The organisers of a new public song contest in Spain plan to submit their winning song to Spanish broadcaster TVE as a potential candidate for the country's 2007 Eurovision Song Contest entry.
The podcast Europodcasting , in collaboration with the Asociación de Podcasting (Spanish Podcasting Association), have organised the contest as a festival of free music, named Festivalibre. The Eurovision-style rules include a three-minute limit to the length of entries, which may not have been broadcast previously. The competition is open to people of all nationalities, but the songs must be sung in a language native to Spain, with partial lyrics in a foreign or invented language allowed. The native Spanish rule widens rather than limits the possibilities, as the official site points out that Castillian Spanish, Catalán, Euskera, Gallego, Bable, Valenciano and Mallorquín (amongst others) could all be used in the lyrics.
National selection style voting
Voting will be 50% expert jury and 50% vote by podcast listeners, following the trend of many national selection processes for the Eurovision Song Contest. The winning song will be submitted to TVE to be considered as part of the broadcaster's Eurovision selection process for Helsinki. To promote the songs before the final judgement, the organisers are hoping to gain exposure for the entries on radio stations as well as various podcasts in Spain.
To find out more information and read the rules (in Spanish), visit the official site festivalibre.com .
