Further news about the Spanish national final, likely to be called 'Mision Eurovision', has been published on the internet today. esctoday.com has spoken to TVE and been told that nothing is confirmed and no decision will be made until Monday.

News that Spain was returning to a national final format to select it's 2007 Eurovision Song Contest entry was published a week ago. No further official announcments have been made. Speaking to esctoday.com this evening, Federico Llano, Spain's Head of Delegation atthe Eurovision Song Contest and the man in charge of finalising Spain's selection for the 2007 eventexplained that:

"We are still in discussions about the final format, and I cannot confirm or deny anything at this important time. No-one at TVE yet has the full information and it will not be ready until Monday next week. Before we can tell anyone else, we need to inform the artists and songwriters involved. I don't want them to be confused by anything appearing in the press".

TVE have a vision of how they want the selection to work, but as yet have not finalised the timetable or the final format. The current situation is likely to be simplifed before the final format is agreed and is likely to change somewhat before Monday. The final format will be posted first on TVE's own website, and will be followed by an announcement to the press.

News about the national selection that has appeared on the internet shows a format that Llano feels is confusing and is likely to be refined before Monday's announcent. Our partner website, Oikotimes, writes that:
"The song can be in Spanish, Catalan, Galician, or Basque, with parts or specific words sung in English allowed, because 'the winners in the last few years have all been sung in English'.

The aim of the show is to 'select the best song and the best singers through 'Misión Eurovisión' which will be broadcast sometime in the first three months of 2007. Because of this, TVE will not allow singers tied to a specific song, nor songs written espececially for certain singers. Therefore there will be two separate selections: one for the singer, and one for the song. It might seem like the aim of the show is simple, but the logistics behind it are not!

From January 24 until Janaury 28 of 2007, internet voters will be able to vote on the aforementioned ten entries. From these, five will proceed to the live national final; the three most voted for on the internet qualify, and the two other places will be decided by internal organisers. Established artists will then perform these songs for the general public in a live show to be held in Madrid. After hearing the songs in full, the five artists hoping to sing for Spain in Helsinki will perfom parts of each song for the public to then chose which and who will go to Eurovision.

The selecting of the singers is also just as complex. In four galas, singers will perform songs of their chosing (preferably songs that are know), which can be in any language, live. Howeve rthey'll only sing about a minute and a half of it. In each gala, the public will select three singers to qualify to the semi-final via televoting, with the organisers of the show selecting another two. In the semi-final, five artists will go through to the final; three chosen by the public, and two by the organisers of the show. There will then be a show before the national final where we can get to know the singers more, before the actual national final itself."