TVE, the Spanish national broadcaster has confirmed that Spain will compete at the forthcoming 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Israel.

Buenas tardes Europe this is Madrid calling! Spain is heading to Eurovision 2019 in Israel! Thus Spain joins the list of countries who will compete at the upcoming Eurovision edition in Tel Aviv.

In 2018 TVE selected the Spanish Eurovision hopefuls via Operacion Triunfo. The Spanish broadcaster also confirmed today that it will stick to the same formula in order to select the 2019 Spanish Eurovision act and entry.

This will be the fifth time the Iberian nation will be selecting its Eurovision act via the talent show, having chosen the Spanish ESC hopeful via OT in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2018.

OT 2018 is set to kick off next week on Wednesday 19 September, the show will be broadcast weekly on TVE 1 at 22:30 CET and is expected run throughout autumn. TVE plans to air a total of 14 shows initially.

The Spanish broadcaster is yet to reveal the mechanism it will use to select the 2019 Spanish Eurovision song for Tel Aviv. It is expected that the broadcaster will contact composers to submit entries for the 2019 Spanish national final. More details regarding the song selection and the procedure will be released in due course.

It was also announced today that all 16 OT 2018 hopefuls will be eligible to represent Spain at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest.

#LlegaOT2018 🔴 El representante de @eurovision_tve saldrá de @OT_Oficial. Como novedad, los 16 aspirantes de la primera gala optarán a ser los representantes españoles https://t.co/QdtE6GE7y3 pic.twitter.com/DqjZ6DnuzO

— RTVE (@rtve) 14 de septiembre de 2018

🚩CONFIRMADO: El representante de Eurovisión de este año, también saldrá de Operación Triunfo 🎤 👉🏻 https://t.co/muSsyZnjyT #LlegaOT2018 pic.twitter.com/cSmzfDy3M0

— OT 2018 (@OT_Oficial) 14 de septiembre de 2018

Spain in Eurovision

Spain debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961 and has won the competition twice, with Massiel (1968) and Salome (1969). The Iberian nation has been marred with poor results in the competition in recent years.

In 2018 Spain selected its Eurovision act via Operacion Triunfo, Amaia & Alfred were crowned the winners of the Spanish national final and flew to Lisbon with their love ballad Tu cancion, achieving a 23rd place in the Grand Final.