Introduction
Next up, we are heading over to the 'land of rabbits' and to talk about this year's Benidorm Fest (Spain). This festival has been used to select Spain's representative for Eurovision for the last four years.
For Benidorm Fest 2025, the competition had two semi-finals in which four candidates would advance to the final. Candidates and the winner for the semi-final and final rounds were determined by 50%/50% vote between a professional jury and the public. This year was kind of interesting because the folks at Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española (RTVE) decided to make televoting by phone and text free.
Triple diva power with Ruth Lorenzo, Paula Vázquez, and Inés Hernand being on hand to host this year's national selection. Overall, I thought the folks at RTVE should be proud of putting on a great national selection. IMO, the show was pretty easy to follow (even if you do not speak Spanish), the visuals were great (almost ESC-level), and the hostesses did a wonderful job keeping the show moving. Perhaps, I'm a bit biased because I understand Spanish so I could actually follow along with the non performing parts of the show.
Spain's 🇪🇸 History in Eurovision
Entry year / number of ESC participations: Spain first appeared in ESC in the 1961 edition of the contest and has participated in contest 63 times.
Number of ESC wins: 2, and both were somewhat controversial.
1968 (London, UK) - Massiel's La La La. Why the controversy? Some have stated that General Franco, the dictator errr president at the time, might have bought the country's win.
1969 (Madrid, Spain) - Salomé's Vivo Cantando (I live to sing). This win was interesting because there was a four-way tie for first place. The other three countries that won in 1969 were: France 🇫🇷, the Netherlands 🇳🇱, and the UK 🇬🇧. Kind of interesting that there were four winners, because only 16 countries competed in that year's contest, so basically 1/4th of the entrants won. ;)
Highest placement (aside from winning year(s)): 2nd place in 1979 (Jerusalem, Israel) with Betty Missiego's Su Canción (Your Song) and in 1995 (Dublin, Ireland) with Anabel Conde's Vuelve Conmigo (Come Back to Me).
Although Spain has participated in the contest for over half a century, they've had many ups and mostly downs in the contest. In recent years, Spain typically has finished in a crummy position. In the last 20 years, Spain has finished somewhere between 20th and 26th place about 13 times. Keep in mind that there are only 25-26 countries that participate in the grand final.
My favorite Spanish entry to date:
As a small ESC project in 2023, I ranked all off the Spanish songs and my favorites were:
Ruth Lorenzo's Dancing in the Rain - 2014 ESC (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Sergio Dalma's Bailar Pegados (Dance together) - 1991 ESC (Rome, Italy)
Anabel Conde's Vuelve conmigo (Come Back to Me) - 1995 ESC (Dublin, Ireland). Honestly, I though Anabel should have won this year because the song that won was more of an instrumental than an actual song, IMO.
So Who is Spain 🇪🇸 sending to Eurovision 2025?
RTVE indicated that close to 1,000 entries were received for this year's Benidorm Fest 2025, and the five musical advisors selected 16 participants for Benidorm Fest 2025. To be frank, while I did not hate any of the the 16 song selected, I thought that the overall quality could have been stronger...especially after I learned close to 1,000 songs were submitted. The selection was set up in that four songs from the two semifinals would advance to the the final round. Songs that advanced from the semi final rounds, and the winner was determined by a 50:50 vote between the public and an international jury.
The folks choose Melody's Esa Diva as the winner of this year's Benidorm Fest 2025.
Melody showing us how a diva gets it done.
General Thoughts
Spain's ranking (lefT) vs mine (right)
Spain's results courtesy of Eurovision World (***).
Going into the national selection my favorite to win was LaChispa's Hartita de Llorar (Tired of Crying). After the first semi, I had a feeling that it was going to be tough for her to win. One, her staging was not as creative as the others'. Two, her vocals were a little off. Hartita de Llorar (IMO) is a flamenco-based song where the singer has to be very careful because there is a very thin line between singing with emotion and scream singing.
Credit: El Correo (***)
Unfortunately, for LaChispa (left), she erred on the side of scream singing. It was quite clear that my favorite during the national selection was Mel Omana's (right) I'm a Queen, which was kind of surprising because I was not really feeling the song at first. I dunno why, but I became a "fan" once I saw her performance and witnessed her intriguing and engaging personality. Hopefully, she comes back in the future to represent Spain.
Besides Melody, J Kbello's V.I.P. (left) and Daniela Blasco's Uh Nana (right) were favorites to win. I'll admit that I did not pay too much attention to their songs when I first heard the songs, but something about the performances really brought the songs to light.
