Spain was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "", written by Irini Michas, Dimitri Stassos, Jason Gill, and Felipe Pedroso, and performed by Soraya. The Spanish participating broadcaster, (RTVE), organised the national final in order to select its entry for the contest. The national final consisted of three semi-finals and a final and involved 30 artists and songs. Ten entries ultimately qualified to compete in the televised final where an in-studio jury and a public televote selected "" performed by Soraya as the winner.
As a member of the "Big Four", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing as the closing entry during the show in position 25, Spain placed twenty-fourth out of the 25 participating countries with 23 points.
Background
Prior to the 2009 contest, (TVE) until 2006, and (RTVE) since 2007, had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Spain forty-eight times since TVE's first entry in . They have won the contest on two occasions: in with the song "La, la, la" performed by Massiel and in with the song "" performed by Salomé, the latter having won in a four-way tie with , the , and the . They have also finished second four times, with "" by Karina in , "" by Mocedades in , "" by Betty Missiego in , and "" by Anabel Conde in . In the , RTVE placed 16th with the song "" performed by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, RTVE organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. RTVE confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2009 contest on 21 November 2008. In 2007 and 2008, RTVE organised a national final featuring a competition among several artists and songs to select both the artist and song that would represent Spain, a procedure which was continued for their 2009 entry.
Before Eurovision
was the national final organised by RTVE that took place at the Casino l'Aliança del Poblenou Theatre in Barcelona, hosted by Alaska and Miguel Serrano. The national final consisted of four shows which commenced on 14 February 2009 and concluded with a winning song and artist during the final on 28 February 2009. All shows were broadcast on La 1, TVE Internacional, as well as online via RTVE's official website rtve.es.
Format Thirty artists and songs, selected through an Internet round, competed in which consisted of four shows: three semi-finals on 14, 21 and 28 February 2009, and the final also on 28 February 2009. Each semi-final featured ten entries and four qualified for the final. The twelve qualifying entries competed in the final during which the winning entry was determined. The initial format of the national final also included a Second Chance round which would feature the fourth-placed songs of each semi-final (the top three entries would directly qualify for the final from each semi-final), however the show was later removed due to low ratings of the first two semi-finals and for the purpose of aiding the winning artist in preparing their performance, choreography and official preview video for Eurovision.
The results during all four shows were decided upon through a combination of public televoting (50%) and an in-studio expert jury (50%). The votes of the expert jury and the public televote each created an overall ranking from which points from 1-8, 10 and 12 were distributed and assigned based on the number of competing songs in the respective show. Four members of the jury were appointed by RTVE, while an additional member was selected during the first semi-final through the same process as the entries selection.
The five members of the in-studio jury that evaluated the entries during the shows were:
José Luis Uribarri – Television presenter and director, commentator of the Eurovision Song Contest for Spain Mauro Canut – Musician, editor and deputy director at the digital branch of RTVE Mariola Orellana – Music producer Toni Garrido – Journalist at RNE Víctor Escudero – Program director at Radio Rivas, selected through the public selection
