Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest
Spain has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 59 times since making its debut in, where they finished ninth. Since, Spain has been one of the "Big Five", along with France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, who are automatically allowed to participate in the final because they are the five biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union. Spain has competed in the contest continuously since the country's debut in 1961. The only country with a longer run of uninterrupted Eurovision appearances is the United Kingdom, ever-present since 1959.
Spain has won the contest twice, first in 1968 with the song "La, la, la" sung by Massiel and again in 1969, when Salomé's "Vivo cantando" was involved in a four-way tie with France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The 1969 contest in Madrid is the only time Spain has hosted the event, since lots were drawn after 1969's four-way tie and the contest was hosted by the Netherlands. Spain has also finished second in the contest four times, with Karina in, Mocedades in, Betty Missiego in and Anabel Conde in, and third in with Bravo. The country finished last with "Nul points" three times: in, and, and also finished last in and.
Since 2005, Spain have only twice reached the top 10, with both Pastora Soler and Ruth Lorenzo finishing 10th, and have now failed to reach the top 20 in 10 of the last 15 contests, including for five consecutive years. As of 2019, Spain is the current participating country with longest active victory drought, with a total of 50 years.
Selection process
Spain has regularly changed the selection process used in order to find the country's entry for the contest, either a national final or internal selection has been held by the broadcaster at the time. Between 1977 and 1999, Spain's entries were selected internally by TVE. Before that, internal selections and national contests, like Pasaporte a Dublín in 1971, were alternated.From 2000, Spain has used various selection formats with different results. In 2000 and 2001, TVE organised a national final called Eurocanción, where the Spanish representative was selected for the contest. From 2002 to 2004, the reality television talent competition Operación Triunfo was used to select the entry, a format that renewed the Spanish audience's interest in the contest and brought three top 10 results in a row, until TVE decided not to host any further editions of the series. In 2005, the national final Eurovisión 2005: Elige nuestra canción was organised, where the audience chose their favourite song among a pre-selection made by TVE of unknown artists submitted to them by record labels. The result in the Eurovision final was not good and for 2006, the selection was made internally for the first time since 1999, with a similar result. In 2007, Spain's entry was decided through the Misión Eurovisión 2007 show, with a disappointing result once again.
From 2008 to 2010, the Internet was the key element of the competitions used by TVE to select the Spanish entry. In 2008, the social networking website MySpace was involved in the national final Salvemos Eurovisión. A website was created to make it possible for anyone to upload a song and proceed to a televised final if chosen by online voters or an expert jury. The result improved a little, but not much; nevertheless the interest of the Spanish audience was revived again. For 2009, MySpace was still involved in the selection process Eurovisión 2009: El retorno, although some changes were introduced in the format. The result was the worst in the 2000s : 24th place. In 2010, a similar format, Eurovisión: Destino Oslo, selected the Spanish entry, with the best result since 2004.
In 2011, Internet voting was scrapped from the new selection method Destino Eurovisión. After a further disappointing result, for 2012, TVE decided to approach an established act, Pastora Soler, and organise a national final to select her song. A top ten result was achieved for the first time since 2004. The same procedure was repeated in 2013, with El Sueño de Morfeo as the established act, which turned out one of the most disappointing results in the country's Eurovision history; some critics, however, blamed a less-than-stellar performance of an otherwise solid song. In 2014, TVE decided to return to a multi-artist national final procedure, called Mira quién va a Eurovisión ; five artists were invited to participate by TVE. A top ten result was achieved for the second time in three years.
In 2015, for the first time since 2006, both the artist, Edurne, and the song were selected internally by TVE. On 18 December 2015, TVE announced that it would organise a national final in order to select the Spanish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. Six acts competed in the national final named Objetivo Eurovisión, and Barei won the selection process. The same format was used in 2017, and Manel Navarro won the selection process; it turned out Spain's first last-place result since 1999.
In 2017, TVE commissioned a new season of Operación Triunfo, which returned to TVE after 13 years, and the series served for the fourth time as the platform to select the Spanish entry for the 2018 contest. The result was disappointing, but the 2018 Eurovision final was the most-watched in Spain since 2008. A further season of the talent show chose the Spanish entry for the 2019 contest with another disappointing result.
For the 2020 contest, TVE will select the Spanish entry internally.
