Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009

Eurovisión 2009: El retorno was the national final organised by TVE that took place from 14 February 2009 to 28 February 2009 at the Casino l'Aliança del Poblenou Theatre in Barcelona, hosted by singer Alaska and sports reporter Miguel Serrano.[3][4] Thirty artists and songs competed with the winner being decided upon through a combination of public televoting and an in-studio expert jury.

The initial format of Eurovisión 2009: El retorno consisted of 30 songs, selected through an Internet round, over five shows: three semi-finals on 14, 21 and 28 February 2009, a Second Chance round on 7 March 2009 and the final also on 7 March 2009.[5][6][7] Each semi-final was to feature ten songs and three directly qualified for the final through the combination of the votes of an in-studio jury (50%) and a public vote via televote and SMS (50%).[8][9] The fourth-placed song from each semi-final was to qualify for the Second Chance round, during which the public was to determine the tenth qualifier for the final. This was later changed after the second semi-final took place, with the Second Chance round being removed in order to aid the winning artist in preparing their performance, choreography and preview video for Eurovision. Instead, four qualified for the final from each semi-final to complete the twelve song lineup in the final, where the jury and public televote determined the winner of Eurovisión 2009: El retorno. The Spanish media assumed that the removal of the Second Chance round was due to the low ratings the shows were getting after the first two shows.[10][11]

Four of the five members of the in-studio jury were appointed by TVE and the remaining member was selected by the public during the first semi-final. The four members that evaluated the entries during all shows were:[12]

• 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 TVE
• Mariola Orellana – Music producer
• Toni Garrido – Journalist

A submission period was open from 24 November 2008 until 17 December 2008 for artists to upload their entries through a platform on MySpace. At the conclusion of the submission period, 978 entries were received. 455 valid entries that qualified according to the rules were allocated to 10 categories by genre and revealed via TVE's official website rtve.es for an Internet vote.[13] The ten categories and the number of songs competing were:

Internet users had between 19 December 2008 and 19 January 2009 to distribute twenty votes to their five favourite entries each day. The top five entries from each category with the most votes qualified for the next stage, where the top twenty entries directly qualified for the national final.[5][14] The remaining thirty entries qualified for the audition round.[15][16]

Among the artists who had submitted songs to participate but didn't qualify for the national final included some recognizable names like Tontxu, Un Pingüino en mi Ascensor as well as acts that had already participated in past Spanish pre-selections: Coral (2008), Bizarre (2008), Innata (2008), Arkaitz (2008) and Rebeca (2007). Past pre-selection participants that qualified for the national final were Santa Fe (2007), Mirela (2007), Yulia (2005) and Dulce (2000).[17] Runner-up of the Eurovision Song Contest 1995, Anabel Conde, provided backing vocals for Roel during the national final.[18]

The live audition round took place at the Casino l'Aliança del Poblenou Theatre in Barcelona on 31 January 2009, webcast live on TVE's official website rtve.es.[19] Before the live auditions, Sin Tanto and Depresión Post-Parto withdrew and were later replaced by Antonio Moreno Bermúdez and José Antonio Santiago Beltrán respectively.[20] All thirty artists performed their entries in front of the four jury members, from which ten were selected to qualify for the national final.

During the first semi-final on 14 February 2009, the fifth member of the in-studio jury panel, Víctor Escudero, was selected by the four jury members (50%) and a public vote via televote and SMS (50%) among five candidates shortlisted in the Internet vote.

The first semi-final took place on 14 February 2009. Due to technical difficulties in the performance, Melody y Los Vivancos was allowed to restart their performance.[21][22] "Amante de la luna" performed by Melody y Los Vivancos, "Dame un beso" performed by La La Love You, "Cruza los dedos" performed Noelia Cano and "Despedida de soltero" performed by Gran Baobab qualified for the final.[23] Los Vivancos later withdrew from the national final due to the lack of technical and artistic resources in the production of the show, and that their bid was being promoted as Melody even though it was a joint bid.[24][25] Melody later announced that she would perform in the final with some other dancers.[26]

In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included Tequila performing the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 1974 "Waterloo" and "Salta", and Fangoria performing their latest single "Más es más".[27]

The second semi-final took place on 21 February 2009. After the criticism received for the production of the first semi-final, TVE enlarged the stage and improved the sound and lighting of the venue for the second semi-final.[28] "La noche es para mí" performed by Soraya, "True Love" performed by Virginia, "Si yo vengo a enamorarte" performed Jorge González and "Lujuria" performed by Salva Ortega qualified for the final.[23]

In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included Rosario Flores performing the 1970 Eurovision Spanish entry "Gwendolyne" and "No dudaría", and Nena Daconte performing the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 1965 "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" and "Tenía tanto que darte".[29][30]

The third semi-final took place on 28 February 2009. "Samba House" performed by Santa Fe, "Nada es comparable a ti" performed by Mirela, "Ahora no" performed Isi and "Ya no estás" performed by Julia Bermejo qualified for the final.[23]

The final took place on 28 February 2009 immediately after the third semi-final. The twelve entries that qualified from the three preceding semi-finals competed, and the winner, "La noche es para mí" performed by Soraya, was selected. Melody and Soraya both finished with the same number of points, but Soraya won due to the televoting results prevailing according to the rules.[31]

In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included Carlos Baute, Chipper and Nancys Rubias performing the three Israeli Eurovision winning entries "A-Ba-Ni-Bi", "Hallelujah" and "Diva".[32]

In spite of the changes introduced by TVE, the security of the online voting process was put into question once again. On 21 December 2008, the score of the songs that were leading most of the categories, including the songs with the most votes overall, was briefly reduced to zero on the official website's ranking due to technical problems.[33][34] On 24 December 2008, TVE announced that votes would be deducted from entries due to fraudulent voting. 4,300 votes were removed from seven entries online, most of which came from the Hip Hop group.[35][36]

Wikinews has related articles: After uncertain day of Eurovision rehearsals, EBU will place sanctions on Spain and RTVE Spain in danger of Eurovision disqualification after scheduling snafu at RTVE

Due to its commitments to broadcast the Madrid Open tennis tournament, Spain's public broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) broadcast the 2009 Contest second semi-final on a tape delay on its second channel TVE2 approximately 66 minutes after the show began in Moscow,[42] and used a backup jury rather than televoting to decide its votes. Due to this rule violation, it was announced that Spain would eventually face sanctions, although these sanctions would not affect its participation in Moscow.[43][44] Due to another conflict of interest, Spain had already switched to broadcast the second semi-final rather than the first, which also led to criticisms from the delegations of Andorra and Portugal, which stated that they would have experienced an advantage from a Spanish vote due to their similar cultures.[44]

The day after the semifinal, El Mundo speculated that this delay may have been done on purpose in order to prevent Spain from winning and hosting the contest, speculating that RTVE may not actually want to host the contest if Spain were to win.[45] A statement in ABC had cited technical difficulties for the delay.[42]