Although Eurovision 2023 has just recently concluded, things are already moving quickly in Spain. Last Saturday, Blanca Paloma earned Spain a 17th place in the competition. Nonetheless, Spanish broadcaster RTVE is already looking ahead and has provided fans with new information about Benidorm Fest 2024.
As RTVE confirms, Benidorm Fest will again serve as the pre-selection to determine Spain’s representative for the 68th Eurovision Song Contest. The rules are already out, so they come with some news.
Benidorm Fest 2024 news
Unlike previous editions, artists will now have a significantly longer window of time to submit their entries. Starting on Tuesday 16 May and extending all the way until 10 October, they now have nearly five months to prepare their submissions. By making this change, RTVE is aiming to encourage more artists and composers to participate in the process, particularly those who are well-known and highly regarded.
Once again, the call for submissions emphasises that producers will consider songs with performers, but also songs that have yet to find one. You may recall last year’s “SloMo,” who Chanel took and brought the song all the way to third place at Eurovision 2022.
Another point now specifies that “the performance must be sung live without instruments and without voice-distorting or enhanced effects”, which used to be just “live and without effects.” The new rules now state RTVE will cover “participation in programmes and promotion” as well as “availability to the public on YouTube.” Additionally, RTVE now requests that the participants, including finalists, attend specific events hosted by the channel such as Benidorm Summer Fest 2024 or Benidorm Fest 2025.
Benidorm Fest 2024 procedure
As for the entire process, Benidorm Fest 2024 will again consist of four phases. During the first phase, submissions are open so artists can either submit their songs or be invited to participate. RTVE will also be able to match an invited singer with a submitted song. Phase two is the song selection process. A jury comprised of music professionals and RTVE staff will pick up to 16 participants and six back-up acts, who will move on to the third phase. Phases three and four will be the two semi-finals and final of Benidorm Fest 2024.
The rules governing the voting process remain also unchanged. Half of the votes will come from the professional jury, with the other half being split between the public vote (25% televote) and a demographically representative sample of the Spanish population (also 25%). In the event of a tie or technical issues, the winner will be determined based on the highest score given by the professional jury.
The complete document with all the rules, 19 pages long, can be consulted here.
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Spain: The Benidorm phenomena
If anything, Benidorm Fest seems to have revived Spain’s enthusiasm for Eurovision. During its first edition, the final of Benidorm Fest drew 3 million viewers to the TV and Eurovision 2022 became Spain’s fifth most-watched contest. This year, Benidorm Fest attracted nearly 2 million viewers, which it notably up on the ratings for the 2021 song selection show. Not to mention, artists who have participated in Benidorm Fest have experienced a golden age in their musical careers in the following months. Rigoberta Bandini, Tanxugueiras, Varry Brava and Vicco are some of the participants to name a few.
A new edition is now in the making as Spain seeks its third Eurovision triumph following their last win 54 years ago. Blanca Paloma has already encouraged everyone to enter, as dreams can come true. ¿A qué esperas?
Are you excited for Benidorm Fest to return as the selection process for Spain ahead of Eurovision 2024? Who would you like to see participating next year? Tell us in the comments below!
great let’s bring it on
Rooting for Enrique Iglesias, La Oreja de Van Gogh, Melani Garcia, Pablo Alboran, and Alejandro Sanz to be in Benidorm Fest. And yes, Melani, who represented Spain at Eurovision 2019 and won the bronze, will turn 16 on June 10 – that’s already the Eurovision age.
Samantha Hundson
Benidorm always serves !
OT, but I’m just at the Let 3 concert! 🙂
Do you think the band enjoyed their Eurovision experience?
It’s hard to know what the real people behind all the silliness are actually like.
Absolutely! By all of their interviews I think that they are quite realistic when it comes to expectations, and they seem happy. Both Let and Luke later said that qualifying was the goal, and they are fine with the result.
My mom met Mrle a long time ago, and describes him as very smart, somewhat shy, and a nice person.
Thank you! I hope you enjoyed the concert last night, and get to do it all again next year.
They opened with Mama SC, and I was late for that. But I’ve heard a few other songs, and yes, the public loved it. It was performed on the city square, and people were constantly coming and going.
