Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017


Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Do It for Your Lover" written by Manel Navarro and Antonio Rayo "Rayito". The song was performed by Manel Navarro. The Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española organised the national final Objetivo Eurovisión 2017 in order to select the Spanish entry for the 2017 contest in Kiev, Ukraine. Six artists and songs competed in the televised show where a professional jury and a public televote selected "Do It for Your Lover" performed by Manel Navarro as the winner.
As a member of the "Big 5", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 16, Spain placed twenty-sixth out of the 26 participating countries with 5 points.

Background

Prior to the 2017 contest, Spain had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-six times since its first entry in. 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 2016, Spain placed twenty-second with the song "Say Yay!" performed by Barei.
The Spanish national broadcaster, Televisión Española, broadcasts the event within Spain and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. TVE confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest on 14 September 2016. The Spanish broadcaster had used both national finals and internal selection to choose the Spanish entry in the past. In 2016, TVE selected the entry that would compete at the Eurovision Song Contest via the multi-artist national final Objetivo Eurovisión. For their 2017 entry, the broadcaster revealed details regarding their selection procedure on 26 October 2016 and announced the organization of a further edition of Objetivo Eurovisión.

Before Eurovision

''Objetivo Eurovisión 2017''

Objetivo Eurovisión 2017 was the competition that selected Spain's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. The Spanish national final took place at the VAV studios in Leganés, Community of Madrid on 11 February 2017, featuring six competing entries. One of the competing artists in the national final was selected from a wilcard round called Eurocasting. The rest of the participants in the national final were invited to compete by the broadcaster from among artists signed to record labels.

''Eurocasting'' wildcard round

One of the competing artists in the national final was selected through the wildcard round Eurocasting. A submission period was open from 27 October until 27 November 2016. At the conclusion of the submission period, 392 entries were received. Professionals at RTVE Digital, the digital branch of the broadcaster, evaluated the entries received and selected 30 entries for an Internet vote. The 30 shortlisted entries were revealed via TVE's official website rtve.es on 1 December 2016, including songs by Javi Soleil, who represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 as part of D'Nash, and Brequette, runner-up at the 2014 national final. Internet users had between 2 and 12 December 2016 to vote for their favourite entries. The ten entries with the most votes qualified to the next stage, where they were evaluated by a professional panel. The panel selected three candidates to compete during a concert show that was held in Pozuelo de Alarcón, Community of Madrid on 12 January 2017 and broadcast live on TVE's Botón Rojo interactive television service and TVE's official website. The winner, LeKlein, was determined by the public.
First stage
The voting took place from 2 to 12 December 2016. Votes from 55,264 Internet users were received. The top ten entries that qualified for the next stage were announced on 15 December 2016 during the webcast show Spain Calling, hosted by Irene Mahía and Paloma G. Quirós and streamed on TVE's official website rtve.es. Full results of the Internet vote were published on 14 January 2017.
Second stage
A jury panel evaluated ten entries and selected the three songs that advanced to Eurocasting concert, the final stage of the wildcard round. Each of the seven members of the jury awarded 3, 2 and 1 points to their three favourite entries. The members of the jury panel were:
The three finalists were announced on 20 December 2016 during the webcast show Spain Calling, hosted by Irene Mahía and Paloma G. Quirós and streamed on TVE's official website rtve.es.
''Eurocasting'' concert
The final stage of the Eurocasting wilcard round took place at Ciudad de la Imagen in Pozuelo de Alarcón, Community of Madrid on 12 January 2017, hosted by Irene Mahía and Paloma G. Quirós and broadcast live on TVE's Botón Rojo interactive television service and TVE's official website rtve.es. The winner, LeKlein, was determined solely by a public vote via TVE's official Eurovision app and official website. The five acts invited by TVE to compete in the national final by internal decision were also revealed during the broadcast. In addition to the performances from the artists competing for the wilcard spot in the national final, David Rees performed a mashup of Spanish Eurovision entries and 1990 Spanish Eurovision entrants Azúcar Moreno performed their entry "Bandido".