Spain and the "Big Five"
Since 1999, four particular countries have automatically qualified for the Eurovision final, regardless of their positions on the scoreboard in previous Contests. They earned this special status by being the four biggest financial contributors to the EBU. These countries are the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain. Due to their untouchable status in the Contest, these countries became known as the "Big Four". Italy returned to the contest in 2011, thus becoming part of a "Big Five". Despite everything, Spain with its overall success is the weakest participant of the Big-5.Interrupted performances
Only three times in the contest's history has a non-winning entry been allowed to perform again, and in two of these instances, the entries in question were Spanish representatives. The first time this happened to a Spanish representative was in the 1990 contest in Zagreb, when Azúcar Moreno opened the contest with the song "Bandido." The orchestra and the recorded playback began the song out of sync, which caused the singers to miss their cue. The singers left the stage after a few seconds, and no explanation was given at the time. After a few uneasy moments, the music began correctly and the song was performed in full. Azúcar Moreno and "Bandido" went on to place fifth in the final vote tally, though the juries at the time actually awarded their points after watching the dress rehearsal performances, so the restart did not affect Spain's overall result either positively or negatively.Twenty years later, at the 2010 contest in Oslo, Spain was drawn to perform second in the running order, and singer Daniel Diges's performance of "Algo pequeñito" was disturbed by notorious Catalan pitch invader Jimmy Jump. However, Diges performed the song in full, despite the invader's intrusion and subsequent removal from the stage by security personnel, receiving warm applause for continuing from the spectators at the Telenor Arena. After the exhibition of Serbia, co-presenter Nadia Hasnaoui announced that, according to the rules, Diges would be given a second chance once all the remaining countries had performed. Nonetheless, the juries ranked the dress-rehearsal performance of "Algo pequeñito" 20th out of 25 with 43 points, whereas the televoting results ranked Spain 12th, with 106 points. The combination of jury and televote results gave Spain a 15th-place.
Contestants
Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest
Spain was represented in the 50th aniversay of Eurovision, Congratulations, by their 1973 entry Mocedades, with the song "Eres tú". The group had made it into the top 14 for the special event after being selected in an online vote by the voting public across Europe.Hostings
| Year | Location | Venue | Presenter |
| Madrid | Teatro Real | Laura Valenzuela |
Awards
Marcel Bezençon Awards
| Year | Category | Performer | Song | Final | Points | Host city | |
| Fan Award | Beth | "Dime" | 8 | 81 |  Riga |
Barbara Dex Award
| Year | Performer | Host city | |
| Lydia |  Jerusalem |
Related involvement
Heads of delegation
Commentators and spokespersons
| Year | Commentator | Spokesperson | |
| Federico Gallo | Diego Ramírez Pastor | ||
| Federico Gallo | Luis Marsillach | ||
| Federico Gallo | Julio Rico | ||
| Federico Gallo | Julio Rico | ||
| Federico Gallo | Pepe Palau | ||
| Federico Gallo | Blanca Álvarez | ||
| Federico Gallo | Blanca Álvarez | ||
| Federico Gallo | Joaquín Prat | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | Joaquín Prat | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | Joaquín Prat | ||
| Joaquín Prat | rowspan="3" | ||
| Julio Rico | - | ||
| Julio Rico | - | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | Antolín García | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | José María Íñigo | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | José María Íñigo | ||
| Miguel de los Santos | Isabel Tenaille | ||
| Miguel de los Santos | Matías Prats Luque | ||
| Miguel de los Santos | Manuel Almendros | ||
| Miguel de los Santos | Alfonso Lapeña | ||
| Miguel de los Santos | Isabel Tenaille | ||
| Miguel de los Santos | Marisa Naranjo | ||
| José-Miguel Ullán | Rosa Campano | ||
| José-Miguel Ullán | Matilde Jarrín | ||
| Antonio Gómez | Matilde Jarrín | ||
| Antonio Gómez | Matilde Jarrín | ||
| Beatriz Pécker | Matilde Jarrín | ||
| Beatriz Pécker | Matilde Jarrín | ||
| Tomás Fernando Flores | Matilde Jarrín | ||
| Luis Cobos | Matilde Jarrín | ||
| Tomás Fernando Flores | María Ángeles Balañac | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | María Ángeles Balañac | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | María Ángeles Balañac | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | María Ángeles Balañac | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | Belén Fernández de Henestrosa | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | Belén Fernández de Henestrosa | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | Belén Fernández de Henestrosa | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | Belén Fernández de Henestrosa | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | Hugo de Campos | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | Hugo de Campos | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | Jennifer Rope | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | Anne Igartiburu | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | Anne Igartiburu | ||
| Beatriz Pécker | Anne Igartiburu | ||
| Beatriz Pécker | Ainhoa Arbizu | ||
| Beatriz Pécker | Sonia Ferrer | ||
| Beatriz Pécker | Ainhoa Arbizu | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | Ainhoa Arbizu | ||
| Joaquín Guzmán | Iñaki del Moral | ||
| José Luis Uribarri | Ainhoa Arbizu | ||
| José María Íñigo | Elena S. Sánchez | ||
| José María Íñigo | Elena S. Sánchez | ||
| José María Íñigo | Inés Paz | ||
| José María Íñigo | Carolina Casado | ||
| José María Íñigo and Julia Varela | Lara Siscar | ||
| José María Íñigo and Julia Varela | Jota Abril | ||
| José María Íñigo and Julia Varela | Nieves Álvarez | ||
| Tony Aguilar and Julia Varela | Nieves Álvarez | ||
| Tony Aguilar and Julia Varela | Nieves Álvarez |