Out of context, but i think it is a topic that deserves an article on its own rather than a comment: if we exclude Michael who placed 4th, in the past 10 editions Germany scored 125 points, IN TOTAL. It is time for ARD to make a serious self-conscious evaluation of what is going wrong, if they don’t want the public interest of the contest in Germany to hit rock bottom…
They should just ditch jury vote in their national final and let people pick the song. This year wasn’t bad at all, it’s just that Kaarija took all the votes from the other side of audience that wanted something edgy and different so Germany couldn’t shine, and we knew jury would rank them dead last. In some other year they could get like 100 televotes.
They had a good song and act this year, but I think it is so unfortunate that 2020 was their best in such a long time. We’ll never know how that would have done.
Uff… So, let me get this straight – Andrew Lambrou had more points in this instance than Germany had in ten years (apart from Michael S.)… Let that sink in!
Cyprus’ MF reject is one of the two entries (along with Poland) I’m genuinely rating a 0/5 this year, so Mr. Lambrou should realize that his result is completely irrelevant and let that sink in…
Honestly, I don’t follow the Romanian fan outlets online (aside from YouTube) and I haven’t checked out media reactions either, what I can tell you is that general interest here is a lot lower than it used to be (not just this year, but in recent history) and that the overall sentiment online towards the broadcaster from the people that still follow is quite negative anyway, even more negative this year for sure.
Well, you’re going to have to cope that Andrew ALMOST got to the top 10. And there was a fair bit of televote for Poland TOO! Andrew has now paved the wave for a full national final: Cyprus are taking things seriously again!
I wish this Fest brings musical variety. Not just latin pop, I’m so sick of latin music. The more styles, the better because more people can be invested in one contestant or another.
Spain is the very first country to have placed in all spots from 1st to 26th place at least once at some point.
We have a record! Hooray!!!
Spain should have sent Agoney. He could have finished in the top 3 again. Hope this year’s fiasco with Blanca Paloma to be a lesson and for the future Spain will stop sending traditional music. No more flamenco or buleria!
SloMo was written by a Dutch man, let’s go back to him. The Dutch really can show off Spanish culture very well.
sloMo was written by almost 30 people all living and working in the US. At least it was in Miami where Spanish language is prevalent, lol.
although I didn’t like EaEa, but saying to stop sending traditional songs is stupid, unless you’re Spanish you’re technically have no say in this [I’m not].
Even if you are Spanish, what you can do is not vote for those songs in Benidorm Fest, and that’s it. I usually dislike turbofolk songs from Croatia, but I’d never say we shouldn’t have them at Dora. They just wouldn’t be the ones I’d vote for, but the majority should prevail.
EaEa didn’t really show off much of the potential of Spain’s flamenco side. The version we got was much slower and more like a performance piece, whereas Flamenco is normally a lot more upbeat. It has the potential to work with a poppier sound of you know what I mean.
A ton of ESC followers are just like little children, they need to have it “poppier” in order to make it palatable for them.
I have actually gone to Spain, have you? In Spain, Flamenco is MUCH MORE audience engaging and fast-paced. It’s like balroom dancing. In fact, elements of Cha Cha Cha are actually quite similar!
From our juries as usual yes. Sadly. Also our HoD.
Spanish televote only gave 5 points to Sweden tho despite a big marketing machinee.
Spanish locals really did prefer Norway and specially Finland. Everybody here loved them
I actually think getting 5 points from the televote was well deserved for the vast majority of the Spanish fandom. They bullied for months the girl who brought them the best result since 1995 but a clearly annoying song was overhyped and a threat for loreen. Let alone the way they treated artists at the Spanish pre parties. Let those 5 points sink in and do better.
so let me get this straight: blanca paloma deserved to flop because of spanish fans bullying chanel? seriously? i understand having problems with toxic fans, but there are toxic fans from every country and blanca paloma has absolutely nothing to do with them and only showed love and support to her competition
Blanks it’s not the problem.juries appreciated her song. The Spanish fans are
I think not only Spaniards are a bit too passionate about their entry.
did a spanish guy break your heart or something? why do you hate spanish fans so much? there’s nothing wrong with being proud of your eurovision entry especially if it showcases a beautiful part of your culture, maybe fans overrated eaea but to me it was brilliant. and im not even spanish
She should have come too 3 with the juries to compensate.
Oh, shut up.
Give me 5 reasons why. Each one for each point Spain got
OK, Megara can now come back
si
I’m so ready for Spain to send a girlbop once again.
Keep the floppy m*n out of this contest.
