Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001

Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with the song "Dile que la quiero" written by Alejandro Abad. The song was performed by David Civera. Songwriter Alejandro Abad represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1994 with the song "Ella no es ella" placing eighteenth in the competition. The Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) organised the national final Eurocanción 2001 in order to select the Spanish entry for the 2001 contest in Copenhagen, Denmark. Twenty artists and songs competed in the televised show where an in-studio jury and a public televote selected "Dile que la quiero" performed by David Civera as the winner.

As a member of the "Big Four", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 13, Spain placed sixth out of the 23 participating countries with 76 points.

Background
Prior to the 2001 contest, Spain had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty times since its first entry in. The nation has won the contest on two occasions: in 1968 with the song "La, la, la" performed by Massiel and in 1969 with the song "Vivo cantando" performed by Salomé, the latter having won in a four-way tie with France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Spain has also finished second four times, with Karina in 1971, Mocedades in 1973, Betty Missiego in 1979 and Anabel Conde in 1995. In 2000, Spain placed eighteenth with the song "Colgado de un sueño" performed by Serafín Zubiri.

The Spanish national broadcaster, Televisión Española (TVE), broadcasts the event within Spain and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. In 2000, TVE organised the national final Eurocanción which featured a competition among several artists and songs, a procedure which was continued for their 2001 entry.

Eurocanción 2001
Eurocanción 2001 was the national final organised by TVE that took place on 23 February 2001 at the Estudios Buñuel in Madrid, hosted by Jennifer Rope and Sandra Morey. The show was broadcast on La Primera and TVE Internacional. Twenty artists and songs competed with the winner being decided upon through a combination of public televoting and an in-studio expert jury.

Competing entries
TVE directly invited over 30,000 composers to submit songs and 2,160 entries were ultimately received. A fifteen-member committee, which included the creator and director of Eurocanción José Luis Uribarri, evaluated the entries received and shortlisted 30 for an audition round where twenty entries were selected for the national final. The twenty competing acts were announced during a press conference on 22 February 2001.

Final
The televised final took place on 23 February 2001. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included former Eurovision contestants Edyta Górniak who represented Poland in 1994, Dana International who represented Israel and won the contest in 1998 and Charlotte Nilsson who represented Sweden and won the contest in 1999. Several former Spanish Eurovision contestants also performed during the show. The winner, "Dile que la quiero" performed by David Civera, was selected through the combination of the votes of an in-studio jury (75%) and a public televote (25%). The nine members of the in-studio jury that evaluated the entries were Augusto Algueró (musician), Pilar Tabares (music director of TVE), Maria Teresa Segura (Spanish Head of Delegation for the Eurovision Song Contest), Daniel Velázquez (music coordinator of the City Council of Madrid), Juan Ignacio Ocaña (director of the TVE territorial centre in Madrid), Hugo de Campos (presenter), Silvia Gambino (actress), Juan Luis Ayllón Piquero (Eurovision expert) and José Martín Alfageme (Eurovision expert).

At Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest 2001 took place at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 12 May 2001. The relegation rules introduced for the 1997 contest were again utilised ahead of the 2001 contest, based on each country's average points total in previous contests. The 23 participants were made up of the host country, the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom), and the 12 countries with the highest average scores between the 1996 and 2000 contests competed in the final. As a member of the "Big Four", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the contest. On 21 November 2000, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Spain was set to perform in position 13, following the entry from Ireland and before the entry from France. Spain finished in sixth place with 76 points. Prior to the competition, "Dile que la quiero" was released as a CD single, which charted in Spain's Promusicae Top 50 peaking at number 2.

In Spain, the show was broadcast on La Primera with commentary by José Luis Uribarri. The Spanish spokesperson, who announced the results of the Spanish televote during the final, was Jennifer Rope. The broadcast of the contest was watched by 5.63 million viewers in Spain with a market share of 45%.

Voting
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Spain and awarded by Spain in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Greece in the contest.