Spain was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 with the song "Para llenarme de ti", written by Kike Santander, and performed by Ramón. The Spanish participating broadcaster, (TVE), selected its entry through the third series of the reality television music competition Operación Triunfo. Four artists and songs ultimately qualified to compete in the final of the competition's Eurovision selection show where a public televote exclusively selected "Para llenarme de ti" performed by Ramón as the winner, receiving 38.8% of the votes.

As a member of the "Big Four", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing as the opening entry for the show in position 1, Spain placed tenth out of the 24 participating countries with 87 points.

Background

Prior to the 2004 contest, (TVE) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Spain forty-three times since its first entry in . It has 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 . It has also finished second four times, with "" by Karina in , "" by Mocedades in , "" by Betty Missiego in , and "" by Anabel Conde in . In , it placed eighth with the song "Dime" performed by Beth.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, TVE organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. In 2002 and 2003, TVE used the reality television singing competition Operación Triunfo (the Spanish version of Star Academy) to select both the artist and song that would represent Spain. The procedure was continued in order to select their 2004 entry.

Before Eurovision Operación Triunfo 3

The Spanish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was selected through Operación Triunfo, a Spanish reality television music competition consisting of training seventeen contestants in a boarding academy in order to find new singing talent. The third series, also known as Operación Triunfo 3, took place from 29 September 2003 to 21 December 2003 at the Mediapark Studios in Sant Just Desvern (Barcelona), hosted by Carlos Lozano. The competition was broadcast on La Primera and TVE Internacional. The top three contestants (Vicente, Ramón and Miguel) alongside a wildcard (Davinia) selected during a special show which featured the contestants placed fourth to ninth qualified to compete in the Eurovision selection show, Gala Eurovisión, which consisted of three shows on 14, 21 and 28 January 2004. Each contestant performed three candidate songs and the winner was decided exclusively through a public televote. The competing songs and the allocations were announced on 8 January 2004.

Contestant qualified to "Gala Eurovisión" Contestant Age Residence Episode of elimination Place finished(Overall ranking) Vicente 24 VillamarxantGala Final 1st Ramón 19 Gran Canaria 2nd Miguel 22 Huelva 3rd Davinia 18 Cádiz 4th Mario 19 ZaragozaGala Final 5th Leticia 26Seville 6th Noelia 18 LugoGala 11 7th Beatriz 18 PontevedraGala 10 8th Nur 20 Barcelona 9th Borja 19 MadridGala 9 10th Israel23 MurciaGala 8 11th Jorge 25 ZaragozaGala 7 12th Sonia 29 BarcelonaGala 6 13th Miriam 22 PontevedraGala 5 14th José 25 Castellón de la PlanaGala 4 15th Fede 23 MadridGala 3 16th Isabel20CádizGala 217th

Shows

Song selection The song selection round of Gala Eurovisión consisted of two rounds of voting. In the first round which took place on 14 January 2004, an in-studio jury eliminated one song per contestant. The five members of the in-studio jury were Anabel Conde (singer, represented ), David Civera (singer, represented ), Inma Serrano (singer-songwriter and producer), Daniel Andrea (singer and producer) and Carles Savall (journalist at El Periódico de Catalunya). In the second round which took place on 21 January 2004, a public televote eliminated an additional song per contestant. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the guest performer in the second show was Sertab Erener, who won Eurovision for . + First Round – 14 January 2004 Artist Song Songwriter(s) Result 1 Davinia "Quiero tu amor" Advanced 2 Miguel "Hoy te quiero más" 3 Ramón "Para llenarme de ti" Kike Santander Advanced 4 Vicente "Veinte años más" Alejandro Abad Advanced 5 Miguel "Amor de madrugada" Advanced 6 Vicente "Se me va la vida" Alejandro Abad Advanced 7 Ramón "Cuestión de alma" David Santisteban 8 Davinia "Cómo quieres que te quiera" Daniel Ambrojo Advanced 9 Vicente "Nadie como tú" Alejandro Abad 10 Davinia "Mi obsesión" Daniel Ambrojo 11 Miguel "Muéveme" Advanced 12 Ramón "Todo vuelve a importar" Advanced + Second Round – 21 January 2004 – Miguel Song Televote Place Result 1 "Amor de madrugada" 21.4% 2 5 "Muéveme" 78.6% 1 Qualified

+ Second Round – 21 January 2004 – Ramón Song Televote Place Result 2 "Para llenarme de ti" 70.7% 1 Qualified 6 "Todo vuelve a importar" 29.3% 2

+ Second Round – 21 January 2004 – Vicente Song Televote Place Result 3 "Veinte años más" 16.0% 2 7 "Se me va la vida" 84.0% 1 Qualified

+ Second Round – 21 January 2004 – Davinia Song Televote Place Result 4 "Cómo quieres que te quiera" 85.7% 1 Qualified 8 "Quiero tu amor" 14.3% 2

Final The final of Gala Eurovisión took place on 28 January 2004. The winner, "Para llenarme de ti" performed by Ramón, was selected exclusively through a public televote which ran between 21 and 28 February 2004. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included former Operación Triunfo contestants Cristie Sánchez, Danni Úbeda, David Bustamante, Geno Machado, Gisela, Javián, Manuel Carrasco, Marey, Tessa Bodí and former Junior Eurovision contestant Sergio who represented . + Final – 28 January 2004 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Davinia "Cómo quieres que te quiera" 15.4% 4 2 Miguel "Muéveme" 16.5% 3 3 Ramón "Para llenarme de ti" 38.8% 1 4 Vicente "Se me va la vida" 29.3% 2

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from the semi-final in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from the semi-final progress to the final. As a member of the "Big Four", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the final on 15 May 2004. In addition to their participation in the final, Spain is also required to broadcast and vote in the semi-final. The running order for the final in addition to the semi-final was decided through an allocation draw and Spain was subsequently drawn to open the final and perform in position 1, before the entry from . Spain placed tenth in the final scoring 87 points.

In Spain, the semi-finals were broadcast on La 2 and the final was broadcast on La Primera with commentary by Beatriz Pécker. TVE appointed Anne Igartiburu as its spokesperson to announce the results of the Spanish televote during the final.

Voting Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Spain and awarded by Spain in the semi-final and grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Andorra in the semi-final and to Germany in the grand final of the contest. Following the release of the televoting figures by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that a total of 64,915 televotes were cast in Spain during the two shows: 25,910 votes during the semi-final and 39,005 votes during the final.

Points awarded to Spain + Points awarded to Spain (Final) Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Points awarded by Spain

+ Points awarded by Spain (Semi-final) Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

+ Points awarded by Spain (Final) Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

References