There should be a new rule for m*n to get banned from thus contest
Belgium’s five jurors all chose different number ones. Israel, Italy, Austria, Sweden, and Poland. Which one would you say was Alex Callier’s choice?
As a Hooverphonic fan, I’m just curious. I’d say Austria.
I am not familiar with Alex Callier, but judging Hooverphonic’ style i guess it is safe to exclude Israel and Poland. Hooverphonic is not quirky, so i would exclude Austria as well. I feel it’s most likely Sweden, maybe Italy.
I think he could identify with the whole 0.003 thing. I’ve been looking down this person’s other favourites… Czechia, Spain, Slovenia. I smell Alex. You could be right, though. I suppose they don’t tell us who is who to stop them being targeted, but it would be nice to know.
Sometimes one would be surprised based on the jury member’s own musical style, but my hunch would be dark pop songs – Sweden, Switzerland, and Bond-esque ballads – Estonia. Knowing Hooverphonic’s semi-alternative style, I am assuming he’d showered Latvia with points had they qualified from the semi.
No idea about Callier, but Konstrakta voted for Slovenia and Finland, and Loreen wasn’t even in her top 10. She called out the lack of diversity in the jury result. Albina Grcic said that the juries weren’t exchanging votes, as each had their own ballots, and were voting separately. Tomislav Štengl, the HOD of Croatia, said that he agrees that juries need to be reformed, and a bit reduced in comparison with the televote, as he noticed the same phenomenon as I did (and I believe that Mr. Štengl didn’t read my article on Wiwibloggs), but he mostly attributed it… Read more »
I disagree with the argument presented in point B), but I totally had the same vibes presented in point A). Keeping in mind that Loreen would have probably gotten the lead of the jury ranking anyway, and that Sweden is generally highly (and sometimes unfairly) ranked by judges, the over 350 points still feel inflated by something. Anyone who is familiar with Eurovision knows how much Euphoria has changed the contest, and it is almost impossible to split the modern history of the contest from Loreen. I am sure the judges, and to some extend the public, have been highly… Read more »
I’d hazzard a guess Lena Meyer Landrut’s win in 2010 had an equally important hand in changing the contest. She won in a time that people said the voting was all political and turned that on its head. She proved popular in many countries around Europe.
Konstrakta is right.
I wonder who Brooke Scullion gave her number one to. Ireland’s jurors went for Belgium, Belgium, Australia, and Finland.
Any other Eurovision artists I missed? I might have missed them under their real names.
My guess is Sweden. And by the way I’ve been listening to “The Magnificent Tree” by Hooverphonic a lot this past month. I grew to really like this band after they competed in ESC. They combine trip-hop with dreampop elements amazingly.
I agree! I love the ambience of their music.
Sweden, I guess? I feel that song, esp. the arrangement comparatively resembles more with Hooverphonic’s style (or at least their image for me.)
But I’d be very happy if he chose Austria!
Oh wait, I just this second realized you are talking about the Benidorm juries. M’apologies.
Spanish jury for Liverpool.
Aaron Sáez Escolana
Francisco Javier Viñolo Linares
Estafanía García
Marta Sánchez Gomez
Victoria Leonor Gómez
What do you know about these five?
Aaron is a member of Varry Brava, and Marta is Marta Sango 🙂 Vicky is the recurrent choregrapher for Spain at JESC, Francisco I think worked with Pastora Soler on her Eurovision performance and Estefanía works for RTVE radio I think.
Interesting, thank you.
Your loss. This just because all five Spanish jurors put Sweden as their number one, I suppose. What’s Spain’s motive here, would you say? I can’t think of one.
What else?
I hope you change your mind. Think of the songs you’ll miss. Maybe even Chanel will be back.
To be fair, at first Blanca Paloma was not a favourite of mine. I found her song hard to listen to for the most part of this season. It only changed with pre-parties that I got s*cked into the fandom bubble and started to like Blanca’s song. I should have stayed to my gut, which screamed NQ from the very first time. And, yes, I know Spain is an automatic Q. I think, Spain would have reached TOP-10 with either Alice Wonder, Megara or Fusa Nocta. While I love Agoney, I think he would have either went to the bottom… Read more »
Or maybe: like whatever you want irrespective of both what the bubble think and of the result?
…what? lol
I thought Blanca Paloma as a artist is superior, but the Eaea was very repetitive and screamy.. the first song she represented: Secreto de Algua was more mysterious and vocal more appealing I think
I wonder if Blanca’s disappointing result will affect how Spaniards vote next year.
