Victor Escudero, a true Spanish Eurovision fan and DJ is among the 5 candidates bidding to become the 5th jury at the Spanish Eurovision national selection Eurovision 2009, El Retorno. The 5th member of the Spanish jury will be chosen next Saturday at the 1st Spanish Eurovision 2009 semi final scheduled to be aired at 22.30 CET on TVE. The finalists of the Spanish semi finals will be chosen by a 50/50 jury and televoting deliberation. Victor spoke to us and shared his passion and thoughts about the much loved contest.

Victor Escudero was kind to givean interview to esctoday.com editor Stella Floras and voice his opinion about Spain and the Eurovision Song Contest. Will he be the 5th member of the Spanish jury and influence the results of the Spanish national final?

Hello Victor, tell us a little about yourself.

Well, I'm a DJ, it's what I've done ever since I was 18, I just turned 32, but not only a club DJ but a radio DJ too. I have a weekly radio show on Eurovision since 2000 on Radio Rivas and most importantly a weekly podcast now on lavidaesunfestival.wordpress.com called La vida es un festival (Life is a Song Contest). I studied English Literature and I also finished French and Swedish at the Official Languages School.

Why do you think you are qualified to be part of the Spanish jury?

About having qualified for the jury, I'm basicly happy as many many people put so much effort in voting for me. I was worried I could end up 6th in the end, so being in the Top 5 was also a relief. Many people, including my family and friends, know how important Eurovision is for me, and I always wanted to "help" TVE choose a decent entry for us.

And how do you think you can do that if you get selected?

First of all, it's all about tastes and tastes are different for every one, I have my own, you have yours and the televoters have theirs. My experience in music lies in my DJ job, I get to know every night what people want to dance, or listen to, which song has a "hit" potential. And then, of course, I've attended 13 ESCs live!Actually, all of them since Oslo'96. I've witnessed winners and losers, but never a Spanish Top 5. As a member of the Spanish jury, I'd try to find an entry which could put us near that. Besides, I don't want to have "Chiki chiki #2" representing Spain in 2009!

Why do u think D'nash did so badly in 2007?

With full televote the songs singing in the first places suffer a lot. You need more than a regular pop song to stand out there. They had a couple of minor performance flaws and, most of all, the camera work was terrible in Helsinki. You could barely see their faces close up, which was basic for a boy band! The TV audience needs to see the artist to like him! Just watch it again, and you'll realize how little contact existed between them and the cameras.

What do you think it takes for a song to win the contest?

To win Eurovision we need a competitive song that has some kind of hook, it can be a lyrics gimmick, a performance gimmick or a lovely melody. The artist must be either attractive for the viewers (not necessarily physically) or an experienced performer.

esctoday.com would like to thank Mr. Victor Escudero for the interview.