Spain’s RTVE spent almost 705,000 euros on Eurovision 2021, making this edition one of the cheapest for Spain this decade. The broadcaster hasn’t spent so little since Edurne’s run in 2015, when there was no national selection.
The budget-conscious will be pleased to read that Blas Cantó‘s Eurovision entry cost less than all recent entries besides Edurne in 2015 and ESDM in 2013.
In fact, counting both the contest and the national selection, Spain spent less in 2021 than it did on Miki’s Eurovision entry, without counting the selection. It still cost less even if you add in 2020, when a mere 64,000 euros was spent on preparations.
Eurovision 2021: RTVE spent less than it initially planned
Fact-checking site Maldita.es revealed the total amounts of Spain’s participation: 475,248.38 euros on the contest itself, and 229,588.44 on the national selection. That was the show that helped pick “Voy a quedarme” over “Memoria” in a two-hour gala with a zillion guests, if you remember.
Initially, RTVE had programmed a budget of 617,403.27 euros for Eurovision 2021 (the contest itself), which means it saved almost 25% of its planned spend. With Blas coming 24th in the final, one does wonder whether it would have been better to pump a little more cash in it.
Indeed, Maldita reveals some parts of the budget were even left untouched. That’s the case of “wardrobe”, which had been allocated 3,000 euros. Blas jumped on stage wearing just a loose black shirt and a pair of black trousers, so it’s not really surprising.
The Moon was not rising (the budget)
On paper, RTVE had planned to spend 63,300 euros on the artistic dimension of its entry, but it used just 37,000. That moon rose, the budget did not.
However, the data published by RTVE doesn’t detail how much the prop costed. The whole budget for staging was 19,148 euros. It may not seem much, but it made Blas feel like he was in the clouds.
“I feel as if I were in heaven with her […] I promised her the moon, and here is her moon”, Blas explained during an interview with William in Rotterdam.
If you are curious, Bluper published some weeks ago that you could buy a very similar moon on Aliexpress for over 100 euros. Think about it, you’d nail it at a Eurovision costume party dressing up as Blas for not so much!
What do you think about Spain’s budget? Should RTVE have spent a bit more? Did you think the Moon cost more? Was it money well spent? Let us know in the comment section below!
I really thought the moon was a left over prob from last year….Universo
For me that made much more sense
But Last Dance was a great song and Stefania performed it well live. Had they staged it in the style of Russia 2016 (or like the music video) they would’ve done better.
That’s a hell of a lot of money for such poor result.
Did they actually spend more in 2017 and 2018?? OMG, the Spanish broadcaster is a mess.
And you just noticed lol?
yes so what? It’s not like i am a Spanish taxpayer, poor them though.
It’s nice that RTVE publishes the budget and where it went, nothing too specific though, but it still gives a good view on what different things cost.
I wish he’d sang the English language version with the piano and everything stripped back musically. He would have done so much better in expressing the emotion of the song
Greece’s staging was indeed memorable… not for the right reasons though.
“We’re doing something nobody else has ever done before!”
There’s a reason nobody else had done it.
Still better than what Spain did though
Now I finally know what they did with my tax money – oh wait, that’s Spain and I’m from Germany. My mistake 😉
Germany seems pretty budget this year do your money should be safe
I think what really matters here is HOW they’re using that money, not the amount they have.
Producers: ok Greece, what you need, fireworks, pyro, lights, explosions, props?
Greece: Green… we just need green
Wouldn’t it be cool if all countries publish their budgets for their participation in Eurovision 2021? I bet a lot of people would have a lot of fun analyzing which entry brought the most bang of the buck.
Pretty sure Malta spent tons of cash
Same amount as Spain, mostly on the advertising. 🙂
I mean, they made a dope and expensive staging with a good song for 2019 and got virtually blanked by the juries. I can understand why they’ve become reluctant to throw much money at this.
it may have been expensive but it sure wasn’t dope… it kinda looked cheap tbh
Whenever I see some of the huge sums of money spent on Eurovision participation (and Spain 2021 was apparently very cheap in comparison), I just don’t understand where all the money goes…
There are a lot of factors we have to take into consideration such as promotion (hi Malta), national finals, participation fees, all the team behind the song and staging (choreographers, dancers, the entire delegation, creative directors, and their stays at the hotel and their transportation to the venue), all the props, a large etcetera…
230.000€ to create that terrible national selection. This is not about money, RTVE has more than enough. This is about the team behind, they have no idea of what they’re doing. What a mess.
Imagine a Balkan country with that budget ..
well… the budget was not the problem… the main problem was the song and the artist to begin with. Blas seems like a great person but I knew from the moment he was announced that he would struggle to get top 20 since he is so vanilla.
How much of the budget REALLY went for ESC is unknown though
no, i don’t think throwing more money into this would’ve saved it
I don’t care about money wasted on contest. Garage bands of my childhood didn’t know word “studio” and still created great music. And staging is not that important (Portugal 2017 can prove). Just bring good song.
Portugal 2017 had a really beautiful and thoughtful staging. Obv it would all go to hell if the song was weak, byt the LED was beautiful and putting him in front of such a big audience was a great move.
I mean more gimmicks than staging itself. It was minimalistic. It would be bad without song and without performer.
Lol give that money to any Balkan nation and they’ll win the contest xD
Give that money to Montenegro and they’ll put together a 6-piece girl group who’ll crash into the stage with the cars they spent their last budget on, plus designer wardrobe, celebrity songwriters and lots of hair extensions and fake tan. Oh, and designer wardrobe.
Well, they’d only need a famous songwriter (read: Kirkorov) to get lots of 12s xD
That is, from juries.
I guess we’ll never know if he has any power over the televote 🙂
i didnt know that it would cost 20,000 euros to have some lights and an inflatable moon – the most uninspired staging in years imo
Let’s see if we could break it down to how much it was spent on:
Sir, I don’t think you realize how big a life-zie moon would actually be lol
hhahaha
Haha. “A fraction of a life-sized moon” then. hehe
Maybe not inspired, but it was the only one with the moon. Besides that we had how many countries “inspired” by the 80s with pink and lasers all over the screen?
I just kept on thinking of zelda Majroa’s Mask haha