Spain: Blanca Paloma takes the 'Benidorm Fest' trophy with 'Eaea'

Benidorm played host to Spain's Eurovision Song Contest pre-selection on Saturday night. The sunny resort on Spain's Costa Blanca is the location for the country's Benidorm Fest, revived and rejuvenated in 2022 and now in the second year of its glittering comeback.

The song Eaea was voted as the winner of the 2023 edition of Benidorm Fest, performed by Blanca Paloma.

Eaea beat off 7 competitors on Saturday night; a total of 8 songs that had reached the Benidorm Fest final after 2 semi-finals saw 10 other songs eliminated earlier that week.

Scoring was done courtesy of 3 different sources of votes. Points came in from an expert jury (accounting for 50% of the vote), a public televote (25% of the vote) and a demoscopic jury (350 members of the public, representing a cross-section of demographics in Spain, also accounting for 25% of the vote). 

In the end, as the show played out at the Palau Municipal d'Esports l'Illa de Benidorm, Blanca Paloma's Eaea scored highest in the jury vote, as well as the public vote. The song won with 169 points. Agoney's Quiero Arder placed second, with 145 points.

You can listen to all 8 songs that competed in the Benidorm Fest final right here. Qué bueno!

Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest

Spain first appeared in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961 in Cannes and has come back to every Contest since, becoming the country to participate the most number of times in a row since their debut without skipping an edition.

Spain won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 1968 with the song La, La, La by Massiel. Spain then became the first country to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice in succession, taking the victory in both 1968 and 1969. The 1969 Eurovision Song Contest was held in the Spanish capital of Madrid.

Spain had a great year at the 2022 Contest; SloMo gave the Spanish their first Top 3 result since 1995, performed by Chanel in Turin.