Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016
Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "Say Yay!" written by Bárbara Reyzábal, Rubén Villanueva and Víctor Púa Vivó. The song was performed by Barei. The Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) organised the national final "Objetivo Eurovisión" in order to select the Spanish entry for the 2016 contest in Stockholm, Sweden. Six artists and songs competed in the televised show where an in-studio jury, an international jury and a public televote selected "Say Yay!" performed by Barei as the winner. As a member of the "Big Five", Spain  automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 19, Spain placed twenty-second out of the 26 participating countries with 77 points. Background. Prior to the 2016 contest, Spain had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-five times since its first entry in . The nation has won the contest on two occasions: in 1968 with the song "La, la, la" performed by Massiel and in 1969 with the song "Vivo cantando" performed by Salomé, the latter having won in a four-way tie with France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Spain  has also finished second four times, with Karina in 1971, Mocedades in 1973, Betty Missiego in 1979 and Anabel Conde in 1995. In 2015, Spain placed twenty-first with the song "Amanecer" performed by Edurne. The Spanish national broadcaster, Televisión Española (TVE), broadcasts the event within Spain and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. TVE confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest on 14 September 2015. In 2015, TVE selected both the artist and song that would compete at the Eurovision Song Contest via an internal selection. For their 2016 entry, the broadcaster  announced on 18 December 2015 that it would organise a national final similar in format to the one used previously in 2014, which featured a competition among several artists and songs. Before Eurovision. Section::::"Objetivo Eurovisión". "Objetivo Eurovisión" was the national final organised by TVE that took place on 1 February 2016 at the Adisar Studios in Villaviciosa de Odón, Community of Madrid, hosted by Anne Igartiburu with Julia Varela acting as the green room host. The show was broadcast on La 1 as well as online via TVE's official website "rtve.es" and the official Eurovision Song Contest website "eurovision.tv . Six artists and songs competed with the winner being decided upon through a combination of public televoting, an in-studio expert jury and an international jury. The national final was watched by 1.669 million viewers in Spain with a market share of 9.1%. Competing entries. On 18 December 2015, TVE invited the Spanish public to propose their ideal candidates for the national final by using the hashtag #euroapuesta" in their social media posts. The most popular proposals were Xuso Jones, Raúl Gómez and Maverick. Among female performers, the most popular were María Isabel, Eva Ruiz, María Villalón and Lorena Gómez . Former national final participants Brequette, Coral Segovia and Jorge González were also among the recommendations. The six competing acts were announced on 29 December 2015 via TVE's official website and social media platforms. Among the competing artists was María Isabel who won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004 for Spain with the song "Antes muerta que sencilla". 30-second clips of the competing songs were previewed by TVE on their official website on 19 January 2016, while the songs in their entirety were premiered a day later on 20 January on a special webcast show, presented by Irene Mahía  and with three of the candidates (Electric Nana, Maverick and Salvador Beltrán) as guests, that was also broadcast on TVE's official website. Final. The televised final took place on 1 February 2016. The running order for the six participating entries was determined during a press conference held at Prado del Rey in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid) on 28 January 2016. The winner, "Say Yay!" performed by Barei, was selected through the combination of the votes of an in-studio jury (30%), the votes of an international jury (30%) and a public televote (40%). "Say Yay!" is the first song  performed entirely in the English language that was selected to represent Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest. The international jury consisted of television, radio and music professionals selected by the following broadcasters that are part of the European Broadcasting Union: France Télévisions (France), RAI (Italy), SVT (Sweden) and BBC (United Kingdom). The three members of the in-studio jury that evaluated the entries during the final were: In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included former national final participants Brequette, Jorge González, Coral Segovia and Mirela, and former Eurovision contestants Loreen, Edurne and the group D'Nash  which represented Spain in 2007.