Spain: The 4 first finalists of Operación Triunfo 2017 selected

by Sanjay (Sergio) Jiandani 2,042 views

The first 4 finalists of Operación Triunfo 2017 have been determined today, three of them via the jury’s deliberation and one via the teachers’ deliberation.

Tonight saw the 11th Operación Triunfo gala where 4 of 5 the 2018 Spanish national final candidates were determined. The show was hosted by Roberto Leal.

Tonight, Roi and Ana Guerra battled in the hot seat and the audience decided to save Ana Guerra and evict Roi. After tonight’s eviction, only 6 hopefuls remain in the academy: Amaia, Aitana, Agoney, Ana Guerra, Alfred and Miriam.

How were the finalists selected?

  • During tonight’s show the Operación Triunfo (OT) jury (Manuel Martos, Mónica Naranjo, Joe Pérez-Olive and Julia Gómez Cora) made their deliberation and selected 3 of the finalists out of 6 hopefuls via a special voting. The jury cast their vote for each of the 6 participants, the top 3 candidates Amaia, Alfred and Miriam won the golden ticket to the Spanish national final and OT 2017 Grand Final.
  • The 4th finalist Aitana was selected from the 3 remaining hopefuls by the Operación Triunfo teachers group.

The results

  • Amaia: 40 points (finalist) – jury deliberation
  • Miriam: 36 votes (finalist) – jury deliberation
  • Alfred:  35 points (finalist) – jury deliberation
  • Aitana: 34 points (finalist) – teachers deliberation
  • Agoney: 33 points
  • Anna Guerra: 29 points

How will the 5th finalist be determined?

  • The 2 remaining hopefuls Ana Guerra and Agoney will battle each another via a public televote which will run from today until next Monday. The winner of the viewer’s televote will be awarded with the golden ticket to the OT 2017 Grand Finale and Spanish national final. The name of the 5th finalist will be announced on Monday 22 January.

About the national final

  • 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 be 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.

The finalists

  • Amaia
  • Miriam
  • Alfred
  • Aitana
  • To be determined on 22 January

OT 2017 timeline

  • 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.

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

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.