Competing entries A submission period was open from 24 November 2008 until 17 December 2008 for artists to upload their entries through the MySpace platform. At the conclusion of the submission period, 978 entries were received, of which 455 were selected for an Internet vote. The selected entries were allocated to ten categories by genre and revealed via RTVE's official website on 19 December 2008. The ten categories and the number of songs competing were:
Pop/Rock - 188 Ballad - 37 Metal - 12 Electronic - 63 Latin - 29 Hip Hop - 9 Indie - 18 Flamenco - 10 R&B - 19 Other - 45
Users had until 19 January 2009 to distribute 20 votes for their five favourite entries per day and the top 20 entries among the top five entries of each category directly qualified for the national final, which were announced on 20 January 2009. The remaining entries were performed in front of the four in-studio jury members appointed by RTVE on 31 January 2009 during a live webcast audition at the Casino l'Aliança del Poblenou Theatre in Barcelona, presented by Vicky Bolaños and Adrián Lucas and broadcast on RTVE's official website, where an additional ten entries were selected for the national final. Prior to the auditions, "Gitana – “Ya layla”" performed by Sin Tanto, "Un día sin fuste" performed by Depresión Post-Parto and "Touch My Heaven" performed by Omi Di were withdrawn and replaced with the songs "La presumida" performed by Antonio Moreno Bermúdez and "Yo solo" performed by José Antonio Santiago Beltrán, respectively. + Results of the live audition – 31 January 2009 Artist Song Result 1 Ron "Siente" 2 Rafa Sáez "Si tú decides volver" 3 Jaime Rojo "Unión" 4 Carlos Ferrer EAI "El patito" Advanced 5 Izan "Prisionero de tu corazón" 6 Patrix y Los Raperos "La fuerza de la unión" 7 Dulce "Bésame" Advanced 8 Isi "Ahora no" Advanced 9 Jammy and Shark "Presentí tu amor" 10 Salva Ortega "Lujuria" Advanced 11 Remembrances "Espejismo" Advanced 12 Midnight "Bloody Brutality" 13 David Caballero "Tango-visión" 14 Gran Baobab "Despedida de soltero" Advanced 15 Mari Callas "Otra vez" 16 La Red de San Luis "Gracias, Madre Tierra" Advanced 17 Adrián "Se puede olvidar" 18 Leather Boys "We're Livin' in a Bar" Advanced 19 No Life After Love "Time" 20 Bloodsuckers "The Anthem of Vampires" 21 Rafael Sánchez "Si tú me quieres" 22 Fran Arenas "La echo de menos" 23 Vilas Mata "Dance With Me" 24 Ángeles Vela "Vístete de primavera" Advanced 25 Oskee "No quiero despertar" 26 Beatriz "¿Dónde te metes?" Advanced 27 Iko de la Llilla "Trono sin reino" 28 José Antonio Santiago Beltrán "Yo solo" 29 Antonio Moreno Bermúdez "La presumida" + Qualified entries in the Interet vote and the live audition Artist Song Songwriter(s) Votes Place Selection Ángeles Vela "Vístete de primavera" José María Tornay 33,562 33 Jury Atalis "Retrato frontal" Paco Quintana 49,408 19 Internet vote Beatriz "¿Dónde te metes?" Fernando Calleja 34,470 31 Jury Biquini "Una chica normal" Alfredo Diego 62,662 12 Internet vote Calipop "Burbuja" 60,409 15 Carlos Ferrer EAI "El patito"Carlos Ferrer EAI 40,095 24 Jury Diqesi "Subiré" Carolina Pereira 59,059 16 Internet vote Dulce "Bésame" Dulce Hernández 36,264 28 Jury El Secreto de Álex "Por esta vez" Alejandro Abad 102,534 6 Internet vote Elektronikboy "Mon petit oiseau" Juan Méndez 57,428 17 Gran Baobab "Despedida de soltero" 39,697 25 Jury Isi "Ahora no" 35,525 30 Jorge González "Si yo vengo a enamorarte" 60,511 14 Internet vote Julia Bermejo "Ya no estás" 82,406 9 La La Love You "Dame un beso" 104,663 4 La Red de San Luis "Gracias, Madre Tierra" 32,477 35 Jury Leather Boys "We're Livin' in a Bar" Leather Boys 32,181 36 Melody y Los Vivancos "Amante de la luna" 208,481 1 Internet vote Mirela "Nada es comparable