Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008

Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song "Baila el Chiki-chiki" written by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre and Friends. The song was performed by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre. The Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) organised the national final "Salvemos Eurovisión" in order to select the Spanish entry for the 2008 contest in Belgrade, Serbia. Ten artists and songs competed in the televised show where a public televote selected "Baila el Chiki-chiki" performed by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre as the winner.
As a member of the "Big Four", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 22, Spain placed sixteenth out of the 25 participating countries with 55 points.
Background.
Prior to the 2008 contest, Spain had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-seven times since its first entry in 1961. The nation has won the contest on two occasions: in 1968 with the song "La, la, la" performed by Massiel and in 1969 with the song "Vivo cantando" performed by Salomé, the latter having won in a four-way tie with France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Spain has also finished second four times, with Karina in 1971, Mocedades in 1973, Betty Missiego in 1979 and Anabel Conde in 1995. In 2007, Spain placed twentieth with the song "I Love You Mi Vida" performed by D'Nash.
The Spanish national broadcaster, Televisión Española (TVE), broadcasts the event within Spain and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. TVE confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest on 14 August 2007. In 2006, TVE selected both the artist and song that would compete at the Eurovision Song Contest via an internal selection. In 2007, TVE organised a national final featuring a competition among several artists and songs to select both the artist and song that would represent Spain, a procedure which was continued for their 2008 entry.
Before Eurovision.
"Salvemos Eurovisión".
"Salvemos Eurovisión" was the national final organised by TVE that took place on 8 March 2008 at the Estudios Buñuel in Madrid, hosted by Raffaella Carrà. The show was broadcast on La 1, TVE Internacional as well as online via TVE's official website "rtve.es". Ten artists and songs competed with the winner being decided upon through public televoting. The national final was watched by 1.96 million viewers in Spain with a market share of 16%.
Competing entries.
A submission period was open from 22 January 2008 until 13 February 2008 for artists to upload their entries through the "Salvemos Eurovisión" MySpace platform. At the conclusion of the submission period, 536 entries were received. Internet users had between 16 February and 25 February 2008 to distribute five votes for their favourite entries per day via the platform and the top five entries that qualified for the national final were announced on 26 February 2008. A five-member committee consisting of Daniel Rodríguez Villasante (director of TVE music programmes), Mauro Canut (musician, editor and deputy director at the digital branch of TVE), Borja Prieto (content director of MySpace Spain), Fernando Montesinos (music producer) and Toñi Prieto (executive producer of TVE music programmes) evaluated the remaining entries and selected an additional five entries for the national final, which were announced on 28 February 2008. "Mourning" performed by Null System was disqualified from the national final on the same day due to the song having been commercially released before 1 October 2007 and replaced with the song "Piensa gay" performed by Lorena C.
Final.
The televised final took place on 8 March 2008. The running order for the ten participating entries was announced on 4 March 2008. The winner, "Baila el Chiki-chiki" performed by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre, was selected exclusively by a public televote through the combination of votes cast before the show starting from 4 March (20%) and votes cast during the show (80%). "Baila el Chiki-chiki" received 56% of the total votes.
The five members of the expert panel that commented on the entries were:
In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included La Pajarraca, Muchachada Nui and the show host Raffaella Carrà.
Controversy.
TVE highlighted that the involvement of a MySpace platform in "Salvemos Eurovisión" was to make the selection process "more democratic" with the idea of discovering new talents. However, the Internet voting process, which the general public could vote for any of the artists interested in participating, was accused of being easily distorted with the participation of comedic acts including the eventual winner Rodolfo Chikilicuatre, a comedian who collaborates on the late night show "Buenafuente", hosted by popular comedian Andreu Buenafuente on the private channel laSexta.
During the Internet vote, "La bicicletera" performed by comedic act El Gato received over 70,000 votes in two days, however most of them were removed after allegedly discovering that they were fraudulent. Users of Internet forums claimed they decided to rise El Gato to the first places of the vote after Buenafuente refused to recognize the fraudulent support for Chikilicuatre.
Preparation.
Following "Salvemos Eurovisión", the lyrics of "Baila el Chiki-chiki" were changed for the Eurovision Song Contest in accordance to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) rules, due to its political content regarding the referencing of political figures Mariano Rajoy, Hugo Chávez and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The official video of the song premiered on 14 March 2008 on RTVE's website. The music video served as the official preview video for the Spanish entry.
Promotion.
Rodolfo Chikilicuatre's pre-contest promotion for "Baila el Chiki-chiki" was focused in Spain, including appearances on the morning show "Esta mañana" on La 1 and on the news programme "El Intermedio" on laSexta on 3 February. On 30 April, Chikilicuatre performed "Baila el Chiki-chiki" during the 2008 Spanish motorcycle Grand Prix, which took place at the Circuito de Jerez in Jerez de la Frontera.
At Eurovision.
It was announced in September 2007 that the competition's format would be expanded to two semi-finals in 2008. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top nine songs from each semi-final as determined by televoting progress to the final, and a tenth was determined by back-up juries. As a member of the "Big 4", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the final on 24 May 2008. In addition to their participation in the final, Spain is also required to broadcast and vote in one of the two semi-finals. During the semi-final allocation draw on 24 January 2008, Spain was assigned to broadcast and vote in the first semi-final on 20 May 2008.
In Spain, the first semi-final was broadcast on La 2 and the final was broadcast on La 1 with commentary by José Luis Uribarri. The Spanish spokesperson, who announced the Spanish votes during the final, was Ainhoa Arbizu. The broadcast of the final was watched by 9.336 million viewers in Spain with a market share of 59.3%. This represented an increase of 31.3% from the previous year with 5.963 million more viewers.
Final.
Rodolfo Chikilicuatre took part in technical rehearsals on 17 and 18 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 23 and 24 May. During the running order draw for the semi-final and final on 17 March 2008, Spain was placed to perform in position 22, following the entry from Greece and before the entry from Serbia.
The Spanish performance featured Rodolfo Chikilicuatre on stage wearing a purple shirt and jeans, joined by five dancers wearing short dresses in various colours. The performance began with Chikilicuatre playing the nursery rhyme "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" on a toy guitar. The stage lighting and LED screens displayed bright colours and the names of the four distinct dances mentioned in the song: "brikindans", "crusaíto", "maiquelyason" and "robocop". The performance also featured the use of smoke and pyrotechnic effects. The choreographer for the performance was Mayte Marcos. The five dancers that joined Rodolfo Chikilicuatre were Disco, Gráfica (Silvia Abril), Leticia Martín, María Ángeles Mas and Cecilia López. Martín, Mas and López were selected by Marcos through the special casting show "Dansin Chiki Chiki". During the performance, Gráfica purposely slipped and danced clumsily without knowing the basic dance steps. Spain placed sixteenth in the final, scoring 55 points.
Voting.
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Spain and awarded by Spain in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Andorra in the semi-final and to Romania in the final of the contest.