¡Vámonos! Preparations for Benidorm Fest 2023 are already underway. On Wednesday, RTVE held the first meeting with the local authorities — that’s the regional government and the city of Benidorm.
Spain is off to an early start for Eurovision 2023, and it’s planning to go big with its national selection. Benidorm Fest will include a fan zone, the Benidorm Fest Village, and there are plans to have an audience of up to 8,000 people inside the venue.
Regional deputy for Tourism, Herick Campos, explained they are looking to “maximize” the number of people who will be able to enjoy Benidorm Fest live in the city.
? Comienza la preparación del #BenidormFest2023 ?
— Generalitat (@generalitat) May 16, 2022
? Se ampliará la capacidad del ? Palacio de l’Illa de Benidorm
? Se creará el Benidorm Fest Village ?
??? Música, visita de participantes, actos culturales, exposiciones y charlas
? @gvaturismehttps://t.co/wwPQ4H0Mnx pic.twitter.com/OeguWWvElC
Earlier last month, the regional government Generalitat Valenciana already stated their intentions. They want a bigger audience and more events during the festival week, spreading the love across more of the city.
This year’s edition was extremely profitable, and they want to ride that wave. And you know, with almost half a million hotel rooms in Benidorm alone, this can blow up.
Benidorm’s walk of fame
At this point, there are several ideas on the table for next year. One of them is establishing of a Walk of Fame in Benidorm with the winners of Benidorm Fest. Chanel, of course, would be the first one.
As Bluper reports, this walk of fame would be located along one of the crowded Benidorm beaches. The idea at this point would be inaugurating it this Summer, together with the Benidorm Fest 2023 presentation.
What’s unclear so far is the date for that. Apparently, the anniversary of last year’s first press conference is on the table (July 22nd). However, as we’ve already learned, other dates are on the table, and it could even happen this month.
Benidorm Fest is going big for 2023, and wiwibloggs will be there for sure! Stay tuned for all details about Spain’s exciting national selection. Sound off in the comment section below!
I’m glad this method seems to have at least worked once for Spain, especially after such a long string of subpar results. Germany should seriously take notes, or at least… have someone else involved with the song selection because NDR is seriously holding the country back
María Isabel won Junior Eurovision in 2004 with Antes Muerta que Sencilla, which is flamenco, so that could be a great idea.
ROSALÍA TO REPRESENT SPAIN
As Petra said: a week of Eurovision partying in Benidorm is a dream come true for any true homosex… Eurovision fan.
That’s a little bit the problem: when European thinks of Spanish music genres they think about a different thing than what we Spaniards think. For example, for Spaniards, SloMo is not really a Spanish genre song. It is a nice international song, specifically, it is something a North American with a Latin origin would do, I think of JLo or Camila Cabello, for example. Flamenco is indeed real Spanish, so I would love some flamenco meets current music style, something like the first Rosalía used to do, or what C Tangana is currently doing.
And that’s why, even if I’m not a big fan of “SloMo” (as a song song, because the performance was great), I’m glad Chanel got a great result. Now Spain can build up from a successful first edition of Benidorm Fest and make it become a big permanent thing that eventually will take Eurovision back to the country. As a bonus, Chanel received a lot of love after those awful weeks of online bullying when she was just doing her job and doing it very well.
Yes, I am very happy for them and Chanel <3
The Tongo stuff is just making me think about all the people getting up in arms when Alina Pash got disqualified. Not only did it turn out they were totally right, I would like to think the result they wound up with probably justified the option they chose.
Benidorm can become even bigger than melodifestivalen but i am afraid that the walk of fame can turn to a walk of shame if an act doesnt bring good results. Spanish eurofans are now known for their love and support to spanish acts, apart Chanel who realized late that she can win
Thank the lord, somebody mentioned an actual Spanish music style! If I heard one more moron say “wHy DoEsN’t SpAiN sEnD rEgGaEtÓn?” I would’ve jumped out a window
The reggaeton trend is over. So don’t worry, Spain won’t send a reggaeton song.
“Quiero…casarmel contigo!”
I feel like Spain has finally found the right way to choose their entries and become successful. Really looking forward to next year!
Seeing Spain create a new format and come third from it made me happy. Seeing Spain take ESC this seriously is absolutely fantastic!
I remember you being skeptical all the way up to Chanel being selected and now look what’s happened!
I KNOW! I hated SloMo on first listen and had many doubts for this NF. I thought Tanxugueiras should win cus I thought they would do really well at ESC, but then upon watching the shows I was like: “It’s Chanel or you place bottom 5 Spain! make the right choice!”
And they did! : )
On an unrelated note: 19 Countries have already confirmed their 2023 participation and Montenegro is one of them. I am kind of surprised they didn’t withdraw TBH.
Yeah, it’s remarkable that so many countries have already confirmed when we don’t even really know the next host country. San Marino and Poland also confirmed they’d compete, and the poll Romania’s broadcaster ran ended in favor of them competing so let’s see what happens there.
I mainly thought Montenegro would withdraw for the same reasons they did in 2019 rather than the cheating sandal.
They really are trying to make it a big local festival like Sanremo or FiK and I commend them for that. Spain are discovering the benefits of thinking big and it already paid off this year. Here’s hoping they keep shooting for the moon!
Hey everyone! Let’s protest against the tongo bandwagon. Tongo is a b*tch!
Becca, what in the good hecking gosh are you talking about?
I love “SloMo”, but I want to protest against ‘tongo’
Well…you shouldn’t. Life’s too short.
Like, I’m just trying to figure out your thought process here: you see the post, you see it doesn’t mention Tongo (whoever he/she/they/it is/are), you nevertheless feel Tongo being a b*tch is a fact in desperate need of being spread around, so you post it on a completely unrelated article.
It’s a way of saying that the contest was rigged for Chanel this year, public should have all the power and juries none. I think “tongo” is a scam of some sort.
That’s…so dumb. Becca, let me clear this up for you: Chanel’s selection was completely on the level and Junior Eurovision isn’t that big a deal. Sorry to disappoint.
And in the end, much as I loved Terra, the juries were bang-on: Slo-Mo was exactly the shot in the arm Spain needed and the final results bore that out. We need them.
As much as I wanted Terra, a few minutes was all I needed to get over their loss. Yes the public wanted Terra and if the jury ranked Tanxu one place higher they would have won, but Benidorm was IMO the strongest national selection this year and it was nowhere near a Manel Navarro situation. Chanel was a deserving winner and her whole team deserved that top 3 finish in Torino. At this stage it’s ridiculous to call out Tongo after all the newfound hype Spain received from choosing Chanel.
Sometimes, you’ve gotta think about the greater good. Plus, their staging was about as messy as Alvan and Ahez’s wound up being and look what happened to them. Poor guys.
If the demoscopic jury had ranked Rigoberta Bandini one place higher, a difference of only 0.36%, she would have won, it was really close.
Agreed.
(The JESC part isn’t relevant to this, just to Becca’s quite frankly uncomfortable obsession with the thing. I like it fine, but…y’know…limits)
When I said “Tongo is a b*tch”, I meant that “tongo” is one of the ugliest words ever created, and I wanted to protest against people who thought Benidorm Fest was rigged.
Do you beep when you back up that fast? Don’t joke me. You shouldn’t have even brought it up in the first place and now you’re trying to backpedal once you saw your opinion wasn’t supported by anyone else here.
Good luck to them! I love countries being serious and excited about Eurovision!