Credit: El Correo (***)
Based on the performances, I was 100% sure that J Kbello was going to take it. His vocals were slightly above average, the staging was pretty nice, and he is decent eye candy and has some IT factor. While Daniela Blasco has the making of potential Eurovision star, I was not really feeling her performance. One, I thought she relied way too much on her pre-recorded backing track. Seriously, there were SEVERAL parts of the song where I thought she was supposed to sing but she was not. While she is a great dancer, I found some of the transitions in her choreography to be a bit awkward. Random trivia: Daniela Blasco was backup dancer for Justin Bieber.
Pleasant surprises
Credit: El Correo (***)
While I did not think these two songs had a shot at winning Eurovision. I really feel in love with Lucas Bun's Te Escribo en El Cielo (I'll write you in Heaven; left pic) and Mawot's Raggio di Sole (Ray of Light; right pic). Actually, I was surprised that Mawot's song was selected - 1. for Benidorm Fest and 2. to advance to the final. Also, I was quite surprised that a song primarily performed in Italian made it to the final.
Controversies & Drama
Based on the comments from the ESC Twitter/X fandom, I do not recall seeing too much drama regarding aside from general criticisms about the winner. Some criticisms were legit, but most seemed to be anger or outrage that Daniela Blasco or J Kbello was not selected. The main criticisms regarding Melody's Esa Diva was that it sounds "dated". Ok, I'll agree with that; however, I think that I need a better definition of what "dated" means. For instance, a lot of people loved last year's song (Zorra [Bitch]), which had 80s synth pop stylings, but no one seemed to refer to it as "dated".
My personal “drama”
Shortly after Benidorm Fest was over, RTVE released the results of the two semifinal rounds - semifinal 1 (left) and semifinal 2 (right).
While I do not think there were shenanigans with the votes, my spidey senses did activate when I saw the jury results. I do not understand how Mel Omana came in 4th place for the jury vote in the final, but had the highest jury vote of not only her semifinal, but of BOTH semifinals. To be honest, I thought her performance improved from the semi round to the final found. However, I thought other performers improved from their semi round to the final. Here's what I think might have happened regarding the jury vote.
After the second semi, the jury might have seen how much the fandom was praising Daniela Blasco, J Kbello, and to some extent Melody's performances. So, going into the final round, they might have adjusted their scoring to fall more inline with public opinion.
Perhaps, a different set of guidelines is used for judging in the final. For instance, maybe more weight is given to how well the song would perform (or rather the song's/performance's potential in) Eurovision. This could be a reason (IMO) why Daniela Blasco's jury score (71 points) was significantly higher than Mel Omana's (61 points) in the final. Although Dnaiela Blasco and Mel Omana performed in different semi final rounds, Daniela Blasco received 77 points and Mel Omana received 90 points in their semi final rounds.
During the final, I noticed the head judge said something a little interesting. He said something to the effect that there was a lot of discussion regarding the jury vote/ranking. I thought that was weird because I'm kind of like why would there be any discussion/deliberation. From my understanding, I would assume each jury member receives a scorecard to rank the performers based on various categories. After doing that, the highest totals should win the jury vote. I think that would be the best way to prevent bias and cult-like (for lack of a better word) judging. I get the sense that (collectively) the judges wanted either J Kbello, Melody, or Daniela Blasco to represent Spain, so some votes (especially when it came to Mel Omana) might have been "adjusted" prior to the final round.
But the die is cast, and it is what it is.
How Will This Do at Eurovision?
Now, that more ESC songs have been released, it's hard to predict how Melody's Esa Diva will do.
Strengths:
✅ The song is very easy to listen to, which might help with the local fans in May who wants something general.
✅ Melody has decent vocals and can belt when needed, so it has potential for the international juries to like it for vocal ability. To be honest, there are not too many strong vocalists in this contest. Ok, so I would not consider Melody a strong vocalist, but her vocals are a bit stronger and cleaner than some of the other ESC performers so far.
Weaknesses:
❌ The staging needs to be revamped because it might be too plain compared to the other ESC performances. Since the song says "Una diva es valiente, poderosa" (a diva is fearless, powerful) multiple times, I wonder if it would be helpful to exchange ~2 of the male dancers for female dancers. Or, maybe she wants to be the only diva on stage surrounded by male dancers. ;)
❌ Also, I think the costumes need to be changed, but I guess that would be a comment regarding the staging.
❌While I do not think the song needs to be completed revamped, I do not think it would hurt to spruce it up a bit. You know, since many folks in the fandom say it’s dated.
Final Thoughts
Based on Spain's history in the contest (i.e., typically coming the middle to last spots), I think this is a fine choice. I do not think that it will win, but I do not think it will come in last place, which is a bit of a "win" for Spain. In its current state I'm thinking a 18th-23rd place finish.
Video of the National Final:
Benidorm Fest 2025 Playlist:
