television panelists that blame the result on “Europe has it out for us”, but there’s progress. Fans are very well aware the problem lies on RTVE.
So you DO agree that the problem is RTVE right? Cause they’re the ones that choose the songs…
Just select Lola Indigo/Aitana and you have a top 10 result… is it really that hard?
I think Blas’ song is fine. It was just sent in the wrong year I think.
This is kinda controversial, but maybe besides automatic qualification, the Big 5 can push for a later submission date than everyone else? That way they can observe what everyone is sending before submitting their entries.
No, the song was not good at all. It’d flop in any year given, and you can see it blantly by the reaction to the ‘national selection’ they had. Both songs were downright bad How would this be fair? If France and Italy can reach the podium without additional help, why can’t the UK and Spain make an effort? Besides, it’s not like they’re last because the songs they chose got cancelled out by songs with similar energy. UK’s song was pretty unique in its genre among other finalists, and there weren’t that many ballads (Switzerland was the only male… Read more »
Agree. In the past ( and I am talking waaaaay back), Spain had been burned by more “ethnic” songs such as Conchita Bautista in 1961, and Peret in 1974 and both were excellent songs and performances for the time. I believe that there is a greater appreciation for authenticity and being true to your roots looking at the success of France and Ukraine this year. Yes, Palante at JESC is a good example as well as Antes Muerta que sencilla. They are both modern songs with a spanish soul, we need to keep those. I would love to send one… Read more »
Bandido in 1990 is the best example of a flamenco-inluenced song with a modern production twist doing really well. Remedios Amaya in 1983 is the contrary example in terms of result, but with time it has turned out be a cult entry! She was doing what Rosalía would do 30+ years before. Some risks are worth taking.
I also think Spain is the most underrated country at Eurovision. Since Pastola Soler (I thought she would be fighting for theTop 3), almost every entry deserved at least 6-8 places higher. Amanecer, Say Yay, and La Venda especially. How these entries ended up in the bottom 20 is beyond me. This year I knew Blas would be in the bottom, but mainly because of the poor results in preivous years and the no support and the low betting odds, but actually it’s one of my favourite songs this year. Dunno. Spain should try something similar to Bad Bunny, give… Read more »
I think Spain have been underrated (Amanecer and La Venda especially) but Manel getting more votes than Nathan, Isaiah and Levina in the televote in Kyiv was a yikes moment.
All I want is an urban female bop with Spanish elements – think Rosalía, Bad Gyal or Nathy Peluso.
Nathy Peluso is argentine, but I get your point and I agree
It was really sad to see what happened to Spain this year. Blas is an amazing singer and even if the song wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, you could tell he was really dedicated to the project throughout the Eurovision season. But it always seemed like his song wasn’t a priority in terms of publicity, not even in Spain (the documentary featured Switzerland, France, and Bulgaria before if I’m not mistaken). That’s not right especially that this is a very vulnerable time for him. That said, it is very weird to see Spain’s low scores every year for the past… Read more »
Dunno, I think Europe really has something against Spain. Even when they send good entries, they don’t score well.
Even Quédate Conmigo only got 18th place in televoting with only 45 points. Dancing in the Rain got 15th place in televoting with 41 points. Say Yay! got only 10 points from the televoters.
Those were all good entries with good staging and they still didn’t do well with the televoters.
Say Yay was a fun song with terrible staging… and songs like Quedate Conmigo were never televote favourites, unfortunately…
Aw come on. I can kinda see how you *could* make that excuse for the UK since they actually have any political controversy going for them, but Spain? Get real
If Israel can land 5th in the semi with all the controversy going on recently, you can’t genuinely think that people have a bias against Spain.
Its crazy how spain has one of the biggest music scenes in the world( an advantage almost no other eurovision participating country has) and refuses to send songs that sound like that. There is a reason that spanish music is so mainstream and artist like rosalia, j balvin, bad bunny, karol g and so on are doing so well.
Ps: i know most of the singers i mentioned are not actually from spain, but they all fall under the latin music genre and they all sing spanish so im still including all of them
Tbh, I was just thinking about that. Spain has this arsenal of artist, songwriters and composers in and outside of Spain but they don’t take full advantage of it. Kinda makes you wonder.
Most “Latin” singers these days are not Spanish singers themselves and mostly come from Puerto Rico, Colombia, Mexico, and Spanish Speaking Americans. Spanish artists have become irrelevant these days in the Latin Music Industry with the exception for La Rosalia and David Bisbal.
I don’t know, Spain was in my TOP 5 this year, I really loved their song and I liked the staging. I expected that juries would give them at least 100 points. I really don’t know what else they should do because it seems nothing works for them.
I really thought Blas is that type of artist that gets his country out of bad results record.
I think Universo could’ve placed around 15th-19th because it had an identifiable hook, which wasn’t the case this year.