National final

The televised final took place at the VAV studios in Leganés, Community of Madrid on 11 February 2017, hosted by Jaime Cantizano. The show was broadcast live on La 1 as well as online via TVE's official website rtve.es. Six competing artists, including LeKlein who won the wildcard spot by a public vote, were revealed live during the Eurocasting concert on 12 January 2017 broadcast via TVE's Botón Rojo service and TVE's official website. Among the competing artists was Mirela, who was runner-up in the 2007 national final and finished fourth in the 2009 national final.
The winning entry, Manel Navarro, was determined by a combination of the votes from the public via televote, SMS and app voting and the votes from an in-studio jury panel consisting of television and radio professionals. In case of a tie, the jury panel was assigned the role to decide the winner in a second round of voting. Manel Navarro and Mirela both obtained 58 points, and two of the three panel members voted for Manel in the tie-break. The members of the jury panel were:
In addition to the performances from the competing artists, 1971 Spanish Eurovision entrant Karina performed her entry "En un mundo nuevo", 2001 Spanish Eurovision entrant David Civera performed his entry "Dile que la quiero", actors Roko and Edu Soto performed a medley of Eurovision songs, and 2016 Spanish Eurovision entrant Barei performed her entry "Say Yay!".
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Incidents
During the tie-break voting round, when the jury panel selected Manel Navarro over the public vote's favourite Mirela, and before the reprise performance of the winning song, loud boos and accusations of rigging could be heard, which resulted in uneasy moments: Manel Navarro responded with a bras d'honneur as he was being booed while on stage. He would apologise for the gesture two days later during a TVE press conference.
Following the events at the national final, the selection of Xavi Martínez as a judge was challenged over potential conflict of interest since Martínez had promoted eventual winner Manel Navarro and his entry "Do It for Your Lover" on his radio program on Los 40. On 13 February 2017, Member of Spanish Parliament for Toledo José Miguel Camacho, from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, placed a motion to request TVE for clarification on the details of the selection process for Eurovision and on the possibility of nullifying the results of the national final. On 15 February 2017, Member of Parliament for Valencia Ricardo Sixto, from Unidos Podemos, registered a similar motion. On 22 February 2017, TVE's Head of Entertainment and responsible for Objetivo Eurovisión 2017 Toñi Prieto was summoned to appear before TVE's Audit Committee to clarify allegations of mishandling.
TVE issued a statement on 26 February 2017, stating that the selection process had been conducted following the regulations set by the European Broadcasting Union and that all candidates had accepted the rules at every stage of the process. The statement also defended the criteria of the members of the jury panel in the final, stating that, as music radio hosts from the three main media groups in the country, it is "evident" that they "usually have contact with artists, singers and music producers for professional reasons".

Preparation

The official video of the song, directed by Mauri D. Galiano, was filmed in February 2017 on the north coast of Tenerife, Canary Islands. The video premiered on Manel Navarro's YouTube Vevo channel on 9 March 2017. The music video served as the official preview video for the Spanish entry.

Promotion

Manel Navarro made appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Do It for Your Lover" as the Spanish Eurovision entry. On 18 February 2017, Manel Navarro performed "Do It for Your Lover" during the third semi-final of the Ukrainian Eurovision national final. On 5 March, Manel Navarro performed during the Romanian Eurovision national final. On 2 April, Manel Navarro performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London, United Kingdom. Manel Navarro also performed during the Israel Calling event which was held in Tel Aviv, Israel on 5 April. On 8 April, Manel Navarro performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands. On 26 and 27 April, Manel Navarro promoted the song in Lisbon, Portugal: on 26 April he performed the song on RTP1 talk show Agora Nós and held a meet-and-greet session at the Instituto Cervantes centre, and on the following day he made a guest appearance on RTP1 late night talk show 5 Para A Meia-Noite.
In addition to his international appearances, he performed the song on talk show ¡Qué tiempo tan feliz! on Telecinco on 25 February. On 15 April, he performed during the Eurovision-Spain Pre-Party event which was held at the Sala La Riviera venue in Madrid. On 25 April, a farewell reception was held for Manel Navarro before he travelled to Kiev for the contest, which took place at the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid, hosted by Ambassador Anatoly Scherba.

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 took place at the International Exhibition Centre in Kiev, Ukraine and consisted of two semi-finals on 9 and 11 May and the final on 13 May 2017. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. As a member of the "Big 5", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the final. In addition to their participation in the final, Spain is also required to broadcast and vote in one of the two semi-finals. At the semi-final allocation draw on 31 January 2017, Spain was drawn to vote in the first semi-final on 9 May; the country also performed in the first semi-final jury show on 8 May, and an extended clip of the performance was broadcast in the televised semi-final show the following evening.
In Spain, both semi-finals were broadcast on La 2, while the final was televised on La 1 with commentary by José María Íñigo and Julia Varela. The Spanish spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Spanish jury during the final, was Nieves Álvarez. The Spanish song placed 26th in the final with 5 points.

Staging and performance

The staging director for the Spanish performance was Hans Pannecoucke, who had worked with the Dutch entrants in 2014, 2015 and 2016 and the Belgian entrant in 2016 in a similar role. Manel Navarro was joined in stage by backing singers Álex González and Alejandro de los Santos, bass player Edgar Regincos, drum player Marc Montserrat and guitarist Pol Niubó.. During the performance, a voice crack by Manel was criticized by Spanish media, and was indirectly blamed by the national broadcaster as the reason for Spain's last place.

Voting

Points awarded to Spain

Points awarded by Spain

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Spanish jury: