Spain: RTVE to select its Eurovision 2022 hopeful through a national selection in Benidorm

Thursday, 22 July 2021

The Spanish national broadcaster, RTVE, has announced that it will be switching to a new national selection format that will take place in Benidorm.

Following all the previous ongoing local media reportsngoing local media reports about RTVE to be using 'Festival Internacional de la Canción de Benidorm' as the country's Eurovision preselection format, the Spanish broadcaster officially announced that the Generalitat Valenciana and the Benidorm City Council have agreed to celebrate in this city the selection of the next representative of Spain at the  Eurovision Song Contest 2022 . The Alicante coastal city, which is a popular destination and has a long tradition in the celebration of music festivals, will host the process to choose the artist who will participate in Eurovision, a great musical show that will be held in early 2022 and that will be broadcast by RTVE.

The agreement between the three institutions has been signed and was presented in Benidorm this morning. The agreement has been signed by the president of RTVE,  José Manuel Pérez Tornero, the president of the Generalitat Valenciana,  Ximo Puig , and the mayor of Benidorm,  Toni Pérez .

Amalia Martínez de Velasco, Toni Pérez, Ximo Puig, Ruth Lorenzo, José Manuel Pérez Tornero y María Eizaguirre

The ESC 2022 national selection format

During this morning's presentation, which featured Ruth Lorenzo , Spain's Eurovision 2014 act, the format for the selection of candidates was also revealed: The music event will consist of  three galas (two semifinals and one final show),  which RTVE will broadcast live. The selected songs will be previously published on the RTVE Play platform .

The objective is to establish a long lasting over the years music festival which will be based on a renewed and modernized version of the past  'Festival Internacional de la Canción de Benidorm' that will serve as a sucessful selection of the Spanish representative in Eurovision and turn Benidorm into a meeting and promotion point for Spanish music and the city of Alicante, both in our country and beyond the country's borders.

The competing entries will be released in autumn while the event will propably take place in first months of 2022 with January being the most likely one. The result will be the determined by jury and public voting. The detailed terms of the competition will be presented shortly.

José Manuel Pérez Tornero,  highlighted RTVE's commitment to winning Eurovision and  pointed out:

" Benidorm is a great launching pad for a message: Spanish music to Europe through Eurovision". "We want it to be a real and participatory contest, open to all kinds of music. Especially young music. And added saying: "The illusion is decisive to forget the melancholy and the bad results of previous years".

Amalia Martínez de Velasco (the new director of General Contents of RTVE) said :

The objective of the Corporation is to establish a " long-term strategy ", an annual Eurovision planning, which has to be prepared from the day after it is held and throughout the year.

Also she has announced to the media that they are going to take the event "very seriously" and has announced the creation of a  "RTVE working group with professionals who are knowledgeable about the festival." The goal is to create a great "television show" and they will have outside input for the artistic direction. A new chief will also be appointed in the coming days for the Spanish delegation of the Festival. The new director of General Contents of RTVE has pointed out that we will know the candidacies of the Benidorm contest in autumn on the RTVE Play platform.

The Story of 'Festival Internacional de la Canción de Benidorm'

The Benidorm International Song Festival was a musical contest that achieved enormous prestige and was organized annually in the city of Benidorm (Alicante) between 1959 and 2006, although it missed its appointment in 1979, 1984 and between 1986 and 1992. It was already based on the Sanremo Festival and was born to promote Benidorm and Spanish music.

Renowned artists such as the Dynamic Duo, Dyango, Tino Casal, Víctor Manuel, Alazán and Pasión Vega passed through it. Eurovision artists also stepped onto the Benidorm stage, some before and others after their European tour, but all reaping great successes, such as Karina, Betty Missiego and José Vélez. Out of the Eurovision participants that ended up being winners of the Benidorm Festival we have Raphael, Julio Iglesias and La Década Prodigiosa. We also have the case of Coral Segovia, who won the Golden Little Mermaid -the mythical trophy of this Festival- in 2005.

The last year it was held was in 2006, when precisely La Década Prodigiosa won with the song A ti in the 39th edition of the festival.

Spain in Eurovision

Spain participated for the first time in 1961 with Conchita Bautista and has achieved twice to win, in 1968 (Massiel) and in 1969 (Salome). Madrid hosted the contest in 1969 where there was a four country tie in the first place on the final scoreboard.

Despite not having missed a single contest since 1961 , Spain doesn’t have remarkable results to show the latest years. Exception was Anabel Conde’s 2nd place in Eurovision 1995 held in Dublin. Spain has came in history 2nd four times ( 1971, 1973, 1979, 1995) while it has finished last 5 times (1962, 1965, 1983, 1999, 2017) from which the first three receiving null points.

Miki represented Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song “La venda”. The singer in 22nd place with a total of 54 points. In 2020  Blas Cantó was chosen internally to represent Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, with the song “Universo”: Unfortunately the contest was cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic and Blas never had the chance to perform in Rotterdam.

However, TVE, invited the Spanish act back for Eurovision 2021 where he performed his entry "Voy e Quedarme" at Rotterdam Ahoy in the Grand final, finishing 24th with 6 points.

News Source: RTVE / RTVE

Cover photo: RTVE/AGUSTÍN MILLÁN  Images: RTVE