Will they possibly go for the closest act to Chanel, or go for something completely different like a humourous act similar to Cha Cha Cha.
In all honesty, I doubt a performer like Chanel happens often. I wish Benidorm was spoiled for choice with artists of the level of Käärijä and Chanel every year, but it is not.
Same with Sam Ryder. It seems that the UK’s 2022 success will not be so easy to replicate without him.
The public chose Terra last year, which some could argue is similar in “different-ness” to EaEa.
Terra would’ve flopped as well.
I am quite sad about Bianca’s underperfomance. She definitely did not deserve the last spot of the public. However, I admit that despite she was in my top 5 before the start of the competition, on the Grand Final other favorites and dark horses shone more than her, and i could see her not placing in the top 15. It is not clear to me what she could have done differently. Maybe at first hear the song seemed better than it actually was. Looking forward to see what Benidorm brings next!
Nochentera owned eaea
TVE needs to find the way to involve locals in Benidormfest and the televote otherwise it’ll be again eurofan voting (Blanca Paloma) or artists fandom (Agoney)
Vicco was the one that got the local vote with any promo and push.
The way our televote votes at NF compared to Eurovision is very different.
As a British fan, I was a big Stan for Vicco but idk how well she would have done at Eurovision. She can sing but the Benidorm Fest version needed more polish, especially regarding her vocals whilst she is moving.
Nochentera is one big hit in Spain, has been during these last months. A lot of radio airplay. As a Vicco stan, feel happy for her success because she ended up being the real winner.
EUROVISION 2024:
15 females with dance breaks
15 “rock” bands
10 shirtless young males
It’s gonna be pheno………… I mean, it’s gonna be fun to watch. Spain, Italy and Finland have DEFINED Eurovision.
Eh, to me, Blanca Paloma’s result is very dismaying for the future of the contest. And the bands didn’t do all that great, unless you count Kaarija as a rock act.
Australia did well with the jury though!
20 mediocre english dynamic ballads that are trying to cover the song’s weaknesses by focusing on the overstylisized staging..
unless my memory is of that of a goldfish, but I don’t recall any “shirtless men” performing this year.
edit, apparently Kaarija was! LOL
30 Long nail box returnees
I feel really bad for Blanca tho, usually i feel like people most of the time deserve their placing, but Blanca gave some of the best vocals we have ever seen at eurovision, her song was outside of the box and represented her country, and the staging was excellent and tastefull. Now people are dragging her and downplaying her talent, simply because drunk fans around europe didnt “get” her
Next year when Spain sends a reggateon song with a woman shaking her booty i dont wanna see or hear a single comment about it being cheap or fake. Yall got Blanca and wasted her
If Spain sends reggaeton with a woman shaking her booty and fails, you’ll start seeing locals and media saying that “we have to send something more spanish!”. Spain is a country full of Captains Hindsight.
We Spaniards don’t think reggaeton represents us. It feels alien and more people are fed up of it for having it shoved down their throats for the last fifteen years.
Well, I have to disagree. Here in Spain, Reggaeton is everything the genzies listen to and barely nothing else.
Ditto. In the 10 years that I have watched this show, I didn’t think they’d send a performance like that; and trust me, I was mesmerized.
Is it just me, or was there too much red on stage; the outfits and especially the CGI screens?
Since we’ve had both ladies, I reckon we’re gonna get either a man or group, possibly rock or ethnic?
I think Benidorm Fest is one of the best national finals, despite we got 17th place this year. UMK is another one of the best national finals, despite The Rasmus got 21st place last year. Both of them are good entries, no matter the result, and both of the NFs lead to good performances.
“If anything, Benidorm Fest seems to have revived Spain’s enthusiasm for Eurovision”
It’s simpler than that: Spain likes this kind of contest, but it’s more “hate viewers” than enthusiasm. Out of the eurofan bubble, there is no respect for Eurovision, there is no respect for the artists. The first thing average viewers started saying after Eurovision was the typical “we have to send another Chikilicuatre”. Media is dragging Blanca Paloma through the mud (they’ll stop soon tho). Artists participating in Benidorm Fest have to be a bit crazy, because the chances of being destroyed by the toxicity are ridiculously high.
Being Spanish I am going to do my BEST not to follow the Benidorm Fest at all and just find out who represents Spain on Eurovision night. I find It really hard to witness so much toxicity towards a singer just because their final position in Eurovision, not to mention toxicity if one’s personal favourite IS not chosen.
