Spain in the Country Contest

**Spain** has participated in the **Country Contest** nine times since making its debut in the first edition. The country won the competition in Country Contest 12 with 378 points.

## History

### **First era (#02 to #10)**

Spain debuted in the second edition and placed third, then being considered to be 'the next big country' in the contest. Spain continued to participate in the third edition and placed sixth, to the public's displease. As a result, Spain was one of the 15 countries to withdraw from the fourth edition, stating that "the format is flawed and completely political." Spain was one of the many countries to return to the fifth contest as the CCU introduced the semi-finals most importantly, announced that the voting would from then on be decided by a 50/50 televote/jury vote. However, Spain equaled its result from the third edition, once again placing sixth. However, Spain was revealed to have placed first in its semi-final, marking Spain's first win in an event. The sixth edition saw a spike of withdrawals, due to broadcasters' complaints of the jury vote being political and biased as well. The withdrawals made the contest the smallest since the 4th and Spain's smallest contest as well. The withdrawals were in Spain's favor as the country equaled its best result, 3rd, which was achieved in its debut. Spain was 5 points away from placing 2nd and its highscore, but 47 from victory. Spain's neighboring country, Portugal, had also received the same amount of points but Spain received from more countries thus won the tiebreaker. As a result, Spain was given auto-qualification status for the seventh edition, which had a return to semi-final. However, this status was not in Spain's favour as the country placed 16th, it's worst result at the time. Spain continued to participate in the eighth edition, where it participated in its second semi-final event. In the semi-final, Spain placed 9th, 15 points short from qualifying to the Grand Final, marking Spain's first elimination. In the ninth edition, Spain once again failed to qualify for the Grand Final, placing a lower 13th in its respective semi-final. It received 76 points, alongside 2 other countries, but won the three-way tiebreaker. Spain confirmed it's participation for the special tenth edition, stating, "These past two editions have not been great for us. But for us, it's not okay to quit now - we have 3rd place evidence that we can win this contest. That's why we have decided to increase our selection budget by 50%. #TeamEspana" RTVE's statement received criticism by many, who say that Spain's so-called "budget increase" is a farce until they announce how much they spend. Many also pointed out that CCU lowered the participation fee, and that reason alone made RTVE's decision. Spain was allocated to the second semi-final, without neighbor Portugal, and fans stated they would fail to qualify. As the semi-final results were revealed, seven had already qualified with one left to go, and Spain had not been announced thus yet. The audience and fans had all expected Turkey to qualify, given that it had never missed a final and just won the 8th contest. Nevertheless, Spain was announced as the ninth qualifier bring Spain back to the final for the first time since the seventh edition, bringing cheers in the audience. Spain was then drawn to perform 17th in the Grand Final. As the voting went to a conclusion, Spain finished last place with 94 points; Spain's worst ever Grand Final result and 14 points away from finishing second-to-last. RTVE Execs stated, "It was very pleasing to see that our budget increase worked to bring back Spain to the Grand Final, especially in a big edition like this. However, I speak for everyone at RTVE, and had wished that we'd stayed in the semi-finals as it much bigger of an embarrassment to place last in the Grand Final rather than not be in it at all. Spain was then revealed to have placed as the final and 8th placed qualifier in its semi-final, finishing 2 points ahead of 9th borderline non-qualifier Turkey. RTVE announced within weeks that Spain would take a break from the Country Contest, to "find new strategies for the successful participation of Spain in the Contest."

### **Second era (#12 - #19)**

RTVE confirmed that Spain would return to the Country Contest 12 instead of 13 as they had expected that the contest would take place sooner rather than later. RTVE announced that it would select its entry with a national selection, being the first country to ever do so. RTVE confirmed that it's budget was increased by 59.7% from the previous edition, with 29.85% of this budget spent on its national selection; the broadcaster refused to reveal how much the budget was.

RTVE finally revealed that *Tú decides* would be the selection for the city. RTVE announced that 4 semi-finals would take place with 7 cities each, with 2 cities qualifying directly to the Grand Final and 2 to second chance. The top four of second chance would also qualify to the Grand Final. Additionally, RTVE announced that the winning city of the competition would be awarded 0.5 million EUR, contrary to the 500 EUR participation fee. RTVE explained that this fee was necessary to help with the costs of the competition, which was given a huge budget. RTVE later confirmed they received applications from 402 municipalities, marking roughly 5% of the municipalities in Spain. RTVE stated that they were disappointed by this number, but assured that quality applications was preferred over quantity.

Ahead of the final of Tú decides, RTVE announced that due to production costs, that the next edition of the competition would contain two semi-finals rather than four. The format would remain the same, with two municipalities qualifying from each semi-final and two from both to the second chance; four municipalities also qualify from the second chance, as usual. This would create a final of 8, instead of 12. RTVE reassured this would not worsen Spain's performance as they would choose 14 quality municipalities rather than 28 which may not all be of quality. RTVE also stated that they would whittle down municipalities with the help of over four groups of 12 professionals, to ensure for the best competition. RTVE stated that the professional groups would be in charge of picking 10 of the municipalities first, with RTVE internally selecting the remaining four whom were not picked by the groups. All in all, this would decrease the amount of shows from 6 to 4, but enhance quality in them.

### **Third era (#20 - present)**

RTVE announced that Tú decides would return to its original 4 semi-final system for the 20th edition as a special edition, after being used once in the twelfth edition, which resulted in a victory. Spain's odds immediately surged to first place, ahead of countries from other continents. This marks the first time Spain was first in the bettings for two consecutive editions. However, Spain ended up in eighth place and the odds showing was then said to be a result of overhype. However, the broadcasts proved to be a ratings victory for RTVE. The broadcaster, however, noted that if such was done every edition, it would not be as special, and as a result, ratings highs like in the current edition would not be in effect. As a result from the selection hype, Spain drew one of its biggest audiences for the Country Contest yet in its twentieth jubilee edition.

RTVE later confirmed that Jaime Cantizano would depart as a commentator following the edition, a mutual decision by [RTVE] and Cantizano. On 3 March 2019, RTVE announced that Blanca Suárez would replace him as Spain's new commentator. In the past, she had served as a co-host in Spain's selection and spokesperson twice.

## Contestants

Table key
     Winner
     Second place
     Third place
     Last place

## Commentators and spokespersons

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