Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008
Encyclopedia
Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with an entry selected through a MySpace
project called Salvemos Eurovisión (Let's Save Eurovision). The Spanish Final was held at TVE's
Estudios Buñuel in Madrid
on March 8 , hosted by the popular Italian actress and singer Raffaella Carrà
. 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 , and thus participated for Spain in the Eurovision final in Belgrade
. The winner was chosen by televoting.
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).
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 , and they were replaced by the electro-pop duo Lorena C.
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 http://www.media-vida.net 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.
"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 . However El Gato's song "La bicicletera" got most of its votes deleted after they were discovered to be fake by TVE. 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.
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.
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. 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.
TVE host Ainhoa Arbizu was Spain's spokesperson, as in the 2005 and 2007 contests.
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
project called Salvemos Eurovisión (Let's Save Eurovision). The Spanish Final was held at TVE's
Televisión Española
Televisión Española is the national state-owned public-service television broadcaster in Spain. TVE's activities were previously financed by a combination of advertising revenue and subsidies from the national government, but since it's been supported by subsidies only.TVE belongs to the RTVE...
Estudios Buñuel in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
on March 8 , hosted by the popular Italian actress and singer Raffaella Carrà
Raffaella Carrà
Raffaella Carrà , in Italy often simply known as la Carrà and in some Latin American countries sometimes simply as Raffaella, is an Italian singer, dancer, television presenter, and actress...
. 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
Rodolfo Chikilicuatre
Rodolfo Chikilicuatre ; is a Spanish comedic character played by David Fernández Ortiz and first introduced in the Spanish late night show Buenafuente as an improvisational act. Rodolfo was interviewed as the inventor of the vibrator-guitar...
won the final by a landslide getting the highest possible amount of points , and thus participated for Spain in the Eurovision final in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
. The winner was chosen by televoting.
Salvemos Eurovisión
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 Rodolfo Chikilicuatre Rodolfo Chikilicuatre ; is a Spanish comedic character played by David Fernández Ortiz and first introduced in the Spanish late night show Buenafuente as an improvisational act. Rodolfo was interviewed as the inventor of the vibrator-guitar... |
"Baila el Chiki-chiki Baila el Chiki-chiki "Baila el Chiki-chiki" is a song by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre and Spain's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, in Belgrade, Serbia... " |
Dance the Chiki-chiki | 60 | 1 |
| 8 | Marzok Mangui | "Caramelo" | Candy | 24 | 5 |
| 9 | La Casa Azul La Casa Azul La Casa Azul is a Spanish indie pop band that combines many of the qualities of 1960s American pop bands like the Beach Boys and 1970s European disco-pop acts like ABBA with clean, clear production reminiscent of Shibuya-kei. This distinctive sound was created by producer Guille Milkyway, who also... |
"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).
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 , and they were replaced by the electro-pop duo Lorena C.
Controversy
Spain decided to make the selection process more democratic, so they made a MyspaceMyspace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
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 http://www.media-vida.net 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
Late night television
Late night television in the United States is the block of television programming airing after 11:00 pm and usually through 2:00 am. Traditionally, this type of programming airs after the late local news and is most notable for being the daypart used for a particular genre of programming that falls...
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
Reggaeton
Reggaeton is a form of Puerto Rican and Latin American urban and Caribbean music. After its mainstream exposure in 2004, it spread to North American, European and Asian audiences. Reggaeton originated in Puerto Rico but is also has roots from Reggae en Español from Panama and Puerto Rico and...
music and has a joke reference to the world-famous ¿Por qué no te callas?
¿Por qué no te callas?
¿Por qué no te callas? is a phrase that was uttered by King Juan Carlos I of Spain to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, at the 2007 Ibero-American Summit in Santiago, Chile, when Chávez was interrupting Prime Minister of Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's speech...
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
Mariano Rajoy
Mariano Rajoy Brey is a Spanish People's Party politician and is the Prime Minister-elect since 20 November 2011. He will be sworn into office in mid-December 2011....
, lo baila Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
, lo baila Zapatero
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party . He was elected for two terms as Prime Minister of Spain, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections. On 2 April 2011 he announced he will not stand for re-election in 2012...
, 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.
"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 . However El Gato's song "La bicicletera" got most of its votes deleted after they were discovered to be fake by TVE. 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.
At Eurovision
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.
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. 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.
TVE host Ainhoa Arbizu was Spain's spokesperson, as in the 2005 and 2007 contests.
External links
- http://www.eurovision2008.rtve.es Official Spanish site (TVE)
- myspace.com/eurovision2008 Official Spanish site (Myspace)
- Rodolfo Chikilicuatre's website (In Spanish)