A bit OT, but I honestly don’t know where to talk about it, and I want to: Which country messed-up the most with their NF choice? Sweden and Finland have obviously picked their most competitive choices (even if I’d like to think that Ylvoimainen would have also finished somewhere in top 10), but what about the rest? Italy (4th) – This is obviously a stellar result, and in a ”loud / ballad light” year, I’m not sure anything would have done better, necessarily. However, I do think that Lazza, Madame, Ultimo, Tananai, Colapesce & Dimartino, Mr. Rain, and Elodie would… Read more »
Part 2: Iceland (27th) – I didn’t expect this song to be the borderline, honestly, so kudos on that! With the better staging, Celebs would have likely qualified. Latvia (28th) – Patrisha and Raum were also very good, and likely both would have qualified from semi 2, as Sudden Lights would’ve too. As it is, I think that Latvia made absolutely the right choice, and it’s such a shame that they failed to qualify! Ireland (31st) – Yes, Connolly! A much better choice! With a revamp, and the right staging, they would stand a chance to qualify. And even if… Read more »
You’ve already said it all, I agree with mostly everything you say. For me, the most egregious mistake was Denmark. “Lige her” was by far my preference, and what makes it sting more is the voting calamity in the Danish final.
I like Lige her much more than I do Breaking My Heart. Soren’s song is sophisticated.
Malta’s score for what should have been a televote-friendly song is extremely distressing.
Dilja is someone I wouldn’t mind at all coming back if she has a stronger song.
I don’t think Romania would have qualified with anything, but they wouldn’t have been dead on arrival.
You can still name 30 San Marino candidates? I’m impressed!
”You can still name 30 San Marino candidates? I’m impressed!” By looking at the recap, I can recall which ones were absolutely abysmal. Could I name them by memory… Probably not. But I imagine that 0 points would have been even juicier with a trainwreck like the songs from Jenny May, Ciro De Luca, the woman with the ball who sang the first evening or the Wicca lady. 🙂
Regarding Malta, you’re thinking what I was thinking when I first heard the song. Almost reminiscent of Lake Malawi (Czechia 2019).
Iceland picked wrong, they had two better options, if they had come to their senses and ditched Kristin’s gown and guitar combination, then three. Latvia picked right, every more indie sounding entry would have apparently struggled in this semi. Ireland had no real options, Denmark should have probably gone with “Lige her” in hindsight, because Soren at least could sing, the song wouldn’t have made too many waves, though. San Marino picked wrong if they wanted to qualify, and more than that wasn’t possible.
Yeah, more and more thinking about it, and Soren would’ve been Denmark’s best choice. Even if he’d NQd, we’d talk about him like we do about Latvia and Georgia, not like we do about Reiley’s NQ.
Onto the SFs. Iceland sent a bad song but had a national final full of bad songs. They were going to NQ regardless of what they sent. I wish they had at least bothered to send something a bit more original and a bit more stand out. Just a completely lost year. Latvia sent their best song but when you’re talking about 10th place, you’re talking about fine margins. Raum and Patrisha would’ve had a shot at it, just as Sudden Lights did. I wouldn’t change the song. It didn’t matter what Ireland sent. Their song selection was dire and… Read more »
”Denmark’s best bet for qualification was obviously Nicklas Sonne” Perhaps in another allocation. I can’t see the interest for that song being big enough not to be overshadowed by Australia and Slovenia. ”Sadly, Perini?a Mea was always the choice for Romania in terms of result and would’ve qualified from this SF.” I feel withered knowing this, but I wholeheartedly agree… 🙁 I agree about the choices for San Marino. Their NF didn’t operate with a lot of money, but now that I actually started making my list, there were some raw materials to bring to life at ESC. Some pretty… Read more »
Poland. I know you might disagree but if Blanka could come up with a passable performance from that NF, then Jann could have done something intense. There also would have been the studio version in heavy circulation prior to the contest and the effect that would have on the odds. Poland would have come Top 5 this year with Jann and would have been an equal contender with Sweden and Finland. It’s a shame we missed out on all of that.
I would LOVE to think so. I’m just afraid because of how Luke Black went with an industrial song. I thought that Serbia would score top 10 as well when it was selected. But yeah, with a much more polished staging and vocals, Jann certainly might have been a top 3 candidate. I’d be pleasantly surprised if the juries would have given Poland many points.
I’m quite sure Ukraina would have won if they had sent Krut!
That would’ve been an option. The one I wouldn’t mind at all in a normal year, as I am totally enchanted by Kolyskova, but the one I’d totally get why many people would be unhappy about.
As much as I loved Krut, Ukraine’s (deserved, IMO) 6th place seems like the best result for the health of the contest. Agreed on most of these (Belgium, Czechia, Lithuania, despite my preference for other candidates). I can’t imagine anyone from Estonia getting close to Alika’s result.
Finland and Sweden picked right, Italy cannot really pick wrong, Ukraine picked right, Krut’ would not have finished higher, Belgium dodged a bullet by not sending the televote winner, Estonia was lucky to get out of their semi, just one differently allocated country from semi one and all the apparent jury appeal wouldn’t have been worth anything. Czechia, Croatia and Lithuania picked right, although Ruta Mur would have been worth the gamble. Spain in hindsight probably could have done better with another song, but they still picked right, it was worth a try, same goes for Portugal. Poland and Albania… Read more »
Excellent post and well worth thinking about. I’ll cover the grand final with you. Sweden and Finland don’t need much said about them. I don’t think anything in those national finals was a top ten song outside of the two chosen but there were some top 15 options. Italy’s ceiling was possibly that one place higher that they were close to getting anyway. Marco gave a fantastic performance and deserved his result. I think Italy’s entry filled a need in the final that gave them that result, only Tananai would’ve exceeded the pts total and there’s no guarantee that his… Read more »
Anica Russo would have absolutely been my personal choice for the German representative, but I am afraid she might have finished like Ghost, another good German entry that was just overlooked for not being the most punchy one. If juries would have left some love for Anica among several other ladies with angelic voices, she might have scored a few places higher, hopefully. Melodies of Hope, if performed like it was in the NF, is a 0-pointer through and through. With the better staging and vocals… I don’t know… the song itself does have a hook.
Thank you all for your opinions! It was a pleasure reading them!
Mr Rain and Madame could have won with the right stagings.
Mi Familia was the best song of Benidorm 2023 , yes she had terrible vocals. She would screw up in jury voting but get very good televoting and a better result overall than Blanca Paloma.
She wasn’t even able of getting a good televote in Spain…
miss gurl, wasn’t even able to sing!
She actually got a WORST result in the final of BF!
It’s a very competitive and quality NF for 2 years in a row, and I’m glad it’s back. Blanca Paloma had one of my favorite ESC entries this year, and I voted for her. In the end, not enough people did, and the result is very disappointing. However, have in mind that her 17th is still a few spots higher than any other Spanish entry from 2015 to 2021. They ARE on the right track! Go, Spain!
Despite a disappointing place for Blanca (who didn’t deserve it, I voted for her too!), Spain hasn’t been in the bottom 5 for two consecutive years, so the country has found a selection that carries its fruits.
I just hope that Spain in 2024 will still have very good songs and performances like in 2022 and 2023 and continue on this path!
It is a great show, so why not… I’m happy! goodluck Spain! 🙂
How about France’s return? Was her legendary gesture personal, or was it on behalf of France as a whole?
I hope it was on behalf of France as a whole. France should be clever as Hungary and Turkey, and leave this mascarade until it is totally cleaned and give the jesc 2023 hosting to Spain.
Just bring back the NF!
i am completely not suprised with the result they got this year, this song and performance was shambles. Hope for something better next year.
who cares?
shame Spain didn’t withdraw after this shockingly bad result of a fan fave
Oh mate if we had to withdraw after every bad result that was a fan fave we’d be out years ago lol
Actually, if countries withdrawd after every bad result, we wouldn’t have Eurovision any more.
Amen
Kudos! Spain has served us with one of the best NFs and entries of top quality. Very look forwards to the artists and their performance next year!
I would have preferred not to have confirm It so quickly and just give some time to think about It. But i understand that being just the 2nd Benidorm Fest year RTVE IS not going to be thinking about withdrawal. And not because the poor result for Spain but for the predictability of the whole thing. Want to know what is gonna win the whole thing? Just look at the betting odds 2 months in advance.
Somehow I feel there has been too much emphasis laid on winning.
