Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song „La noche es para mí“ written by Irini Michas, Dimitri Stassos, Jason Gill and Felipe Pedroso. The song was performed by Soraya. The Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) organised the national final Eurovisión 2009: El retorno in order to select the Spanish entry for the 2009 contest in Moscow, Russia. The national final consisted of three semi-finals and a final and involved 30 artists and songs. Ten entries ultimately qualified to compete in the televised final where an in-studio jury and a public televote selected „La noche es para mí“ performed by Soraya as the winner.

As a member of the „Big Four“, Spain automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing as the closing entry during the show in position 25, Spain placed twenty-fourth out of the 25 participating countries with 23 points.

Eurovisión 2009: El retorno

Eurovisión 2009: El retorno was the national final organised by TVE that took place at the Casino l’Aliança del Poblenou Theatre in Barcelona, hosted by Alaska and Miguel Serrano. The national final consisted of four shows which commenced on 14 February 2009 and concluded with a winning song and artist during the final on 28 February 2009. All shows were broadcast on La 1, TVE Internacional as well as online via TVE’s official website rtve.es.

Format

Thirty artists and songs, selected through an Internet round, competed in Eurovisión 2009: El retorno which consisted of four shows: three semi-finals on 14, 21 and 28 February 2009, and the final also on 28 February 2009. Each semi-final featured ten entries and four qualified for the final. The twelve qualifying entries competed in the final during which the winning entry was determined. The initial format of the national final was to include a Second Chance round which would feature the fourth-placed songs of each semi-final, however the show was later removed due to low ratings of the first two semi-finals and for the purpose of aiding the winning artist in preparing their performance, choreography and official preview video for the Eurovision Song Contest. The results during all four shows were decided upon through a combination of public televoting (50%) and an in-studio expert jury (50%). Four members of the jury were appointed by TVE, while an additional member was selected during the first semi-final through the same voting process. The votes of the expert jury and the public televote each created an overall ranking from which points from 1-8, 10 and 12 were distributed.

The five members of the in-studio jury that evaluated the entries during the shows were:

• José Luis Uribarri – Television presenter and director, commentator of the Eurovision Song Contest for Spain
• Mauro Canut – Musician, editor and deputy director at the digital branch of TVE
• Mariola Orellana – Music producer
• Toni Garrido – Journalist at RNE
• Víctor Escudero – Author

Competing entries

A submission period was open from 24 November 2008 until 17 December 2008 for artists to upload their entries through the Eurovisión 2009: El retorno MySpace platform. At the conclusion of the submission period, 978 entries were received, of which 455 were selected for an Internet vote. The selected entries were allocated to ten categories by genre and revealed via TVE’s official website on 19 December 2008. The ten categories and the number of songs competing were:

• Pop/Rock – 188
• Ballad – 37
• Metal – 12
• Electronic – 63
• Latin – 29
• Hip Hop – 9
• Indie – 18
• Flamenco – 10
• R&B – 19
• Other – 45

Users had until 19 January 2009 to distribute twenty votes for their five favourite entries per day and the top twenty entries among the top five entries of each category directly qualified for the national final, which were announced on 20 January 2009. The remaining thirty entries were performed in front of the four in-studio jury members appointed by TVE on 31 January 2009 during a live webcast audition at the Casino l’Aliança del Poblenou Theatre in Barcelona, broadcast on TVE’s official website, where an additional ten entries were selected for the national final. Prior to the audition, „Gitana – “Ya layla”“ performed by Sin Tanto and „Un día sin fuste“ performed by Depresión Post-Parto were withdrawn and replaced with the songs „La presumida“ performed by Antonio Moreno Bermúdez and „Yo solo“ performed by José Antonio Santiago Beltrán, respectively.

Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)
Ángeles Vela	„Vístete de primavera“	José María Tornay
Atalis	„Retrato frontal“	Paco Quintana
Beatriz	„¿Dónde te metes?“	Fernando Calleja
Biquini	„Una chica normal“	Alfredo Diego
Calipop	„Burbuja“	Sergio Soler, Laura Jimenez, Corey, Bruce, Eddie Cuñao
Carlos Ferrer EAI	„El patito“	Carlos Ferrer EAI
Diqesi	„Subiré“	Carolina Pereira
Dulce	„Bésame“	Dulce Hernández
El Secreto de Álex	„Por esta vez“	Alejandro Abad
Electronikboy	„Mon petit oiseau“	Juanimisterfly
Gran Baobab	„Despedida de soltero“	Nacho Pitarch, Axel Kersting, Edu Torrella, Javier Templado, Paco Gamboa, Rafa Than
Isi	„Ahora no“	Isi Hernández, Cristian Vallo
Jorge González	„Si yo vengo a enamorarte“	Jaime Roldán, Jesús Domínguez
Julia Bermejo	„Ya no estás“	Julia Bermejo
La La Love You	„Dame un beso“	David Merino Velasco, Roberto Carlos Castrillo Sánchez
La Red de San Luis	„Gracias, Madre Tierra“	Alejandro de Pinedo, Gema Castaño
Leather Boys	„We’re Livin‘ in a Bar“	Leather Boys
Melody y Los Vivancos	„Amante de la luna“	Fernando Bermúdez, Manuel Carrasco
Mirela	„Nada es comparable a ti“	Tony Sánchez-Ohlsson, Thomas G:son, Andreas Rickstrand
Noelia Cano	„Cruza los dedos“	Rafael Artesero
Normativa Vigente	„Alejandría – The New Generation“	Fernando Tamborero, Plácido Langle, Juan César, Héctor Arrollo, David César
Remembrances	„Espejismo“	Haydée Mariñoso, Arturo Hernández, Anthon Lo, Joaquín Pelegrín, Antonio Perea
Roel	„Y ahora dices“	Roel García
Salva Ortega	„Lujuria“	Alejandro de Pinedo
Santa Fe	„Samba House“	Ariel Queupumil
Solydo	„Tú“	Danny Oton
Soraya	„La noche es para mí“	Irini Michas, Dimitri Stassos, Jason Gill, Felipe Pedroso
Vicente Casal	„Tú me complementas“	Vicente Casal
Virginia	„True Love“	Rafael Artesero
Yulia Valentayn	„Uh La La“	Yulia Valentayn

Fifth jury selection

The selection of the fifth in-studio jury member took place over two stages. In the first stage, twenty of the 26 applicants were revealed via TVE’s official website on 19 December 2008 and users had until 19 January 2009 to vote for their favourite candidates. The top five candidates qualified for the second stage which took place during the first semi-final on 14 February 2009, where the fifth jury member, Víctor Escudero, was selected following the combination of votes of the four in-studio jury members appointed by TVE (50%) and a public televote (50%).

First round – 20 January 2009

Candidate	Votes	Place
Isaac Urrea Esteban	16,833	1
José García Hernández	15,374	2
Miguel Ángel Mur	13,652	3
Víctor M. Escudero	13,047	4
Pedro Martínez López	12,825	5
Antonio	—	—
Cesar Ivan	—	—
David Azul	—	—
Gabriel Rodríguez Martínez	—	—
Jaime Ortega	—	—
Jesús Domingo Sevilla Navarro	—	—
Katherine Muñoz	—	—
Leonardo Nascimento	—	—
Luis Manuel Ruiz	—	—
Miguel Manzo	—	—
Miguel Mestre Ginard	—	—
Pedro	—	—
Rafael Alejandro Anillo Rodriguez	—	—
Rodrigo Mencía	—	—
Victor	—	—

Second round – 14 February 2009

Draw	Candidate	Profession	Jury	Televote	Total	Place
1	Isaac Urrea	Representative of AEV	4	2	6	3
2	José García	Representative of eurovision-spain.com	1	4	5	4
3	Miguel Ángel	Radio director and presenter	3	1	4	5
4	Víctor Escudero	Author	5	3	8	1
5	Pedro Martínez	Composer	2	5	7	2

Shows

Semi-final 1

The first semi-final took place on 14 February 2009. „Amante de la luna“ performed by Melody y Los Vivancos, „Dame un beso“ performed by La La Love You, „Cruza los dedos“ performed by Noelia Cano and „Despedida de soltero“ performed by Gran Baobab qualified for the final through the combination of votes of an in-studio jury (50%) and a public televote (50%). In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included Tequila and Fangoria.

Following the first semi-final, Los Vivancos announced that they would be withdrawing from the national final due to the lack of technical and artistic resources in the production of the show as well as that their bid was being promoted as Melody even though it was a joint bid. Melody later announced that she would remain in the final and would perform with other dancers.

