Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015

Eurovision Song Contest 2015
Country	Spain
National selection
Selection process	Internal Selection
Selection date(s)	Artist: 14 January 2015 Song: 1 March 2015
Selected entrant	Edurne
Selected song	"Amanecer"
Selected songwriter(s)	Tony Sánchez-Ohlsson Peter Boström Thomas G:son
Finals performance
Final result	21st, 15 points
Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2014 • 2015 • 2016►

Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Amanecer", written by Tony Sánchez-Ohlsson, Peter Boström and Thomas G:son. The song was performed by Edurne, who was selected by Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) in January 2015 to represent the nation at the 2015 contest in Vienna, Austria. "Amanecer" was later presented to the public in March 2015. As a member of the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom), Spain competed directly in the final on 23 May 2015 and did not have to qualify from one of two semi-finals held on 19 May and 21 May. However, Spain was obligated to vote in the first semi-final. In Spain's fifty-fifth Eurovision appearance on 23 May, "Amanecer" finished in twenty-first place out of 27 competing songs.

Background

Prior to the 2015 contest, Spain had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-four times since its first entry in 1961.^[1] 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 2014, Spain placed tenth with the song "Dancing in the Rain" performed by Ruth Lorenzo.

The Spanish national broadcaster, Televisión Española (TVE), broadcasts the event within Spain and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. From 2007 to 2011, TVE had set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Spain, with both the public and a panel of jury members involved in the selection. For 2012 and 2013, the broadcaster internally selected the artists, while a national final was held to select their song. In 2014, TVE returned to using a national final to select both the artist and song that would represent Spain. For the 2015 contest, the broadcaster opted to internally select both the artist and song.

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

TVE confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest on 15 September 2014.^[2] In December 2014, while TVE had not revealed how the Spanish entry would be selected, Spanish press speculated that TVE had selected singer Edurne to represent Spain at the 2015 contest.^[3] Other artists rumoured in the Spanish press included Pablo Alborán, Diana Navarro and Marta Sánchez.^[4] On 14 January 2015, the broadcaster held a press conference at the Sala de Comunicación Torrespaña, TVE Headquarters in Madrid, hosted by Ignacio Gómez-Acebo, to announce that they had internally selected Edurne to represent Spain in Vienna.^[5][6] During the press conference, it was also revealed that Edurne would sing the song "Amanecer", written by Tony Sánchez-Ohlsson, Peter Boström and Thomas G:son.^[7] Sánchez-Ohlsson and G:son previously wrote the Spanish entries in 2007 and 2012.^[8]

Preparation

At the end of January 2015, Edurne recorded "Amanecer" and filmed the official music video of the song.^[9] The video was filmed in Valencia and was directed by David Arnal and Germán de la Hoz.^[10] On 1 March, "Amanecer" premiered on the Spanish broadcaster's official website.^[8] The official video of the song was later released on 9 March.^[11] On 6 April, Edurne performed "Amanecer" live for the first time during the show Alaska y Segura on La 1.^[12] On 15 April, it was announced that "Amanecer" would be the official song of the 2015 Vuelta a España.^[13] On 22 April, a promotional symphonic version of "Amanecer" was released, which was recorded with the RTVE Symphony Orchestra and chorus at Madrid's Teatro Monumental.^[14]

At Eurovision

Edurne during a press conference

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) 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. In the 2015 contest, Australia also competed directly in the final as an invited guest nation.^[15] As a member of the "Big 5", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the final on 23 May 2015. In addition to their participation in the final, Spain was also required to broadcast and vote in one of the two semi-finals. During the semi-final allocation draw on 26 January 2015, Spain was assigned to broadcast and vote in the first semi-final on 19 May 2015.^[16]

In Spain, the semi-finals were broadcast on La 2 and the final was broadcast on La 1 with commentary by José María Íñigo and Julia Varela.^[17][18] The Spanish spokesperson, who announced the Spanish votes during the final, was Lara Siscar.^[19]

Final

Edurne at a dress rehearsal for the final

Edurne took part in technical rehearsals on 17 and 20 May,^[20][21] followed by dress rehearsals on 22 and 23 May. This included the jury final where professional juries of each country, responsible for 50 percent of each country's vote, watched and voted on the competing entries.^[22] After technical rehearsals were held on 20 May, the "Big 5" countries, host nation Austria and special guest Australia held a press conference. As part of this press conference, the artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. Spain was drawn to compete in the second half.^[23] Following the conclusion of the second semi-final, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final. The running order for the semi-finals and final was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Spain was subsequently placed to perform in position 21, following the entry from Romania and before the entry from Hungary.^[24]

