Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010

Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song "Algo pequeñito" written by Jesús Cañadilla, Luis Miguel de la Varga, Alberto Jodar and Daniel Diges. The song was performed by Daniel Diges. The Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) organised the national final Destino Oslo, La Gala de Eurovisión 2010 in order to select the Spanish entry for the 2010 contest in Oslo, Norway. Ten artists and songs selected through an Internet public vote competed in the televised show where an in-studio jury and a public televote selected "Algo pequeñito" performed by Daniel Diges 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 2, Spain placed fifteenth out of the 25 participating countries with 68 points.

Background
Prior to the 2010 contest, Spain had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-nine times since its first entry in 1961. 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 2009, Spain placed twenty-fourth with the song "La noche es para mí" performed by Soraya.

The Spanish national broadcaster, Televisión Española (TVE), broadcasts the event within Spain and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. TVE confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest on 23 November 2009. From 2007 to 2009, TVE organised a national final featuring a competition among several artists and songs to select both the artist and song that would represent Spain, a procedure which was continued for their 2010 entry.

Destino Oslo, La Gala de Eurovisión 2010
Destino Oslo, La Gala de Eurovisión 2010 was the national final organised by TVE that took place on 22 February 2010 at the Estudios Buñuel in Madrid, hosted by Anne Igartiburu with Ainhoa Arbizu acting as the green room host. The show was broadcast on La 1, TVE Internacional as well as online via TVE's official website rtve.es. Ten artists and songs, selected through an Internet round titled ''¡Tu país te necesita! 2010'', competed with the winner being decided upon through a combination of public televoting and an in-studio expert jury. The national final was watched by 2.63 million viewers in Spain with a market share of 15.6%.

¡Tu país te necesita!
A submission period was open from 4 December 2010 until 12 January 2010. At the conclusion of the submission period, 480 entries were received, of which 313 were selected for an Internet vote. The selected entries were revealed via TVE's official website on 18 January 2010 and users had until 5 February 2010 to submit up to five votes for their favourite entries per day. 5,722,596 votes were received at the conclusion of the voting and the top ten entries that qualified for the national final were announced on 8 February 2010. Among the competing artists was former Eurovision Song Contest entrant Anabel Conde, who represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1995.

National final
The televised final took place on 22 February 2010. The winner, "Algo pequeñito" performed by Daniel Diges, was selected through the combination of the votes of an in-studio jury (50%) and a public televote (50%). In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included David Bustamante and former Eurovision contestants Sergio Dalma and Rosa López who represented Spain in 1991 and 2002, respectively.

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


 * Manuel Bandera – Actor and dancer
 * José María Íñigo – Journalist, actor and television presenter
 * Toni Garrido – Journalist at RNE
 * Mariola Orellana – Music producer
 * Pilar Tabares – Music director of TVE

Controversy
During the voting of ¡Tu país te necesita!, eight entries were disqualified due to breaking competition rules, which included songs from Chimo Bayo, El Pezón Rojo and Pop Star Queen who were among the top three prior to their respective disqualifications. In protest of Bayo's disqualification, users of Internet forum ForoCoches mass voted for John Cobra who eventually placed among the top ten acts at the conclusion of the voting. Following his performance at Destino Oslo, Cobra was booed by the audience, prompting him to respond with offensive insults and gestures on live television. Following heavy criticism, TVE's President Alberto Oliart would apologise in front of the senate for the incident.

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 one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. As a member of the "Big 4", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the final on 29 May 2010. In addition to their participation in the final, Spain is also required to broadcast and vote in one of the two semi-finals. During the semi-final allocation draw on 7 February 2010, Spain was assigned to broadcast and vote in the first semi-final on 25 May 2010.

In Spain, the semi-finals were broadcast on La 2 and the final was broadcast on La 1 with commentary by José Luis Uribarri. The Spanish spokesperson, who announced the Spanish votes during the final, was Ainhoa Arbizu. The broadcast of the final was watched by 5.76 million viewers in Spain with a market share of 41.9%. This represented an increase of 6% from the previous year with 638,000 more viewers.

Final
Daniel Diges took part in technical rehearsals on 22 and 23 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 25 and 26 May. This included the jury final on 25 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries. During the running order draw for the semi-final and final on 23 March 2010, Spain was placed to perform in position 2, following the entry from Azerbaijan and before the entry from Norway.

The Spanish performance featured Daniel Diges on stage wearing a grey suit, surrounded by four dancers wearing circus character costumes (rag doll, classic dancer, pierrot and tin soldier) which began by standing quiet in acrobatic positions behind Diges. The stage lighting changed from dark blue colours to dark pink as the performance progressed. The performance also featured the use of fire sparkles. During the performance, Spanish pitch invader Jimmy Jump made up on stage before being quickly chased off stage by security and escorted from the arena by police. As a result of this, Diges was allowed to perform once again following the final entry from Denmark. In regards to the stage invasion, Diges stated following the contest: "I was frightened. I thought it could be more serious than it actually was, but nothing happened. So, I am happy. [...] Thank God for being in theatre for so long. Many things have happened to me, and this has been a test that has enabled me to show the best of me and my experience." The choreographer for the performance was Maite Marcos. The four dancers that joined Daniel Diges were Lidia Gómez, Gwenaelle Poline, Alejandro Arce and Yuriy Omelchenko. Diges was also joined by a backing vocalist on stage: David Velardo. Spain placed fifteenth in the final, scoring 68 points.

Voting
Voting during the three shows consisted of 50 percent public televoting and 50 percent from a jury deliberation. The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent. This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury could be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The following members comprised the Spanish jury: José María Íñigo (journalist, actor, television presenter), Mauro Canut (director of the digital branch of TVE), Pilar Tabares (radio presenter, TVE music director), Mariola Orellana (music manager) and Toni Garrido (journalist at RNE).

Following the release of the full split voting by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that Spain had placed twelfth with the public televote and twentieth with the jury vote. In the public vote, Spain scored 106 points and in the jury vote the nation scored 43 points.

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Spain and awarded by Spain in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Portugal in the semi-final and to Germany in the final of the contest.