The approval of TVE request to the European Broadcasting Union moving Spain's voting rights to the second semifinal, to be held on May 14, and therefore, the live broadcast from semi 1 to 2, has caused major commotion in Andorra. Both the Andorran public broadcaster and Sussanna Georgi have shown concern over this issue.
A few days ago, Spanish public broadcaster TVE requested the EBU to vote in the second semifinal and broadcast it live instead of the first, as it was established by draw. The reason why TVE made this request is that the main political debate of the year in Spain, the Debate on the State of the Nation, will take place on May 12, and it is usual that the Parliament session starts in the morning and finishes very late at night or even the day after. The debate is every year broadcast live on TVE 2, as the Spanish law clearly states, the channel normally used to air the Eurovision semifinals. On the same day, TVE 1 will air the special programme dedicated to Eurovision where several national representatives will appear.
The request was finally accepted by the Reference Group and Spain has been moved to semi 2. This news has struck Andorran broadcaster officials, as well as the country's representative, Susanna Georgi. With Spain out of the semifinal they are taking part in, Andorra sees its possibilities of qualifying lower. The danish-born singer has shown her deep disappointment, saying that "everybody knows that ATV does not have a big Eurovision budget, this is why Andorra has restricted its promotion to Spain", and went on saying that "I would be pleased if the contest was about musical quality and talent, but it's not the case". Georgi complains about the TVE decision, which has been taken "too late".
Despite Spain moving to the second semifinal, Susanna is still confident about Andorra's chances of qualifying: "We will go through the final", she assures. Nonetheless, the Andorran hopeful believes that TVE move could influence the Andorran people's voting patterns the evening of the grand final.
