The 2018 Spanish national final for the Eurovision Song Contest will be held tonight, with a total of 9 songs battling for the golden ticket to Lisbon.

Tonight sees the second Big 5 country select its Eurovision hopeful for Lisbon; following France who selected its Eurovision 2018 candidate last Saturday, it is Spain’s call today.

The 2018 Spanish Eurovision representative and entry will be determined during tonight’s Operación Triunfo’s (OT) gala #13 (Spanish national final).

How to watch

You can watch the Spanish national final from 22:35 CET via the following channels:

• TVE 1
• TVE International Europe (via satellite)
• Live webcast via rtve.es

The show

What will happen tonight?

The five Operación Triunfo finalists and the show’s last evicted hopeful will battle for the golden ticket to Lisbon during tonight’s show.

Nine songs will fight for the right to defend the Spanish colours at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest during tonight’s gala.

• 5 solo songs: Each of the 5 Operación Triunfo (OT) finalists will sing his/her respective entry
• 3  duet songs: 3 pair of duets consisting of the 5 finalists and Agoney will sing their entries
• 1  group song: Camina – the group song will be performed by all five finalists

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

The Songs

Group Song

• The 5 OT 2017 Finalists – Camina
  

Solo Songs

• Amaia – Al cantar
  
• Alfred – Que nos sigan las luces
  
• Aitana – Arde
  
• Miriam – Lejos de tu piel
  
• Ana Guerra – El remedio
  

Duet Songs

• Agoney and Miriam – Magia
  
• Aitana and Ana Guerra – Chico malo
• Amaia and Alfred – Tu cancion

Listen to the songs

All the nine competing entries in tonight’s national final have been released on Spotify in studio version. You can listen to them here.

The Special Jury

A special jury will be present in order to comment on the nine competing entries. The jury will not be responsible to determine the 2018 Spanish entry, that task will lie entirely in the hands of the Spanish public via televoting.

• Luisa Sobral ( Composer of  2017Eurovision winning entry- Portugal)
• Victor Escudero (eurovision.tv)
• Manuel Martos (Artistic director/Universal Music Spain)
• Julia Varela ( Spanish Eurovision commentator/ TVE)

Special guests

TVE has invited special guests to grace the Operacion Triunfo stage. They all will be performing a song during the show. Eurovision fans will be thrilled to know that the Queen of Austria Conchita Wurst will be flying to Barcelona specially for the ocassion.

• Conchita Wurst- Rise like a phoenix
• Luisa Sobral–  Cupido
• J Balvin– medley of his hits

Manel Navarro ( Spain 2017) and the ex 2017 Operacion Triunfo hopefuls will also attend the show.

How will the voting work?

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

There will be 2 rounds of voting in order to determine the 2018 Spanish Eurovision entry:

• Round 1- All 9 songs will be in the running and the public will select their 3 favorites
• Round 2- The top 3 songs will be in the running again and the public will deliberate their hot favorite. The winner will be awarded the right to represent Spain at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest

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.

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