| Eurovision Song Contest 2008 | |
|---|---|
| Country | Spain |
| National selection | |
| Selection process | Salvemos Eurovisión |
| Selection date(s) | 8 March 2008 |
| Selected entrant | Rodolfo Chikilicuatre |
| Selected song | "Baila el Chiki-chiki" |
| Finals performance | |
| Final result | 16th, 55 points |
Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with an entry selected through a MySpace[1] project called Salvemos Eurovisión (Let's Save Eurovision). The Spanish Final was held at TVE's Estudios Buñuel in Madrid on March 8,[2] hosted by the popular Italian actress and singer Raffaella Carrà.[3] 10 songs participated in this televised final - 5 chosen by an "expert" jury and 5 chosen via internet voting between February 11-25th. The comedic act Rodolfo Chikilicuatre won the final by a landslide getting the highest possible amount of points,[4] and thus participated for Spain in the Eurovision final in Belgrade. The winner was chosen by televoting.[5]
Contents |
More than 530 songs were uploaded to participate in the Spanish selection process. Out of these, the following ten acts proceeded to the televised final:
| No. | Artist | Song | English translation | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bizarre | "Si pudiera" | If I could | 22 | 6= |
| 2 | Innata | "Me encanta bailar" | I love dancing | 15 | 8 |
| 3 | Arkaitz | "Un olé" | One olé | 32 | 4 |
| 4 | Ell*as | "100x100" | - | 9 | 9= |
| 5 | Lorena C | "Piensa gay" | Think gay | 22 | 6= |
| 6 | D-Vine | "I do you" | - | 9 | 9= |
| 7 | Rodolfo Chikilicuatre | "Baila el Chiki-chiki" | Dance the Chiki-chiki | 60 | 1 |
| 8 | Marzok Mangui | "Caramelo" | Candy | 24 | 5 |
| 9 | La Casa Azul | "La revolución sexual" | The sexual revolution | 42 | 3 |
| 10 | Coral | "Todo está en tu mente" | Everything is in your mind | 48 | 2 |
The five acts qualified by online voting were the comedic character Rodolfo Chikilicuatre (109,995 votes), the indie-pop band La Casa Azul (67,706 votes), the Latin-pop singer Arkaitz (63,460 votes), the pop singer Coral (58,339 votes) and the pop-rock band Bizarre (54,842 votes).[6]
The five acts chosen by the jury were the pop duo Ell*as, the metal band Null System, the rap artist Marzok Mangui, the R&B band D-Vine and the pop singer Innata. Null System was later disqualified as their song, "Mourning", didn't fulfill the rules,[7] and they were replaced by the electro-pop duo Lorena C.[8]
Spain decided to make the selection process more democratic, so they made a Myspace page where the general public could vote for any of the artists who was interested in participating, discovering new talents. However, the online voting process was accused of being easily distorted (Forums like media-vida.net [1] claim that they voted massively using fraudulent methods), and the participation of popular comedic acts like Rodolfo Chikilicuatre, the eventual winner, who gets publicity from the TV show he works for, was also disputed.
Rodolfo Chikilikuatre ("Chiquilicuatre" or "chiquilicuatro" in Spanish is a word referring to a good-for-nothing) is a fictional character played by David Fernández, a comedian who collaborates on the late night TV show Buenafuente on the competing channel LaSexta, where his entry was repeatedly promoted. He presented the song "Baila el Chiki-chiki" ("Dance the Chiki-chiki"), which is a parody of reggaeton music and has a joke reference to the world-famous ¿Por qué no te callas? incident. Some Eurovision fans accused this song of containing political content, which is prohibited in the Eurovision contest. An example of the song's political content would be "Lo baila Rajoy, lo baila Hugo Chávez, lo baila Zapatero, mi amor ya tú sabes." ("Rajoy dances it, Hugo Chávez dances it, Zapatero dances it; my love, you already know it"). Supporters of the song claimed that this is only a mention of Spanish political figures, and doesn't constitute political content. In any case, the most controversial lines were changed to fit the rules after the Spanish national final.[9]
"Baila el Chiki-chiki" was the song with most online votes until El Gato rocketed from barely 300 votes to 80,000 in two days.[10] However El Gato's song "La bicicletera" got most of its votes deleted after they were discovered to be fake by TVE.[11] Users of forums like Mediavida.com claim they first supported Rodolfo Chikilicuatre fraudulently until Buenafuente himself refused to recognize their help, so, in protest, they decided to rise another contestant, "El Gato", to the first places of the competition. Later, TVE, cancelled most of the votes of "El Gato" but Rodolfo Chikilicuatre's votes remained untouched.
As a member of the "Big 4", Spain automatically qualified for the Eurovision final, held on 24 May 2008.
Rodolfo Chikilicuatre was accompanied on stage by "Disco" and "Gráfica", two comedic dancers that also accompanied him in the national final. One of them, Gráfica, played by fellow actress Silvia Abril, dances clumsily without knowing the basic dance steps. Another three dancers (Leticia Martín, María Ángeles Mas and Cecilia López) were chosen through the special casting show "Dansin Chiki Chiki" to join them in Belgrade.[12]
TVE's commentator for the event was José Luis Uribarri, regarded as the voice of Eurovision in Spain after doing the job 16 times between 1969 and 2003.[13] He first hinted that he would be back in the special show "Dansin Chiki Chiki". This caused some trouble among some journalists and Eurovision fans, as in the national final he appeared outraged by the election of a comedic act.[14]
TVE host Ainhoa Arbizu was Spain's spokesperson, as in the 2005 and 2007 contests.[15]
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