Earlier this month, Spain had fans jumping for joy after confirming that Operación Triunfo will serve as their Eurovision 2018 selection…before following that up with the news that RTVE will select their candidate from OT’s Top 5 finalists.
And now Spanish-language enthusiasts have even more reason to rejoice with the confirmation that the five competing artists will each sing totally and 100% in Spanish.
Tinet Rubira, the music director of Gestmusic, the company behind OT, broke the news on Twitter the day after Christmas. He did so as he responded to a series of questions from fans.
Temas en español https://t.co/NJMQ1JV1v4
— Tinet Rubira (@tinetr) December 26, 2017
- Spanish fan question: Will the competing songs be only in Spanish or also in English?
- Tinet Rubira: The songs are in Spanish.
Cualquier temazo en inglés cantado por alguien que no domina el idioma deja de serlo.
Buscaremos un buen tema y al mejor intérprete. https://t.co/29eCFAuVTv— Tinet Rubira (@tinetr) December 26, 2017
- Spanish fan question: But what if a good English song arrives? Would it be rejected simply because it’s in English?
- Tinet Rubira: Any good song in English sung by someone who doesn’t master the language is no longer a good song. We will look for a good song and the best candidate.
Priorizamos compositores que hacen canciones en español.
Haremos una selección de las mejores y la audiencia escogerá la mejor opción. https://t.co/nHsuTB0RMF— Tinet Rubira (@tinetr) December 26, 2017
- Spanish fan question: Rather than prioritizing the language of the songs, should the quality of the song be prioritised instead?
- Tinet Rubira: We prioritize composers that compose songs in Spanish. We will make a selection of the best ones and the audience will choose the best option.
Contestants details
Fans were also curious about how much time contestants would have to perfect their songs, and how the songs would be assigned to the contestants. Tinet says that acts will have one week to prepare — which follows the practice of earlier OT Eurovision galas.
Hola @tinetr! No sé si podrás responderme pero yo lo intento ? ¿Los 5 finalistas tendrán 1 semana para prepararse las canciones de Eurovisión como cualquier gala? Gracias!
— Lázaro ? (@Eurolazaro) December 26, 2017
— Tinet Rubira (@tinetr) December 26, 2017
And how exactly will singers be paired with songs?
Siempre asignamos las canciones que mejor cuadran con las características de los concursantes. Ni obligación ni azar. https://t.co/IIb1xeWIiI
— Tinet Rubira (@tinetr) December 26, 2017
We always assign all songs according to which one best fits with each candidate’s characteristics. Neither obligation nor chance.
Eurovision Gala: No official date yet
There’s still no official date for the Spanish national final. But Tinet Rubira has already confirmed that the song selection has started — and that they’re feeling hopeful about it.
https://twitter.com/martinmaez/status/945940120959619072
OT Christmas special show
On Christmas Day we sing carols and we share love, happiness, and gifts. And this Christmas the OT contestants performed in a very special Operación Triunfo Gala.
The gala brought together cast members old and new. It included contestants from the first edition of Operación Triunfo and contestants from the current one, who designed themselves as OT 2.0. Together they served a healthy dose of nostalgia and joy, cheered on by millions of households.
The show started in a very special way, with all of the acts singing the legendary anthem composed by the first generation of OT: “Mi música es tu voz (My music is your voice)”.
During this special show, familiar faces like Rosa (ESC 2002) + Geno, Gisela and Veronica (amongst the chorus of Rosa in Eurovision) performed with the younger ones.
We even had an iconic duet of queens: Rosa (a.k.a Rosa de España) and Amaia (named by fans as Amaia de España). They are royalty!
But if there’s one moment we have been waiting for all this time, it’s the group song composed by this year’s crop of singers. Their new anthem — known as “Camina” (Walk) — closed the show and it is a total banger.
Their self-composed anthem is already a total success. “Camina” debuted at #1 on iTunes Spain and has already accumulated more than 100,000 streams on Spotify, making it #39 on Spotify’s Top 50 Spain playlist.
Ya lo habéis conseguido. #Camina es n1 en itunes!!!!!!!! Flipo!!!!!!! #otnavidad pic.twitter.com/yk8gAZDspH
— Manu Guix (@ManuGuix) December 26, 2017
Operación Triunfo 2017 – “Camina”
What do you think? Are you happy with Spain singing in Spanish at Eurovision 2018? Or would you have preferred another option? Would “Camina” be a good song for Spain in Lisbon? Let us know in the comments box below!
This is great! I always liked Spanish songs from Spain in Eurovision!
th spanish is the second lenguaje more spekaed in the world , and th first winto more quiantity of countries, please respect this send any song in your oun lenjuage, the world must to knok your culture and real music not the same the same the same.
what are the selection prospects of a song in Catalan this year hmmm
Spanish is the only one official language in Spain and the only one which represents the whole nation.
Catalan, Basque and Galician are simply co-official languages in Spain. Of course they are considered official languages, but only in their own territories (Catalonia, Galicia and Basque Country). That’s the reason why these three co-official languages do not represent the whole Spanish nation.
??Well done, Spain, and thanks a lot for stopping the invasion of English language! ???
Every country should always sing in its own official language(s). We’re already fed up with monotone Englishvision Song Contests.
And who are these “we”? You?
Statements like that implies everybody wants it. Which is not the case here. There are just as many who don’t want a forcing of national languages but want it to be free, as it is now
Denis, what if they’re a couple? 1 + 1 = 2, so ‘we’ is the right personal pronoun. 🙂 You should also respect all those Spanish people who do not want to be forced to send an English song to Eurovision, because this language does not represent them at all and I understand if they feel humiliated. There’s no freedom when Spanish people are forced to be represented by a song in English, because this language is not a part of their culture.
You see? That’s the main problem in Spain. Instead of considering the Catalan language as part of your nation’s culture, and hence part of your own culture, you see it as something external and that only represents people that speak it. Nobody in my family ever danced flamenco but yet I feel flamenco as something very “mine”. The day we learn to embrace other cultures of our own country rather than feeling offended by them, we will be able to say Spain is a healthy nation.
Preach Sister!! I agree 100%
Sorry, Tania, but I don’t agree with you at all. Catalan is a co-official language of a small part of the nation, as you say, but it only represents Catalonia. Spain must always sings in Spanish at the Eurovision Song Contest, because Spanish is the only one official language that represents every citizen in Spain.
Spanish people embrace all kind of cultures, but we are proud of ours and we don’t need to pretend to be what we are not singing in English, which is a language that is destroying diversity.
Sorry, Tania, but I don’t agree with you at all. Catalan is a co-official language of a small part of the nation, as you say, but it only represents Catalonia. Spain must always sings in Spanish at the Eurovision Song Contest, because Spanish is the only one official language that represents every citizen in Spain.
Spanish people embrace all kind of cultures, but we are proud of ours and we don’t need to pretend to be what we are not by singing in English, which is a language that is destroying diversity.
I really hope that they will do well next year in Lisbon. They’re using a show that was very famous in my country in the 00’s and it gave us good artists like Nolwenn Leroy or Olivia Ruiz. I hope the songs will be good for the 5 finalists for their musical universe and vocal capabilities. I’m very excited to see their Gala. Good luck neighbours! 🙂
I’m both nervous and excited for this. I hope Spain makes the right choice and picks a good singer that will get them back in the top 10 or 15 again. I don’t want Spain to be at the bottom ever again. I hope this will also inspire Spain to keep doing better every year, and pick really great songs and really great singers to match those songs. ¡Buena suerte, España! Good luck, Spain!
This is smart, as OT has always provided a lot of extra publicity to Eurovision, which means more support and resources for a good entry overall. Rosa’s song was awful but still managed to land in the top 7, same happens to Beth, whose performance was quite lackluster besides the great song, still snatching a decent amount of points. I think that Spain will do very well in Lissabon.
Both Rosa and Beth placed high because those two years were musically awful (2002 was just a disaster). Their songs were above average compared to the other songs those years.
If the 5 songs are different styles then it could work. But if it’s the usual style of romantic big ballads or dance songs with cheesy lyrics and guitars/flamenco throw in then Spain is headed for the bottom again.
This kind of pairing songs to artists is always risky and rarely leads to a win. Knowing Spain i’m not hoping for much
Well, with Operación Triunfo the procedure has always been the same and Rosa López, Beth and Ramón all ended in the Top 10 so… let’s wait to hear the songs
Besides keeping the song in their native language, Spain does quite the opposite of what made Portugal win last year. Well, maybe heading in the exact opposite direction is going to help them anyway. Times have changed since 2004 and talent show winner’s single type of songs haven’t done too well in Eurovision recently. If the song and artist are chosen separately, the songs submitted are often quite bland (Germany 2010 and 2012 being an exception) because they have to match any artist in order to advance during the first stages of the selection. So I really hope that the… Read more »
I don’t think the songs they’ll be getting will be a winner’s single type of song considering the national selection featuring the top 5 is expected to happen after the winner of this season of OT has already been crowned.
Hopefully, if the top 5 remaining contestants have diverse musical styles from the get-go, then we should expect them to be given with songs that are suitable and respectful to their individual characteristics as artists.
It just worries me that songs were submitted before the top 5 were chosen. But I’m still full of hope. Or at least, I’m filled with an adequate to decent amount of hope.
The eurovision show will be made BEFORE the winner of OT is named. The OT’s final is on Feb 5th, and the eurovision show with the top 5 is expected to be on Jan 29th.
Thanks for the correction. The dates have gotten me confused. hehehe
They need to concentrate on the song which will be sent , but by the look of this bunch
it’s not looking to good at the moment hope I’m wrong,
Hopefully Spain will win in Lisbon. 🙂
It seems this year we will have a lot of songs in native languages, and that’s amazing! Spain, Italy, France, Montenegro, Greece, Albania, Slovenia that’s seven so far. And only Malta and Belgium confirmed English.
I think Netherlands, Azerbaijan and Cyprus can be added to the English list. Bulgaria too probably
Austria is comfirmed to be English too.
Come on, we all know that no matter what song she is given Amaia will win because Spain right now is obessed with her so they better give her the best one available
Estoy feliz de que entradas-canciones para la seleccion nacional español no esten en ingles.
^Hopefully, my Spanish here is on point. Been learning for some time now.
good enough, however the correct way would be (in caps the corrections): “Estoy feliz de que LAS canciones para la selecciÓn nacional españolA no estÉn en ingles.” However, i understand that you may not be able to write the accents (those Ó & É), so the only little mistakes would be the “las” (it would be like saying “the songs/las canciones” and “española” (cause you are talking about a feminim term, the national selection (la selección nacional) and therefore that extra adj where you point it is the spanish one, it should be also in femenim). But in any case,… Read more »
I forgot inglÉs also have accent 😛
otherwise, it would mean “groins” XD
Good to hear they’re keeping it en espanol! 😀
Oh please Spain, win next year!!!
Smart idea, España! Go for gold! 🙂