Tonight sees the Grand Finale of Operación Triunfo, where the five finalists of the show will battle fo the golden crown. The 2018 Spanish Eurovision hopefuls Amaia and Alfred are also in the race and will be fighting for the coveted prize.

Operación Triunfo 2017 will be concluding tonight with its grand finale. The talent show returned back to TVE after 13 years last October and has become a massive hit in Spain attracting masses. The Spanish broadcaster opted to select its Eurovision 2018 hopefuls via OT 2017.

Amaia (Spain 2018) and Aitana are the hot favorites to win the competition tonight.

How to watch?

You can watch the Grand Finale of Operación Triunfo from 22:35 CET on the following channels:

• TVE 1
• TVE International
• Webstream via rtve.es

About the show

The Grand Final of OT 2017 will be held in Barcelona and will be hosted by Robeto Leal.

• Tonight’s show will consist of 2 parts with 2 rounds of voting to deliberate the winner (the first round of voting opened last week and will close at the end of the first part of the show)
• During  the first part of the show the five competing finalists will sing a song each. The phone lines (first round of voting) will close after the last performance
• During the second part of the show the top 3 acts (after the first round of voting) will proceed to the super final and the second round of voting will kick off. The candidates will perform his/her respective debut song (OT 2017’s  kick off show Gala #0). The second round of voting will close after the last performance
• The candidate with the hightest amount of votes after the second round of voting  will be crowned the winner.

The Songs

First Part

Each act will perform a solo song

• Aitana- Chandelier (Sia)
  
• Alfred-  Don’t stop the music ( James Cullum)
  
• Amaia- Miedo (M-Clan)
  
• Miriam- Invisible (Malu)
  
• Ana Guerra-  Volver ( Carlos Gadel)
  

Second Part

The top 3 acts will perform their debut songs

• Aitana- Bang Bang (Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj )
  
• Alfred-  Georgia on my mind ( Ray Charles)
  
• Amaia- Starman (David Bowie)
  
• Miriam- No te pude olvidar (Vanesa Martin)
  
• Ana Guerra- Como te atreves (Morat)
  

The Jury

The OT Jury will be back in the game after a week’s break, but this time they will not deliberate but only comment on the perfomances.

• Mónica Naranjo (singer)
  
• Manuel Martos (Universal Music Spain)
  
• Joe Pérez-Oriv
• Rosa Lopez ( OT1 winner/ Spain 2002)

Special Guests

David Bisbal (OT 1, Spain 2002),  Raphael (Spain 1966, 1967) and Pablo Alboran will be gracing the OT stage tonight and will each perform during the show.

Eurovision fans will remember David Bisbal as he competed at the 2002 Spanish national final with his mega hit Corazon latino, narrowly missing out on representing Spain at the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest. He flew to Tallinn as one of Rosa’s backing vocalists. David was the runner up of OT 1 and is one of the most successful singers in Spain today.

Operación Triunfo and Eurovision

Operación Triunfo kicked off in Spain in 2001 and TVE used it as the mechanism to select the 2002 Spanish Eurovision entry and act.

The first edition of the talent show was a massive hit in Spain, thus getting much exposure and mediatic coverage. Rosa Lopez was crowned the winner of OT 2001 and won the golden ticket to Tallinn with her song Europe’s living a celebration.

TVE used the same format for the following 2 years in order to select the Spanish Eurovision entry and act: Beth (2003) and Ramon (2004).

The Spanish national broadcaster axed the show after its third edition. In 2005, Spanish private television channel Tele Cinco revived the talent show and aired a total of 5 seasons and had no link to Eurovision.

We must not forget that 2 of the participants of the 4th edition of Operación Triunfo went on to represent Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest many after their participation: Soraya Arnelas (2009) and Edurne (2015).

The show was revived back in 2017 after a long break when it returned to TVE after a 13 year hiatus. Following the success of the show, the Spanish national broadcaster decided to use OT 2017 as the mechanism to select the 2018 Eurovision entry and act.

Last week saw Spain made its decision and selected Alfred and Amaia to defend the Spanish colours at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon with Tu canción.