Spain was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with the song "Dime" composed by Jesús María Pérez, with lyrics by Amaya Martínez, and performed by Beth. The Spanish participating broadcaster, (TVE), selected its entry through the second series of the reality television music competition Operación Triunfo. Three artists and songs ultimately qualified to compete in the Eurovision selection show of the competition where a public televote exclusively selected "Dime" performed by Beth as the winner, receiving 45% of the votes.

As a member of the "Big Four", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 12, Spain placed eighth out of the 26 participating countries with 81 points.

Background

Prior to the 2003 contest, (TVE) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Spain forty-two times since its first entry in . It has won the contest on two occasions: in with the song "La, la, la" performed by Massiel and in with the song "" performed by Salomé, the latter having won in a four-way tie with , the , and the . It has also finished second four times, with "" by Karina in , "" by Mocedades in , "" by Betty Missiego in , and "" by Anabel Conde in . In , it placed seventh with the song "Europe's Living a Celebration" performed by Rosa.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, TVE organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. In 2002, 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 2003 entry.

Before Eurovision Operación Triunfo 2

The Spanish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 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 second series, also known as Operación Triunfo 2, took place from 7 October 2002 to 24 February 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 competed in the Eurovision selection show, Gala Eurovisión, which consisted of two shows on 10 and 17 February 2003. Each contestant performed three candidate songs, selected by an evaluation committee consisting of representatives of TVE, Gestmusic and Vale Music from more than 200 submitted songs, and the winner was decided exclusively through a public televote. The competing songs and the allocations were announced on 3 February 2003.

Contestant qualified to "Gala Eurovisión" Contestant Age ResidenceEpisode of elimination Place finished(Overall ranking) Ainhoa 22 GaldakaoGala Final 1st Manuel 21 Isla Cristina 2nd Beth 20 Súria 3rd 24 CádizGala Final 4th 24 Seville 5th 25Barcelona 6th Tony 21 TenerifeGala 13 7th 22 Torrejón de ArdozGala 12 8th Vega 23 CórdobaGala 11 9th Danni 20 JaénGala 10 10th Elena19 BarcelonaGala 9 11th Tessa 20 ValenciaGala 8 12th Marey 18 CádizGala 7 13th Cristie 24 FuengirolaGala 6 14th Enrique 27 NavarraGala 5 15th Miguel 25 IbizaGala 4 16th Mai24MadridGala 317th Saray18AlicanteGala 0Not selected Marcos26BarcelonaJano25Palma de Mallorca

Shows Song selection The song selection round of Gala Eurovisión took place on 10 February 2003 and consisted of two rounds of voting. In the first round, an in-studio jury eliminated one song per contestant. The five members of the in-studio jury were Pilar Tabares (music director of TVE), Sergio Dalma (singer, represented ), José Luis Uribarri (television presenter and director, commentator of the Eurovision Song Contest for Spain), Joaquín Hurtado (program coordinator at Cadena Dial) and Rafael Fernández (webmaster of eurofestival.net). In the second round, a public televote eliminated an additional song per contestant. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the guest performer was jury member Sergio Dalma. + First Round – 10 February 2003 Artist Song Songwriter(s) Result 1 Beth "La vida sin ti" 2 Manuel "Viviré, moriré" Advanced 3 Ainhoa "Mi razón de vivir" Rafael Artesero Advanced 4 Manuel "Santa Lucía" Jordi Cubino Advanced 5 Ainhoa "Con la fuerza del corazón" Miguel Gallardo Advanced 6 Beth "Dime" Advanced 7 Ainhoa "Viva la noche" Jordi Cubino 8 Beth "Cerrando heridas" José Abraham Advanced 9 Manuel "Sueña con ese momento" Daniel Ambrojo + Second Round – 10 February 2003 Artist Song Result Manuel "Santa Lucía" "Viviré, moriré" Qualified Ainhoa "Con la fuerza del corazón" "Mi razón de vivir" Qualified Beth "Cerrando heridas" "Dime" Qualified

Final The final of Gala Eurovisión took place on 17 February 2003. The winner, "Dime" performed by Beth, was selected exclusively through a public televote which ran between 10 and 17 February 2003. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included two of the Operación Triunfo 2 finalists Hugo and Miguel Nández.

+ Final – 17 February 2003 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Ainhoa "Mi razón de vivir" 31% 2 2 Manuel "Viviré, moriré" 24% 3 3 Beth "Dime" 45% 1

At Eurovision As a member of the "Big Four", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 on 24 May 2003. During the allocation draw on 29 November 2002, Spain was drawn to perform in position 12, following the entry from and before the entry from . At the conclusion of the final, Spain placed eighth in the final, scoring 81 points.

In Spain, the show was broadcast on La Primera with commentary by José Luis Uribarri.

Voting Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Spain and awarded by Spain in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Belgium in the contest. TVE appointed Anne Igartiburu as its spokesperson to announce the Spanish televote during the final.

+ Points awarded to Spain Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

+ Points awarded by Spain Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

References