Spain in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023

Spain competed in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023, which was held on 26 November 2023 in Nice, France. Spanish broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE) was responsible for their participation and selected the nation's song and artist by internal selection. Sandra Valero was eventually selected to represent the country with the song "Loviu".

The singer performed first in the running order, preceding the entry from Malta. Spain finished in second position with 201 points, marking the seventh time the country finished in the top five at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest and its best result since the.

Background
Prior to the 2023 contest, Spain had participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest on eight occasions since its debut in the inaugural. Spain won the with the song "Antes muerta que sencilla", performed by María Isabel. The country decided to take an indefinite break from the contest after the contest, with an RTVE representative stating "Junior Eurovision promotes stereotypes [they] do not share". Spain returned after a 13-year absence in. Their return proved successful, with Melani García in and Soleá in  both reaching third place. In the, Carlos Higes represented Spain with the song "Señorita", achieving 6th place out of 16 countries with 137 points.

Before Junior Eurovision
On 7 July 2023, RTVE announced Sandra Valero had been selected as the Spanish representative based on the unanimous decision of a jury panel made up of Ana María Bordas (head of the Spanish delegation for the contest and co-director of Benidorm Fest), María Eizaguirre (director of communication and participation at RTVE), Miriam Corrales (director of RTVE Entertainment), César Vallejo (co-director of Benidorm Fest), Rayden (musical advisor, Benidorm Fest 2022 contestant), Tony Sánchez-Ohlsson (musical advisor, songwriter of Spanish entries for the Eurovision Song Contest in, and ) and Pablo Rodríguez (musical advisor).

RTVE had received a total of 114 applications (19 more than in 2022), of which 14 progressed to the live auditions. The singer presented a rendition of "Parte de tu mundo", a Spanish-language version of "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid (1989) soundtrack during her winning audition the day prior to the announcement, held at Prado del Rey in Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid. Valero had previously competed in season 7 of La Voz Kids.

During the schedule presentation gala of the 2023 and 2024 season of RTVE on 15 September, it was revealed that Valero would sing "Loviu" in Nice, and a week later a press conference dedicated to the presentation of some details about the entry was organised. The song was selected following an open call for entries, after the closing of which 60 songs were assessed and three were shortlisted, including the selected entry as well as "Superwoman" and "La música". However, the former entry was soon later discarded due to "impossibility of adjusting Sandra Valero's vocal range to that of the song", after which "Loviu", composed by Luis Ramiro, David Parejo Martín, Alejandro Martínez Valderrama and Diego Cantero, was selected with a majority of the votes from the committee.

"Loviu" was released on 3 October. The song contains repeated phrases in English, French, Italian and Portuguese. A music video directed by Jimmy Llamas and recorded in a virtual reality studio in Boadilla del Monte was later teased by RTVE during a press conference on release day, which would go on to be released on 11 October.

At Junior Eurovision
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023 took place at Palais Nikaïa in Nice, France on 26 November 2023. The event was broadcast live on La 1 and TVE Internacional. RTVE also confirmed that Tony Aguilar and Julia Varela would return as commentators for the third year running.

Sandra Valero and the Spanish delegation also participated in the Opening Ceremony for the contest, which was held in Hotel Negresco in Nice on 20 November 2023, during which the running order was also determined. Spain was drawn to open the contest, and following the ceremony it was revealed that it would be preceding the entry from Malta.

Performance
The live performance for the Spanish entry in Nice featured similarities to the music video for the song, with RTVE previously stating that Javier Pageo, the creative director for the song, who had previously done stagings for multiple contestants of Benidorm Fest and would go on to stage the Sammarinese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 performed by Megara, would "be in charge of bringing the universe of the "Loviu" official video live into the Palais Nikaïa’s stage".

Accompanying Valero was a four-piece dance troupe consisting of Juan Diego Álvarez, Elia Cobo, Marcos Pelado and Evelyn Casteñada, some of whom had previously regularly appeared as dancers for the Spanish entrants in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Vicky Gómez was appointed as choreographer, while Verónica Ferreira was appointed Valero's lead vocal coach and Raúl Amor was appointed as the stylist for the entry.

The song was performed on a stage made of suitcases, while bright and colourful pastel visuals were displayed on the backing LED's showed a journey through Europe and space. The costumes for Valero and her dancers were inspired by aviator suits, including the one worn by Amelia Earhart. Valero's jacket included inscriptions of the words "love you" in 34 languages, including all co-official languages of Spain, while in the final shot the words were displayed on the backing LED's in the 16 official languages of the countries participating in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023.

Voting
At the end of the show, Spain received 115 points from juries and 86 points from online voting, placing 2nd behind France.

Detailed voting results
Each nation's jury consisted of five members: three adult music industry professionals and two children, who are citizens of the country they represent. This jury judged each entry 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 was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member were released shortly after the contest.

The following members comprised the Spanish jury:
 * Alfred García – singer-songwriter, represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018
 * Carlos Higes – singer, represented Spain in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2022
 * Gonzalo Hermida – singer-songwriter
 * Blanca Paloma – singer-songwriter, represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023
 * Martina Venecia Franco – actress

After Junior Eurovision
Following Sandra Valero's return to Spain after the contest, a welcome press conference was organised on 28 November in Torrespaña, Madrid, led by María Eizaguirre, where the singer spoke about her experience performing in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, reminiscing returning to the hotel after the contest where a group of Spaniards was waiting for her, including her family and friends, as well as the time spent with other contestants, as the most special moments of her experience, after which she and Eizaguirre thanked the press for the coverage given to Spain's participation in the contest.

On 14 February 2024, the EBU and RTVE announced that Spain would host the after previous winners France opted against hosting. It will be the first time that Spain has hosted the contest and the first Eurovision event to be held in the country since the Eurovision Song Contest 1969 in Madrid.