a ti" 51,542 18 Noelia Cano "Cruza los dedos" Rafael Artesero 103,361 5 Normativa Vigente "Alejandría – The New Generation" 88,217 8 Remembrances "Espejismo" 31,407 37 Jury Roel "Y ahora dices" Roel García 99,534 7 Internet vote Salva Ortega "Lujuria" Alejandro de Pinedo 38,234 27 Jury Santa Fe "Samba House" Ariel Queupumil 130,278 3 Internet vote Solydo "Tú" Danny Oton 46,363 20 Soraya "La noche es para mí" 202,198 2 Vicente Casal "Tú me complementas" Vicente Casal 79,444 10 Virginia "True Love" Rafael Artesero 70,836 11 Yulia Valentayn "Uh La La" Yulia Valentayn 61,395 13
Fifth jury selection The selection of the fifth in-studio jury member took place over two stages. In the first stage, twenty of the 26 applicants were revealed via RTVE's official website on 19 December 2008 and users had until 19 January 2009 to vote for their favourite candidates. The top five candidates qualified for the second stage which took place during the first semi-final on 14 February 2009, where the fifth jury member, Víctor Escudero, was selected following the combination of votes of the four in-studio jury members appointed by RTVE (50%) and a public televote (50%). + Candidate Votes Place ResultAntonio 33 16 Cesar Ivan 31 19 David Azul 33 17 Gabriel Rodríguez Martínez 2,915 9 Isaac Urrea Esteban 16,833 1 AdvancedJaime Ortega 295 11 Jesús Domingo Sevilla Navarro 32 18 José García Hernández 15,374 2 AdvancedKatherine Muñoz 146 14 Leonardo Nascimento 31 20 Luis Manuel Ruiz 277 12 Miguel Ángel Mur 13,652 3 AdvancedMiguel Manzo 12,159 6 Miguel Mestre Ginard 2,503 10 Pedro 49 15 Pedro Martínez López 12,825 5 AdvancedRafael Alejandro Anillo Rodriguez 3,648 8 Rodrigo Mencía 6,390 7 Victor 252 13 Víctor M. Escudero 13,047 4 Advanced + Second round – 14 February 2009 Candidate Profession Jury Televote Total Place 1 Isaac Urrea Representative of AEV Spain 4 2 6 3 2José García Representative of eurovision-spain.com 1 4 5 4 3 Miguel Ángel Mur Program director and presenter at Campus Radio 3 1 4 5 4 Víctor Escudero Program director at Radio Rivas 5 3 8 1 5Pedro Martínez Composer 2 5 7 2
Shows
Semi-finals The three semi-finals took place on 14, 21 and 28 February 2009. The top three entries qualified for the final through the combination of votes of an in-studio jury (50%) and a public televote (50%). In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers in the first semi-final included Tequila and Fangoria, while guest performers in the second semi-final included Rosario Flores and Nena Daconte.
Following the first semi-final, it was announced that Los Vivancos had withdrawn from the national final due to the lack of technical and artistic resources in the production of the show as well as their bid being promoted as Melody even though it was a joint bid. Melody later announced that she would remain in the final and perform with other dancers. + Semi-final 1 – 14 February 2009 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Result 1 Yulia Valentayn "Uh la la" 6 3 9 8 2 La Red de San Luis "Gracias, Madre Tierra" 8 2 10 5 3 Vicente Casal "Tú me complementas" 1 7 8 9 4 Noelia Cano "Cruza los dedos" 7 4 11 3 Qualified 5 Carlos Ferrer EAI "El patito" 4 5 9 7 6 La La Love You "Dame un beso" 10 10 20 2 Qualified 7 Normativa Vigente "Alejandría – The New Generation" 3 6 9 6 8 Atalis"Retrato frontal" 5 1 6 10 9 Melody y Los Vivancos "Amante de la luna" 12 12 24 1 Qualified 10 Gran Baobab "Despedida de soltero" 2 8 10 4 Qualified Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" TotalPoints+ 1 "Uh la la" 4 366 8 276 2 "Gracias, Madre Tierra"88856 358 3 "Tú me complementas" 2 632 2 151 4 "Cruza los dedos" 10 774 7 357 5 "El patito" 1 257 1 164 6 "Dame un beso" 7 101012 10 4910 7 "Alejandría – The New Generation" 6 411 4 163 8 "Retrato frontal"55283 235 9 "Amante de la luna" 12 121210 12 5812 10 "Despedida de soltero" 3 143 5 162