I believe this is especially the case for Blanca. She has one of the best songs and performances this year. Maybe this is not a mass-pleaser, but ESC is a nice platform to let them shine, both the artists and their music. Otherwise, ESC is gonna become some cheap reality show. I only hope she, and all the artists, can get the recognition they deserve, which is more important than winning.
I totally agree, the problem as always IS people and their reactions to not winning. You cant imagine the level of hatred and despise to Blanca here in Spain for the poor result with televote and not only by people on internet, most TV stations contributed by mocking her in the most disgusting ways.
Wiwibloggs why are you not posting about the fantastic streaming numbere of Kaarija, Loreen and Alessandra?
William from Wiwibloggs voted for Blanca. It’s his fault! He should have known the result in Eurovision as he claims to be an Eurovision expert. BTW he is not an Eurovision expert anyway.
What’s the point in a BIG5 country confirming its “return” when it hasn’t left in the first place?
Blanca song it’s kinda weird to me gladly I was listen to the song since their first release and I didn’t like it at first but it take a lot of time for me to like it. No wonder she didn’t doing well with televotes since most of them listen to it for the first time.
Great news! Spain is on the right track with this festival as it attracts quality artists and quality songs.
This year’s entry was the kind of song that can win Eurovision. These sometimes just don’t click and get results that are disappointing. That’s ok! You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, as they say. Let’s go, Spain!
spain dont give up, you´re in a good track to win with this festival, it doesnt matter what happened to blanca, continue this way and it will pay off
I wish all countries were that quick with that
I thought Blanca Paloma’s placing this year was INCREDIBLY unfair and the juries especially did her a disservice. Glad to see they’re still continuing this ICONIC festival which has only seen the best of Spain’s music and Eurovision potential. I hope it sticks and continues throughout the decade. This year, we had a REALLY diverse cast of songs. Hoping we get a Spanish rock, electronic group, regional ethnic bop, epic ballad or actual catchy flamenco song sent next year! This festival can only improve Spain’s image! Go on Spain, go for the win!
You’re really going after the juries? If it wasn’t for them, she would have come LAST. The public hated it. We need the juries.
The juries are the ones that saved her from being in last place though. You should be mad at the televote for putting her last, not the juries
I would change nothing regarding voting at Benidorm Fest. It is made in a way so that really the best possible and competitive song wins. Keep jury, demoscopic vote and televoting!
Well i hope Spain has learnt its lesson this year. After the wonderful success of Chanel and Slo~mo which the traditionalists hated if i remember at the time the song went onto major success because Europe loved it. This year the traditionists got their way and sent something authentically Spain and just like their 1983 song it fell flat on its face in the public vote with 5pts. Once again i’m addressing the song not the performer who had a powerful range and wonderful personality. But when you send and authentic traditional song of your country that has no melody… Read more »
I’d rather get 0 points with a song of soul, than 436 points with factory filler.
So you’d send a song knowing it has no chance of winning! Enough said
It’s not Spain who needs to learn a lesson, it’s the voters. Countries shouldn’t need to sacrifice their integrity in order to pander to ignorance.
Interesting point. It was 6th on the bookies’ board before the final. How it collapsed with the public so abruptly still mystifies me.
Comments like this are exactly why ESC has always had a questionable reputation…
Apparently the word rep/u/t/ation gets the comment filtered because it also contains the word p/u/t/a, which is quite amusing on an article about the Spanish selection…
Comments like this are why ESC has always had a questionable image…
It didn’t work. I remember your disgruntled and personal comments about Belgium. A fantastic performance and vocal 7th place finish.
We knew the public wouldn’t like it but the surprise and major fault was that of the juries, who SHOULD have judged the song on the staging, originality and vocals and put Blanca Paloma in the top 10, but idk what went wrong?!
What went wrong was described above
Probably another entry that Wiwibloggs overhypes and falls flat on its face
I hope Blanca’s lacklustre (and undeserved) result doesn’t mean that Spain will send another Chanel-like entry.
I hope that Blanca Palomas result wont discourage Spain from sending authentic cultural entries in the future. One of the last countries in Eurovision to not send the same cookie cutter generic english, swedish produced pop song year after year
Don’t worry, here everyone complains about the winner if they get a bad result, yet almost nobody votes when they have the chance. This year for example there were only 34000 votes, so it’s down to the few people who actually care and dare spend a bit of money to choose our entry
I love Blanca Paloma. Thanks Spain for introducing this artist to the world. I love Benidorm fest! Megara was my pick. But loved many of the other acts.