Semi-final 1 – 14 February 2009

Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Televote	Total	Place
1	Yulia Valentayn	„Uh la la“	6	3	9	8
2	La Red de San Luis	„Gracias, Madre Tierra“	8	2	10	5
3	Vicente Casal	„Tú me complementas“	1	7	8	9
4	Noelia Cano	„Cruza los dedos“	7	4	11	3
5	Carlos Ferrer EAI	„El patito“	4	5	9	7
6	La La Love You	„Dame un beso“	10	10	20	2
7	Normativa Vigente	„Alejandría – The New Generation“	3	6	9	6
8	Atalis	„Retrato frontal“	5	1	6	10
9	Melody y Los Vivancos	„Amante de la luna“	12	12	24	1
10	Gran Baobab	„Despedida de soltero“	2	8	10	4

Detailed Jury Votes – Semi-final 1

Draw	Song	J.L. Uribarri	M. Canut	M. Orellana	T. Garrido	V. Escudero	Total	Points
1	„Uh la la“	4	3	6	6	8	27	6
2	„Gracias, Madre Tierra“	8	8	8	5	6	35	8
3	„Tú me complementas“	2	6	3	2	2	15	1
4	„Cruza los dedos“	10	7	7	4	7	35	7
5	„El patito“	1	2	5	7	1	16	4
6	„Dame un beso“	7	10	10	12	10	49	10
7	„Alejandría – The New Generation“	6	4	1	1	4	16	3
8	„Retrato frontal“	5	5	2	8	3	23	5
9	„Amante de la luna“	12	12	12	10	12	58	12
10	„Despedida de soltero“	3	1	4	3	5	16	2

Semi-final 2

The second semi-final took place on 21 February 2009. „La noche es para mí“ performed by Soraya, „True Love“ performed by Virginia, „Si yo vengo a enamorarte“ performed by Jorge González and „Lujuria“ performed by Salva Ortega qualified for the final through the combination of votes of an in-studio jury (50%) and a public televote (50%). In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included Rosario Flores and Nena Daconte.

Semi-final 2 – 21 February 2009

Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Televote	Total	Place
1	Diqesi	„Subiré“	5	4	9	7
2	Roel	„Y ahora dices“	6	3	9	8
3	Salva Ortega	„Lujuria“	7	7	14	4
4	Soraya	„La noche es para mí“	12	12	24	1
5	Virginia	„True Love“	10	10	20	2
6	Calipop	„Burbuja“	2	2	4	9
7	Ángeles Vela	„Vístete de primavera“	4	5	9	6
8	Jorge González	„Si yo vengo a enamorarte“	8	8	16	3
9	Electronikboy	„Mon petit oiseau“	1	1	2	10
10	Leather Boys	„We’re Livin‘ in a Bar“	3	6	9	5

Semi-final 3

The third semi-final took place on 28 February 2009. „Samba House“ performed by Santa Fe, „Nada es comparable a ti“ performed by Mirela, „Ahora no“ performed by Isi and „Ya no estás“ performed by Julia Bermejo qualified for the final through the combination of votes of an in-studio jury (50%) and a public televote (50%).

Semi-final 3 – 28 February 2009

Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Televote	Total	Place
1	El Secreto de Álex	„Por esta vez“	7	6	13	5
2	Beatriz	„¿Dónde te metes?“	4	1	5	9
3	Remembrances	„Espejismo“	3	4	7	8
4	Biquini	„Una chica normal“	2	5	7	7
5	Julia Bermejo	„Ya no estás“	6	8	14	4
6	Solydo	„Tú“	1	2	3	10
7	Mirela	„Nada es comparable a ti“	8	10	18	2
8	Isi	„Ahora no“	10	7	17	3
9	Santa Fe	„Samba House“	12	12	24	1
10	Dulce	„Bésame“	5	3	8	6

Final

The final took place on 28 February 2009 following the third semi-final. The twelve entries that qualified from the preceding three semi-finals competed and the winner, „La noche es para mí“ performed by Soraya, was selected through the combination of votes of an in-studio jury (50%) and a public televote (50%). Melody and Soraya were tied at 22 points each but since Soraya received the most votes from the public she was declared the winner. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included Carlos Baute, Chipper and Nancys Rubias.

Final – 28 February 2009

Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Televote	Total	Place
1	La La Love You	„Dame un beso“	4	5	9	7
2	Noelia Cano	„Cruza los dedos“	1	0	1	11
3	Jorge González	„Si yo vengo a enamorarte“	3	1	4	9
4	Virginia	„True Love“	5	6	11	5
5	Salva Ortega	„Lujuria“	0	3	3	10
6	Gran Baobab	„Despedida de soltero“	0	0	0	12
7	Santa Fe	„Samba House“	8	8	16	3
8	Melody	„Amante de la luna“	12	10	22	2
9	Isi	„Ahora no“	7	4	11	6
10	Soraya	„La noche es para mí“	10	12	22	1
11	Mirela	„Nada es comparable a ti“	6	7	13	4
12	Julia Bermejo	„Ya no estás“	2	2	4	8

Gallery