Hope so, although we have heard this before…
I think the problem is indeed here. TVE has given up music and the entertainment department is filled with older people who are not at all in touch with trends or upcoming artists, unless they come from OT or any other of their former programs like Blas Cantó. As u can’t go from zero to hero, there’s no way you can go from Voy a Quedarme to Rosalía or C. Tangana in one year, but there’s plenty of lesser known yet popular acts that are actually very good and could fare well at Eurovision, check out “Azul Marino” by Delaporte,… Read more »
You spat all the facts, I would only add a couple things:
1. That the Spanish eurofans have been very mistreated and ignored throughout the recent years by RTVE.
2. Aitana could also be another good act to represent Spain atm
I see this shake up as such a good thing. So many good songs this year say the audience won’t put up with mediocre.
This years entry is definitely no “Quedate conmigo” by Pastora Soler…
In my opinion, Blás song was boring. I could not connect to it at all.
I could even connect to Black Mamba. But not Blás…
spain could come top 10 every year, they just refuse to send stuff people want to listen to for whatever reason
the standards of eurovision after the victory of maneskin are in the highest level ever. You wont do well by sending every year safe ballads without staging.
Big5 countries (well that goes to spain uk and germany actually) need to realize one simple thing.
a typical eurofan doesn’t hate them for being able to perform at the final instead of other countries who NQed. a typical eurofan understands that money is important in modern world. not everyone wants this to happen, but they understand it. a typical eurofan just won’t vote for a song that’s staged badly (uk), is plainly annoying (germany) or just incredibly cheesy (spain)
Invite CNCO. Win the televote.
pls no one thinks boybands that don’t come from east asia are cool in 2021
Hah! 😉
But still televoters vote so well for things like Sugar and Loco Loco!
Only those from South Korea, there’s no successful (in the west) boy band from Japan, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc.
They wouldn’t, though. There’s not too many latin americans in Europe, and most aren’t too fond of Spain.
They have to be residents living in Spain first and foremost.
That’s a bizarre prerequisite that would have rules out several contenstants this year.
Betty Missiego (1979) was originally from Peru but has already been holding Spanish citizenship years before she took part in ESC.
I know there’s no particular requirement from the EBU that a selected singer must be from the country they’re repping, but Spain tend to not veer elsewhere in finding a performing as majority if not all of their acts are Spanish citizens or are residing in Spain.
All members of CNCO are Americans, not Spaniards lmao
What makes you think I don’t know that, sweetie—that’s why I used the word ‘invite’.
Well, first, they haven’t sent a Latin act since 1994 or 1995 I think.
Second, CNCO, although they sing in Spanish, struggle a lot with their Spanish interviews and end up speaking in Spanglish, which is something that is hated by Latin Americans and especially in Spain, home to RAE.
I doubt they’d want to send a band who is not from Spain but also who struggle with Spanish.
It’s about time for a change. Spain needs to get out of this failure hole.
I really don´t understand why Spain has so bad results…They already tried everything, they have great singers and great performers but nothing works for them :/
You missed one important thing. They had great singers, performers, etc. But they didn’t have a great song.
Flamenco.Authentic flamenco!One of my favourite style of singing and there are so many talented singers in Spain now these days omg!From classy-to rap-flow-flamenco.Great voices!Spesial!Touchy!And NOBODY has is but Spain.Please do think about it….
That’s going to be AMAZING ))
Totally agree. Especially something with pop / jazz fusion or a more modern twist to it. Bring in the spanish guitar. God knows flamenco artists need help after the pandemic. Someone young and modern with great rhythm would be a great bet.
“Not winning Eurovision is not a symptom of failure. There are many songs who did not get the glass microphone, yet they remained in memory. „
That is indeed true, but the question is if there are any spanish entries that are actually memorable.
Suddenly, the only thing from the last six spanish entries that comes in my mind, is Manel Navarros failed note. There were actually songs, that werent that bad, but well… they all lacked to stay in my head.
La Venda was actually a good song. But RTVE ruined it with the staging.
And thats why a lot failed to make an impact. For the live shows, staging is such an important fact. It can ruin great songs but on the other hand lift up mediocre songs (f.e. 10 Years goes in that category).
la venda was cringy and kinda dated – very 2016.. and staging was even worse yeah..
Agreed, especially the person who thought it was a good idea to have Miki dancing during the long notes. Do the dancing in between the vocals.
La Venda was good until they revamped it.
Ireland’s RTE needs to follow suit. 1/7 qualifications (2014-2021) isn’t good enough from such a talented country, periodt.
oh fancy seeing you here
Great minds think alike 😉 I’m sure you agree with my statement?
the way Ireland 2014 and 2015 were robbed in broad daylight
ireland 2015 i agree, but ireland 2014 no. i can easily see why they didn’t make it both times as much as i loved playing with numbers
heartbeat was so good don’t even lie. a bop and a half
Do you not think it fell pretty flat on the stage though?
thought it was great. want a fan favourite song from 2014 with horrendous staging and a horrendous song, look no further than same heart
i cant recall a time in recent memory that i have lied. heartbeat was a pretty deserved NQ, the staging was a mess and the vocal was pretty weak. playing with numbers should’ve been top 10 in the final though
it was clearly a joke bye (abt you lying, not abt heartbeat should have been in the final)
Apparently Ireland’s HoD isn’t going anywhere. He’s adamant to stay and blames Ireland’s qualification record on RTÉ underfunding Eurovision projects or any ideas he has. I expect at least another decade of poor Irish results before Michael Kealy retires.