ana maria bordas

Llegan los cambios: Spain’s Eurovision Head of Delegation, Ana María Bordás, has been named Entertainment and Outreach director of national broadcaster RTVE.

Bordás’ new responsabilities will fall under the newly created area of General Content, headed by Amalia Martínez de Velasco.

This change implies that Bordás will no longer be the director of Spain’s Eurovision entries. RTVE’s statement reads: “Until now, Bordás was head of International Projects and Head of Delegation at the Eurovision Song Contest”.

Update: The statement makes no reference to  Toñi Prieto. However, RTVE confirmed to Wiwibloggs that she’ll continue on duty, now under the direction of Ana María Bordás.

RTVE also confirme that Eurovision will be included in Bordás’ department. Nevertheless, there is no information regarding a new HoD, nor the department’s organigram.

In short: Ana María Bordás is the new Director of Entertainment and Outreach of the whole RTVE corporation. Toñi Prieto stays as Entertainment Director for TVE (the television only). The Eurovision delegation is included on Bordás’ direction, but it’s unknown if Prieto will be involved with it. ¿Te has enterado?

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.

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.

RTVE is going to take Eurovision “very seriously”

The broadcaster’s new Executive President José Manuel Pérez Tornero spoke recently about the contest. In a press meeting, he explained, “We’re going to take Eurovision very seriously.” He further added, “We are the only public television [broadcaster] in Spain which is a part of the EBU and we’re interested in the event.”

Pérez Tornero also showed interest in keeping “contact with young people in their European context”. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, given the high interest coming from young viewers.

What do you think about this change? Will it boost Spain’s approach to Eurovision? What do you expect for Eurovision 2022? Let us know in the comment section below!

This article is in development. Stay tuned for further updates.

Read more Spain Eurovision news here

23 Comments
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Alex
Alex
3 years ago

As expected, RTVE is all words and no actions. Ashamed of my national television, we don’t deserve this level of corruption…

Efraim
Efraim
3 years ago

For now this looks like a case of “changing everything so that nothing changes”, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Waterdegree
3 years ago

If We want real changes for 2022 we need real changes!!

Hello hi
Hello hi
3 years ago

She doesn’t look too happy about the new job

Gurl
Gurl
3 years ago

So Bordas got promoted after 5 bottoms in Eurovision?
I love Spain ^^

Magnusio
Magnusio
3 years ago

They should just start hosting a contest to determine the song and artist selected. Makes everything so much better. Take sweden, Italy and Norway as example.

Grace
Grace
3 years ago

I’m sorry to say that I think everything will stay the same. Actually they are the same people doing the same job.

willchrisiam
willchrisiam
3 years ago

“We’re gonna take Eurovision more seriously by keeping things pretty much the same”…

Denis
Denis
3 years ago

Wait, isn’t the Head of Delegation responsible for the acts and songs selected? Then why is head of Entertainment suddenly taking charge of that? In most countries the HoD id also the main person behind the selection..

James
James
3 years ago
Reply to  Denis

From what I can figure, the HOD works hand in hand with whoever is running a broadcaster’s entertainment/music department, varies by country of course.

The national selections may be run by producers who are not necessarily a part of the delegation but work closely with them, and with people from the music industry year after year.

Grft
Grft
3 years ago
Reply to  Denis

The French HoD is also head of entertainment

esc1234
esc1234
3 years ago

the moment toni prieto is out is the moment when spain will thrive in the contest.

Saul
Saul
3 years ago
Reply to  esc1234

What is wrong with toni prieto?

?

Vanuatu
Vanuatu
3 years ago
Reply to  Saul

Her daughter works in music industry and she (Toni) is the one that have chosen artists/songs both for internal selectionts or preselectionts in eurovision for spain. There is a huge conflict on interest with her. She also is (was) the one in charge of budget, and there is a lot of corruption around her. By example, the moon for Blas this year cost around €200 and everyone could buy it online in amazon/ebay/aliexpress… however TVE spent around €400k in eurovision this year… Edurne and Manel (this one was the turning point, she was even investigated by spanish congress) were both… Read more »

canada_piano
canada_piano
3 years ago

i really want to see spain doing well at the contest. i am very happy that they are very serious about this and really going for it!

the bbc look like they dont want anything to do with this contest. at this point they should give the job to itv. or withdraw.

Jeriswani
Jeriswani
3 years ago
Reply to  canada_piano

Exactly what I’m thinking, It’s really disturbing that the first country to get double nil points seem a to not think it’s not a big enough issue to make changes. They’ve been completely silent about it. I genuinely believe that the current big 5 system doesn’t work in the UK. The thing about the culture in when it comes to big business in the UK is if you don’t give them any punishment/incentive to do well they simply won’t. They will just carry on providing poor quality. As long as the BBC get a fast track into the final no… Read more »

James
James
3 years ago
Reply to  canada_piano

What makes you think ITV would do a better job? From the people who cover the topic of ESC always have nothing respectful to say about it except vitriol.

canada_piano
canada_piano
3 years ago
Reply to  James

its more of a risk i guess. if itv doesnt do well for 2 or 3 years then give it back to the bbc. itv do put a lot of money into singing competitions so they could organise a good nf tho

Azaad
Azaad
3 years ago
Reply to  canada_piano

The BBC is seen as the official public broadcaster of the UK, so it gets to represent the BBC at international events.

James
James
3 years ago
Reply to  canada_piano

ITV once took part in JESC. Despite actually doing well in the first two years, they left and never returned following its third appearance.

Roo
Roo
3 years ago
Reply to  James

The British have become sarcastic about everything. That is the problem with so many issues in Britain today.

willchrisiam
willchrisiam
3 years ago
Reply to  canada_piano

They could simply hire Nicola Caligiore and/or Eduardo Grassi as consultants. It would send a clear message that they were taking it seriously and putting in the work while not looking like they straight up outsourced the team. BBC looks great on a CV so it’s a win-win.

Richard
Richard
3 years ago

I hope this means Toñi is on her way out.