Mascletà! La Generalitat Valenciana, the regional government of Valencia has confirmed it is involved with RTVE’s Eurovision project. The government and the broadcaster will announce further details on Thursday. The event is to be held in Benidorm, the region’s most touristic city.
On Saturday, the regional government announced on their social media that they were preparing an “event related to Eurovision” in Benidorm together with RTVE. The city’s administration will also be involved.
??? @RTVE y la Generalitat ultiman un acuerdo para un gran evento relacionado con Eurovisión en Benidorm https://t.co/eDQtiVdmMV vía @informacion_es
? El proyecto contará con la colaboración del Ayuntamiento y se conocerán las novedades el próximo jueves
— Generalitat (@generalitat) July 17, 2021
On a more political note, the move is quite an unusual one. It’s worth noting that the Generalitat (you should learn that name) has a left-wing coalition government, while Benidorm’s mayor is one of the closest allies of the conservative party leader in the region. This is what you call building bridges.
Later, on Sunday, the region’s head of government Ximo Puig also tweeted about the news. Puig (PSOE, Spain’s equivalent to Labour) has been trying to build himself a reputation in Europe and is particularly active on the Committee of Regions. His tweet comes as no surprise then:
“We’re working with RTVE to make sure Benidorm will be a meeting point of what we need the most right now: music, Europe and diversity. We’ll communicate the details on Thursday. Good news for the Region of Valencia’s emotional and touristic reactivation”.
Estamos trabajando con RTVE para que Benidorm pueda ser un punto de encuentro de lo que más necesitamos ahora: música, Europa y diversidad.
El jueves comunicaremos todos los detalles.
Buenas noticias para la reactivación emocional y turística de la Comunitat Valenciana. pic.twitter.com/9hTCliJzQw
— Ximo Puig (@ximopuig) July 18, 2021
Festival de Benidorm in 2022?
Now, the question is: which kind of event will RTVE hold in Benidorm? Festival de Benidorm was Spain’s version of Festival di Sanremo. The festival launched in 1959 and it was last held in 2006.
For years, it was a referent for Spanish music, but in the later years, the contest’s popularity faded until it was discontinued in 2006. During its later years, it was known as an outdated and old-fashioned show, and its songs had little mainstream success.
Ever since it was cancelled, there have been several attempts to bring it back. However, that didn’t eventuate, and the city has opted for a more mainstream approach to music and hosts several summer festivals now. Low Festival is the best known, and artists like Foals, Bastille or Phoenix performed recently (pre-pandemic).
Benidorm and Eurovision? An untried formula
Coral Segovia — a Spanish fan favourite in the last decade — was one of the last winners of the festival in 2005. She would later go on to finish second twice in Spain’s national selection, in 2008 and 2010. Barei entered in 2001, as part of a duo, but she didn’t win.
Spain has used small-scale national finals to select its act in recent years, including Mira quién va a Eurovisión, the drama-filled Objetivo Eurovisión and the talent show Operación Triunfo. RTVE internally selected Blas Cantó for 2020 and 2021.
Are you excited about Spain’s new national selection? What do you expect from RTVE? Will 2022 see the birth of Spain’s golden age at Eurovision? Let us know in the comment section below!
My friends and I go to Benidorm every year, and one local act caught our attention, we call the Baldy and Two Bats. They do quite a repulsive magic trick with some baseball bats- it’s the hight of culture!
Here in Benidorm we have culture for all kinds of people. It is clear what type of people you and your friends are.
We visit the tacky side, it is horrible and does attract England’s most obnoxious and boorish. Of course that is only a sample of the town, the Spanish people are lovely and patient, and the town does have it’s charms.
I have noticed there is a large cultural centre being built on (I think) Avd. Europa? But it’s been a building site for the last few years- do you know it?
Nothing wrong with songs being in Spanish.
Apparently it seems Italy’s victory has motivated Spain to try to copy Sanremo by having Festival de Benidorm serve as its NF for Eurovision. I obviously hope this will bode well for Spain at Eurovision but I’m not so sure.
Glad to see Spain taking a different approach to Eurovision. Whatever they do, it for sure won’t be as bad as the national/internal selections they’ve had in the past. Onwards and upwards for Spain!
In 2000 a song won which was also in Spanish NF that year!
I’m positive but cautious. Let’s not forget that we’re talking about RTVE, a corporation that is unable to create any kind of hype in the spanish population (I’m not even talking about Eurovision, RTVE as a whole is really bad at promoting and supporting their projects), and we’re talking about the Benidorm Festival, it died years ago for a reason…
Don’t they usually work/coordinate with ESC fan organizations with preview events such as PreParty ES?
Ehhh not really? I think RTVE has nothing to do there, they don’t even help with promotion. The closest level of coordination I can imagine is Victor Escudero collaborating with Eurovision-Spain, and I think that’s more his personal decision than a RTVE thing.
That’s strange considering the near-broadcast quality that the past PreParty ES online shows have been, including being able to acquire clips from EBU broadcasters taking part, and such acquisition requires money.
Senior singing competition in benidorm?
Let’s hope some established artists enter (Lola Indigo, Aitana, Pol Granch…) or maybe some indie artists (Amber Lucid)
oh really hahah? saw her on “Elite” and automatically thought she was Spanish… thank you for the correction:)
I want this to be a really good change for Spain (imagine Spain having a constant and succesful NF as Italy), but we also have to be realistic. If the same people stays in charge of organising a NF (hum, Toñi Prieto dimisión), no improvement on Eurovision will be seen. Even if it’s a good song the one who emerges as a winner, if RTVE don’t give freedom of staging to artists, the entry will flop, no matter how expensive (2019) a staging is.
Paellas for everyone!
I know that’s hard to blindly trust any RTVE’s move concerning Eurovision, but I’m cautiously optimistic. Hopefully Spain is finally finding its path to success. Though as the article pointed, even more important than coming up with a big festival, it will be to find the right people to bring the right artists and songs to the stage. May we have good news on that on Thursday!
Sanremo who?
Jokes aside, this is such a positive development from Spain. More countries should have their own musical festivals to attract established artists.
Sanremo is Sanremo (period).
All countries should invest in having this kind of festivals. I am happy for this development and I wish the best for this revival, Spain deserve it. Love from Italy.
I’m scared that the level of the songs will be beyond bad, but who knows!
So it seems clear this will be a reboot of Festival de Benidorm as the Spanish NF for Eurovision. Since the regional and local governments are heavily involved, it will be interesting to know how much say RTVE will have over the song selection. Will they create an organizing committee? May RTVE’s role be reduced to telecasting the event? Intrigued to know more.
I am excited to welcome you to my beautiful city