Thunder and lightning, it’s getting exciting in sunny Spain! TVE, the Spanish national broadcaster, has introduced a twist in the plot of its forthcoming Eurovision national final. The broadcaster has decided to reveal 4 out of the 5 Operación Triunfo finalists next Monday 15 January instead of the initial announced date (22 January).

The Spanish broadcaster wants to build suspense and excitement for the Spanish viewers and Eurovision fans in the lead up to the Spanish national final.

How will the 5 finalists be selected?

• On Monday 15 January, the Operación Triunfo (OT) jury will make their deliberation and select 3 candidates out of the 6 remaining hopefuls (after Monday’s eviction) via a special voting. The jury will vote for each of the 6 hopefuls, after their deliberation the top 3 candidates will directly qualify to the Grand Finale of Operación Triunfo and Spanish national final.
• The 4th candidate will be selected from the 3 remaining hopefuls by the Operación Triunfo teachers group and will thus qualify directly to the Grand Finale of OT 2017 and the Spanish national final.
• The 2 remaining hopefuls will battle each another via a public televote. The winner of the viewer’s televote will be awarded with the golden ticket to the Grand Finale and Spanish national final. The 5th candidate will be announced on Monday 22 January.
• The song titles and names of the composers competing in the Spanish national final will be revealed on Tuesday 23 January. The 5 competing singers will be allocated their respective entries on the same day. Each singer will allocated 1 song, thus 5 songs will compete in the national final.
• The 2018 Spanish Eurovision national final will be held on Monday 29 January with a total of 5 acts battling for the right to defend Spain at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Spain.
• The Grand Finale of Operación Triunfo has been set on Monday 5 February.

OT 2017 timeline

• 15/01: 4  OT 2017 finalists determined (3 via jury deliberation/1 via teacher deliberation)
• 22/01: 5th OT 2017 finalist determined (via public televoting)
• 23/01: Song allocation – song titles and composers announced
• 29/01: Spanish national final (100% public televoting deliberation)
• 05/02: OT 2017 Grand Finale

National final date set

The gala will be aired live on Monday 29 January at 22:35 CET on TVE 1, TVE International and streamed live on rtve.es. The 2018 Spanish Eurovision national final will be part of the OT 2017 shows.

The 2018 Spanish national final will be hosted by Roberto Leal, one of Spain’s most sought after tv presenters.

The show has slowly but swiftly gained back much fame and name in Spain and has set the social media platforms on fire. Last Monday’s show was viewed by more than 3 million viewers.

A total of 16 hopefuls kicked off the talent show last October; after Last Monday’s eviction only 7 participants remain in the academy: Agoney, Ana Guerra, Aitana, Alfred, Amaia, Miriam and Roi. One of them will fly to Lisbon!

The 2018 Spanish Eurovision entry and act will be determined solely via a 100% public televoting deliberation.

Operación Triunfo and Eurovision

Operación Triunfo kicked off in Spain in 2001 and TVE used it as the mechanism to select the 2002 Spanish Eurovision entry and act.

The first edition of the talent show was a massive hit in Spain, thus getting much exposure and mediatic coverage. Rosa Lopez was crowned the winner of OT 1 and won the golden ticket to Tallinn with her song Europe’s living a celebration.

TVE used the same format for the following 2 years in order to select the Spanish Eurovision entry and act: Beth (2003) and Ramon (2004).

TVE axed the show after its third edition. In 2005, Spanish private television channel Tele Cinco revived the talent show and aired a total of 5 seasons and had no link to Eurovision.

We must not forget that 2 of the participants of the 4th edition of Operación Triunfo went on to represent years after their participation: Soraya Arnelas (2009) and Edurne (2015).

Spain in Eurovision

Spain debuted in Eurovision in 1961 and has won the competition twice (1968 and 1969). The country enjoyed much success in its early days, but now seems to have had a reverse in fortunes. We must not forget that Spain has not made it to the Top 5 since 1995.

The Iberian country has only made it twice to the Top 10 in the last decade, namely in 2012 and 2014 with Pastora Soler and Ruth Lorenzo respectively.

In 2017, Spain selected its Eurovision entry via a national final leading to Manel Navarro‘s victory and winning the golden ticket to Kyiv with Do it for your lover. Unfortunately Spain came last in the Grand Final, continuing the bad spell of poor results in the competition.