Spain was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with the song "" written by Alejandro Abad and performed by David Civera. The Spanish participating broadcaster, (TVE), organised the national final 2001 in order to select its entry for the contest. Twenty artists and songs competed in the televised show where an in-studio jury and a public televote selected "" performed by David Civera as the winner. Songwriter Alejandro Abad represented .

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

Background

Prior to the 2001 contest, (TVE) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Spain forty 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 , "" performed by Serafín Zubiri placed eighteenth.

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. TVE organised in 2000 the national final which featured a competition among several artists and songs, a procedure which was continued for its 2001 entry.

Before Eurovision 2001 2001 was the national final organised by TVE that took place on 23 February 2001 at the Estudios Buñuel in Madrid, hosted by and . The show was broadcast live on La Primera and TVE Internacional. Twenty artists and songs competed with the winner being decided upon through the combination of the votes of an in-studio jury (75%) and a public televote (25%).

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 José Luis Uribarri, evaluated the entries received and shortlisted thirty 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.

ArtistSongSongwriter(s)David Castedo"Un terrón de azúcar"David CastedoDavid Civera"Dile que la quiero"Alejandro AbadFrank Bravo"No sé por qué"Jose Manuel MolesHerbert"Abre los brazos"G. CarrilloHi Priority"A nadie como a ti"Kingdom Brothers"Nada es igual"Locomía"Música, música"Alejandro García PriceLuna"No pidas más amor"Mercedes TrujilloMina"Libres"Mister Robinson"Un flechazo de Cupido"Natalia"Porque quiero"Natalia Gómez LanteroNoemí"Sin rencor"Oxígeno"Niña bonita"Paula"Prisionera de tu amor"Jose Antonio OgaraRomán"Nada sin ti"Silvana"Dónde"Sonia and Selena"Quiero bailar"Toni and Miguel"Baila"Benjamín EstacióTrans X"Amándonos"Virginia"No tengas miedo de amar"

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 , Dana International who won for , and Charlotte Nilsson who won for . Former Spanish Eurovision representatives Conchita Bautista (1961 and ), Salomé (1969), Karina (1971), Micky (), José Vélez (), Betty Missiego (1979), (), Eva Santamaría (), Alejandro Abad (), Anabel Conde (1995), and Mikel Herzog () also performed during the show and presented some of the competing entries.

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), (actress), Juan Luis Ayllón Piquero (Eurovision expert) and José Martín Alfageme (Eurovision expert).

The winning song was "Dile que la quiero", written by Alejandro Abad, and performed by David Civera. Civera was welcomed back on stage by the previous year's winner Serafín Zubiri. The show ended with a reprise of the winning entry.

+ Final – 23 February 2001 Artist Song Jury Public Total Place 1 Locomía "Música, música" 4 0 4 17 2 Noemí "Sin rencor" 57 6 63 4 3 David Castedo "Un terrón de azúcar" 26 9 35 10 4 Paula "Prisionera de tu amor" 6 0 6 15 5 Sonia and Selena "Quiero bailar" 29 12 41 9 6 Hi Priority "A nadie como a ti" 60 24 84 2 7 David Civera "Dile que la quiero" 72 36 108 1 8 Trans X "Amándonos" 11 0 11 12 9 Mina "Libres" 60 18 78 3 10 Toni and Miguel "Baila" 4 0 4 17 11 Kingdom Brothers "Nada es igual" 8 0 8 13 12 Herbert "Abre los brazos" 30 30 60 5 13 Virginia "No tengas miedo de amar" 50 0 50 7 14 Frank Bravo "No sé por qué" 8 0 8 13 15 Natalia"Porque quiero" 30 3 33 11 16 Román "Nada sin ti" 6 0 6 15 17 Mister Robinson "Un flechazo de Cupido" 28 15 43 8 18 Luna "No pidas más amor" 31 21 52 6 19 Oxígeno "Niña bonita" 2 0 2 19 20 Silvana "Dónde" 0 0 0 20 + Detailed Jury Votes Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total 1 "Música, música" 2 2 4 2 "Sin rencor" 10 3 5 8 10 7 10 4 57 3 "Un terrón de azúcar" 8 2 7 4 1 4 26 4 "Prisionera de tu amor" 6 6 5 "Quiero bailar" 8 7 6 6 2 29 6 "A nadie como a ti" 12 12 8 3 12 6 7 60 7 "Dile que la quiero" 5 10 10 12 6 2 7 8 12 72 8 "Amándonos" 8 2 1 11 9 "Libres" 4 6 4 5 12 4 5 10 10 60 10 "Baila" 3 1 4 11 "Nada es igual" 3 1 4 8 12 "Abre los brazos" 5 10 3 12 30 13 "No tengas miedo de amar" 1 12 6 8 3 12 8 50 14 "No sé por qué" 6 1 1 8 15 "Porque quiero" 4 4 7 10 2 3 30 16 "Nada sin ti" 6 6 17 "Un flechazo de Cupido" 7 1 2 5 1 7 5 28 18 "No pidas más amor" 7 3 5 8 5 3 31 19 "Niña bonita" 2 2 20 "Dónde" 0

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 and before the entry from . Spain finished in sixth place with 76 points.

The contest was broadcast on , with commentary by José Luis Uribarri. 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.

TVE appointed Jennifer Rope to announce the results of 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