Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song „Baila el Chiki-chiki“ written by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre and Friends. The song was performed by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre. The Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) organised the national final Salvemos Eurovisión in order to select the Spanish entry for the 2008 contest in Belgrade, Serbia. Ten artists and songs competed in the televised show where a public televote selected „Baila el Chiki-chiki“ performed by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre as the winner.
As a member of the „Big Four“, Spain automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 22, Spain placed sixteenth out of the 25 participating countries with 55 points.
Salvemos Eurovisión
Salvemos Eurovisión was the national final organised by TVE that took place on 8 March 2008 at the Estudios Buñuel in Madrid, hosted by Raffaella Carrà. The show was broadcast on La 1, TVE Internacional as well as online via TVE’s official website rtve.es. Ten artists and songs competed with the winner being decided upon through public televoting. The national final was watched by 1.96 million viewers in Spain with a market share of 16%.
Competing entries
A submission period was open from 22 January 2008 until 13 February 2008 for artists to upload their entries through the Salvemos Eurovisión MySpace platform. At the conclusion of the submission period, 536 entries were received. Internet users had between 16 February and 25 February 2008 to distribute five votes for their favourite entries per day via the platform and the top five entries that qualified for the national final were announced on 26 February 2008.A five-member committee consisting of Daniel Rodríguez Villasante (director of TVE music programmes), Mauro Canut (musician, editor and deputy director at the digital branch of TVE), Borja Prieto (content director of MySpace Spain), Fernando Montesinos (music producer) and Toñi Prieto (executive producer of TVE music programmes) evaluated the remaining entries and selected an additional five entries for the national final, which were announced on 28 February 2008. „Mourning“ performed by Null System was disqualified from the national final on the same day due to the song having been commercially released before 1 October 2007 and replaced with the song „Piensa gay“ performed by Lorena C.
| Artist | Song | Songwriter(s) | Votes | Place | Selection |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rodolfo Chikilicuatre | „Baila el Chiki-chiki“ | Rodolfo Chikilicuatre and Friends | 109,995 | 1 | Internet vote |
| La Casa Azul | „La revolución sexual“ | Guille Milkyway | 67,706 | 2 | Internet vote |
| Arkaitz | „Un olé“ | Alejandro de Pinedo, Gema Castaño | 63,460 | 3 | Internet vote |
| Coral | „Todo está en tu mente“ | Tony Sánchez-Ohlsson, Thomas G:son, Andreas Rickstrand | 58,339 | 4 | Internet vote |
| Bizarre | „Si pudiera“ | Bizarre | 54,842 | 5 | Internet vote |
| Committee | |||||
| Innata | „Me encanta bailar“ | Joakim Hillson, Steffan Rundquist, Xavier Carreras | 2,827 | 97 | Committee |
| Lorena C | „Piensa gay“ | Carlos García Bayona, Juan de Dios Martín, Lorena Castell, Luis Troquel | 2,423 | 106 | Committee |
| Ell*as | „100 x 100“ | Jesús María Pérez, Amaya Martínez | 1,533 | 142 | Committee |
| D-Vine | „I Do You“ | Sergio Bermejo | 1,434 | 153 | Committee |
| Marzok Mangui | „Caramelo“ | Marzok Mangui | 87 | 416 | Committee |
Final
The televised final took place on 8 March 2008. The running order for the ten participating entries was announced on 4 March 2008. The winner, „Baila el Chiki-chiki“ performed by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre, was selected exclusively by a public televote through the combination of votes cast before the show starting from 4 March (20%) and votes cast during the show (80%). „Baila el Chiki-chiki“ received 56% of the total votes.
The five members of the expert panel that commented on the entries were:
- José Luis Uribarri – television presenter and director, commentator of the Eurovision Song Contest for Spain
- Bibiana Fernández – actress
- Mauro Canut – musician, editor and deputy director at the digital branch of TVE
- Boris Izaguirre – television personality
- Rosa López – singer, represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002
In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included La Pajarraca, Muchachada Nui and the show host Raffaella Carrà.
| Draw | Artist | Song | Public Vote | Place | ||
| Before Show | During Show | Total | ||||
| 1 | Bizarre | „Si pudiera“ | 6 | 16 | 22 | 7 |
| 2 | Innata | „Me encanta bailar“ | 3 | 12 | 15 | 8 |
| 3 | Arkaitz | „Un olé“ | 4 | 28 | 32 | 4 |
| 4 | Ell*as | „100 x 100“ | 5 | 4 | 9 | 9 |
| 5 | Lorena C | „Piensa gay“ | 2 | 20 | 22 | 6 |
| 6 | D-Vine | „I Do You“ | 1 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 7 | Rodolfo Chikilicuatre | „Baila el Chiki-chiki“ | 12 | 48 | 60 | 1 |
| 8 | Marzok Mangui | „Caramelo“ | 7 | 24 | 31 | 5 |
| 9 | La Casa Azul | „La revolución sexual“ | 10 | 32 | 42 | 3 |
| 10 | Coral | „Todo está en tu mente“ | 8 | 40 | 48 | 2 |