The stage show featured Edurne with one backing dancer, Giuseppe Di Bella, performing a routine choreographed by Miryam Benedited Arce. Edurne started the performance dressed in a long red cloak, laying down on a pedestal at the centre of the stage and holding her backing dancer in her arms. As the song progressed, Edurne underwent a costume change with the removal of the red cloak revealing a golden dress designed by José Fuentes. Edurne and her backing dancer performed an acrobatic dance leading to Edurne finishing the performance alone in the centre of the stage. The stage lighting transitioned from dark colours to bright yellow with the background LED screens displaying rain, waterfalls and arid landscapes. In regards to the performance, the head of the Spanish delegation Federico Llanos stated: "The moment captured by Edurne's song "Amanecer" is sunrise. Last minutes of a battle between the darkness and the light. She thinks about all the memories, fighting against all the bad things happened in her life. So, she struggles with her past, hoping to be able to continue with her life. It's all about the battle, right before the sunrise. That excitement is what the song and her performance is all about."^[20][21][25]

At the conclusion of the voting, Spain finished in twenty-first place with 15 points.^[26][27]

Voting

Voting during the three shows consisted of 50 percent public televoting and 50 percent from a jury deliberation. The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury could be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member were released shortly after the grand final.^[28]

Following the release of the full split voting by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that Spain had placed twentieth with the public televote and twenty-fifth with the jury vote. In the public vote, Spain scored 27 points and in the jury vote the nation scored 6 points.^[29]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Spain and awarded by Spain in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:^{[30][27][31][32]}

Points awarded to Spain

Points awarded by Spain

Semi-final 1 12 points  Estonia 10 points  Belgium 8 points  Romania 7 points  Russia 6 points  Albania 5 points  Georgia 4 points  Armenia 3 points  Netherlands 2 points  Greece 1 point  Denmark

Final 12 points  Italy 10 points  Russia 8 points  Sweden 7 points  Australia 6 points  Belgium 5 points  Romania 4 points  Latvia 3 points  Estonia 2 points  Norway 1 point  Israel

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Spanish jury:^[28]

• Jacobo Calderón – Chairperson – songwriter, producer
• Daniel Diges – singer, actor, represented Spain in the 2010 contest
• Rosa López – singer, represented Spain in the 2002 contest
• Ruth Lorenzo – singer, represented Spain in the 2014 contest
• Pastora Soler – singer, represented Spain in the 2012 contest

Split voting results from Spain (Semi-final 1)
Draw	Country	J. Calderón	D. Diges	R. López	R. Lorenzo	P. Soler	Average Jury Rank	Televote Rank	Combined Rank	Scoreboard (Points)
01	Moldova	8	14	15	16	14	15	9	12
02	Armenia	12	13	11	15	13	12	4	7	4
03	Belgium	5	6	2	2	3	2	3	2	10
04	Netherlands	10	7	14	13	9	10	8	8	3
05	Finland	16	15	12	14	16	16	11	15
06	Greece	2	2	3	9	5	4	14	9	2
07	Estonia	7	5	4	3	2	3	2	1	12
08	Macedonia	14	16	10	10	15	13	16	16
09	Serbia	11	11	13	12	10	11	10	11
10	Hungary	15	12	16	11	12	14	12	14
11	Belarus	13	9	5	8	11	9	15	13
12	Russia	1	1	1	1	1	1	7	4	7
13	Denmark	6	3	9	7	8	7	13	10	1
14	Albania	4	4	8	6	4	5	5	5	6
15	Romania	3	10	7	4	6	6	1	3	8
16	Georgia	9	8	6	5	7	8	6	6	5

Split voting results from Spain (Final)
Draw	Country	J. Calderón	D. Diges	R. López	R. Lorenzo	P. Soler	Average Jury Rank	Televote Rank	Combined Rank	Scoreboard (Points)
01	Slovenia	10	12	15	16	17	13	21	17
02	France	9	11	16	11	11	10	19	13
03	Israel	18	9	14	18	13	15	7	10	1
04	Estonia	16	14	9	8	4	8	10	8	3
05	United Kingdom	24	24	25	22	23	25	11	19
06	Armenia	23	23	17	26	24	23	12	18
07	Lithuania	17	8	18	23	22	20	14	16
08	Serbia	25	22	24	25	19	24	16	23
09	Norway	13	10	6	7	9	7	13	9	2
10	Sweden	11	6	3	4	3	5	3	3	8
11	Cyprus	7	19	7	15	18	11	18	12
12	Australia	6	4	4	3	7	4	4	4	7
13	Belgium	2	7	1	1	5	2	6	5	6
14	Austria	12	3	12	9	16	9	23	14
15	Greece	14	5	23	20	10	14	25	22
16	Montenegro	21	18	21	21	15	22	24	25
17	Germany	15	16	19	19	20	21	17	21
18	Poland	20	17	8	12	21	18	15	15
19	Latvia	3	13	5	6	8	6	9	7	4
20	Romania	5	21	13	14	15	12	2	6	5
21	Spain
22	Hungary	26	25	26	24	26	26	22	26
23	Georgia	19	15	20	17	14	19	8	11
24	Azerbaijan	22	26	11	10	6	16	26	24
25	Russia	1	2	2	2	1	1	5	2	10
26	Albania	8	20	22	13	12	17	20	20
27	Italy	4	1	10	5	2	3	1	1	12

References