This was PrePartyES 2019 in Madrid

25 April 2019 at 10:51 CEST

22 participating acts in Eurovision 2019 and many guests gathered in Madrid for the PrePartyES 2019 Photo: Rocío Muñoz / Daniel Piñero / Javier Parrilla (eurovision-spain.com)

22 of this year's Eurovision Song Contest acts met in Spain for PrePartyES 2019, an event held over 2 nights at the venue La Riviera in Madrid, where 2,000 enthusiastic fans welcomed the artists to a huge Spanish fiesta.

Last weekend, the third edition of PrePartyES took place at La Riviera in Madrid. A total of 22 acts that will particiapte in the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest introduced themselves to the Spanish and international fans during 2 nights of live entertainment.

Saturday: PrePartyES 2019

Performing at PrePartyES 2019 were, in order of appearance: Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman (Finland), D mol (Montenegro), Anna Odobescu (Moldova), Tulia (Poland), Ester Peony (Romania), Oto Nemsadze (Georgia), Jurij Veklenko (Lithuania), Kobi Marimi (Israel), Leonora (Denmark), Roko (Croatia), Victor Crone (Estonia), S!sters (Germany), Jonida Maliqi (Albania), Lake Malawi (Czech Republic), Srbuk (Armenia), Katerine Duska (Greece), KEiiNO (Norway), Michael Rice (United Kingdom). Hatari (Iceland), Eliot (Belgium), Serhat (San Marino) and Miki (Spain).

You can watch the entire show (except for Miki's performance) in the live stream below. Scroll down for a seperate video of Miki's performance.

Special guests

The guests of the night were Portugal's Suzy, Israel's IMRI, and Austria's Cesár Sampson who duetted in Nobody But You with Famous, the winner of the talent show that serves as the Spanish Eurovision selection, Operación Triunfo (OT 2018) and who had sing the Austrian song during his time in the competition.

Spain's own pride

The Spanish performer in this year's Eurovision Song Contest Miki (Spain) was the last one to appear on stage to sing La Venda in front of his country's audience and before kicking off the party that lasted until the early morning.

This year's PrePartyES was hosted by 2 of the Spanish TV commentators for the Eurovision Song Contest, Tony Aguilar and Julia Varela. Operacion Triunfo winner Rosa (Spain 2002) acted as a special guest.

Tributes

Tributes were made to honour the previous 2 Spanish performers in the Eurovision Song Contests held in Israel: Lydia who performed No Quiero Escuchar in Jerusalem in 1999, even wore her infamous stage outfit: "it still fits me after 20 years" as she proved herself on stage.

And Betty Missiego who, at age 81, performed a touching live rendition of her 1979 runner-up Su Canción: "I can't believe this is happening after 40 years, I never thought I could could be able to reach the hearts of everyone", the visibly moved artist thanked.

Friday: Welcome PrePartyES

The night before the Welcome PrePartyES 2019 took place with almost 20 national and international artists entertaining the audience in Madrid. Excited to return to Madrid 2 years after performing at the very first PreParty, IMRI hosted the evening together with the author of this story, Víctor Escudero.

The name of the welcome show is quite fitting as it starts by welcoming the 22 participants that traveled to Madrid this year, who took the stage to receive the warmth of a very enthusiastic audience. During the show there were performances by OT 2018's contestants Alfonso, Dave, Noelia and Famous; Destination Eurovision 2019's Tracy de Sá; Adelén who came second in Norway's MGP in 2013, and former Eurovision Song Contest participants Las Ketchup, who even took on their world-famous Aserejé. Also appearing: Vania Fernandes, Ira Losco, Cesar Sampson and one half of last year's Spanish duo, Alfred García, who performed without Amaia.

Minutes before closing the concert, Alfred said about Miki: "He should advice me, he is a dream representative, one who enjoys, and who is about to enjoy one of the biggest productions I've seen in my life. All I can say to him is to keep embracing it as well as the Eurovision audience, because it's wonderful."

Miki replied with nice words: "From minute one when I was selected for Eurovision in Operación Triunfo, Alfred has been giving me support, advice, asking me if I needed something... and as a fan of yours and now a friend, I want to publicly thank you". The Welcome PrePartyES ended with a joint performance by Alfred and Miki.