TVE, the Spanish national broadcaster has revealed more details regarding the forthcoming 2018 Spanish national final. Former Eurovision winners, Conchita Wurst and Luisa Sobral, will grace the occasion and will be special guests at the national final.

The Spanish broadcaster is in full steam as preparations for Monday’s show have kicked off. Spain is gearing up for an exciting and nail biting national final. TVE has unveiled many secrets and details regarding its national final.

The special jury

The Spanish broadcaster has revealed that a special jury will be present during next Monday’s national final 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 2017 Eurovision 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 Operación Triunfo (OT) 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 occasion.

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

Manel Navarro (Spain 2017) will also attend the show along with the ex 2017 Operación Triunfo hopefuls.

The competing songs

Six candidates and nine songs will battle for the golden ticket to Lisbon.

• Aitana – Arde (Alba Reig)
• Alfred – Que nos sigan las luces (Nil Moliner)
• Amaia – Al cantar (Rozalén)
• Ana Guerra – El remedio (Nabález / Pedro Malaber / Mango)
• Miriam – Lejos de tu piel (Steve Robson / Ina Wroldsen / Diego Cantero)
• Aitana & Ana Guerra – Chico malo (Morgan / Simms / Brisa Fenoy)
• Alfred & Amaia – Tu canción (Raúl Gómez / Sylvia Santoro)
• Miriam & Agoney – Magia (David Otero / Diego Cantero / Tato Latorre)
• Aitana, Alfred, Amaia, Ana Guerra & Miriam – Camina (OT 2017 contestants / Manu Guix)

The voting system

The Spanish audience will be responsible to deliberate their Eurovision entry and act for Lisbon via televoting using the following mechanisms: telephone calls, SMS and mobile app.

There will be 2 rounds of voting in order to select 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

Spanish national final

• The 2018 Spanish Eurovision national final will be held in Barcelona on Monday 29 January and will be aired live at 22:35 CET on TVE 1, TVE International. The gala will also be streamed live on rtve.es. The 2018 Spanish Eurovision national final will be part of the OT 2017 shows.
• The show will be hosted by Roberto Leal, one of Spain’s most sought after tv presenters
• The 2018 Spanish Eurovision entry and act will be determined solely via a 100% public televoting deliberation
• The Grand Finale of Operación Triunfo has been set on Monday 5 February.

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.