Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004

Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 with the song "Para llenarme de ti" written by Kike Santander. The song was performed by Ramón. The Spanish entry for the 2004 contest in Istanbul, Turkey was selected through the third series of the reality television music competition Operación Triunfo, organised by the Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE). Four artists and songs ultimately qualified to compete in the final of the competition's Eurovision selection show where a public televote exclusively selected "Para llenarme de ti" performed by Ramón as the winner, receiving 38.8% of the votes.

As a member of the "Big Four", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing as the opening entry for the show in position 1, Spain placed tenth out of the 24 participating countries with 87 points.

Background
Prior to the 2004 contest, Spain had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-three 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 2003, Spain placed eighth with the song "Dime" performed by Beth.

The Spanish national broadcaster, Televisión Española (TVE), broadcasts the event within Spain and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. In 2002 and 2003, TVE used the reality television singing competition Operación Triunfo (the Spanish version of Star Academy) to select both the artist and song that would represent Spain. The procedure was continued in order to select their 2004 entry.

Operación Triunfo
The Spanish entry for the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest was selected through Operación Triunfo, a Spanish reality television music competition consisting of training seventeen contestants in a boarding academy in order to find new singing talent. The third series, also known as Operación Triunfo 2003, took place from 29 September 2003 to 21 December 2003 at the Mediapark Studios in Sant Just Desvern, Barcelona, hosted by Carlos Lozano. The competition was broadcast on La Primera and TVE Internacional. The top three contestants (Vicente, Ramón and Miguel) alongside a wildcard (Davinia) selected during a special show which featured the contestants placed fourth to ninth qualified to compete in the Eurovision selection show, Gala Eurovisión, which consisted of three shows on 14, 21 and 28 January 2004. Each contestant performed three candidate songs and the winner was decided exclusively through a public televote. The competing songs and the allocations were announced on 8 January 2004.

Contestant qualified to "Gala Eurovisión"

Song selection
The song selection round of Gala Eurovisión consisted of two rounds of voting. In the first round which took place on 14 January 2004, an in-studio jury eliminated one song per contestant. The five members of the in-studio jury were Anabel Conde (singer, represented Spain in the 1995 contest), David Civera (singer, represented Spain in the 2001 contest), Inma Serrano (singer-songwriter and producer), Daniel Andrea (singer and producer) and Carles Savall (journalist at El Periódico de Catalunya). In the second round which took place on 21 January 2004, a public televote eliminated an additional song per contestant. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the guest performer in the second show was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 for Turkey Sertab Erener.

Final
The final of Gala Eurovisión took place on 28 January 2004. The winner, "Para llenarme de ti" performed by Ramón, was selected exclusively through a public televote which ran between 21 and 28 February 2004. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included former Operación Triunfo contestants Cristie Sánchez, Danni Úbeda, David Bustamante, Geno Machado, Gisela, Javián, Manuel Carrasco, Marey, Tessa Bodí and former Junior Eurovision contestant Sergio who represented Spain in 2003.

At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from the semi-final in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from the semi-final progress to the final. As a member of the "Big Four", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the final on 15 May 2004. In addition to their participation in the final, Spain is also required to broadcast and vote in the semi-final. The running order for the final in addition to the semi-final was decided through an allocation draw and Spain was subsequently drawn to open the final and perform in position 1, before the entry from Austria. Spain placed tenth in the final scoring 87 points.

In Spain, the semi-finals were broadcast on La 2 and the final was broadcast on La Primera with commentary by Beatriz Pécker. The Spanish spokesperson, who announced the results of the Spanish televote during the final, was Anne Igartiburu.

Voting
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Spain and awarded by Spain in the semi-final and grand final of the contest. Spain awarded its 12 points to Andorra in the semi-final and to Germany in the grand final of the contest.