Earlier today, Spanish broadcaster RTVE held a special press conference, where additional details of “Benidorm Fest 2024” were given.
For the third year in a row, “Benidorm Fest” will be used to select the song and the artist for Eurovision.
Maria Eizaguirre, the Head of RTVE’s Communication and Participation) led the press conference.
The press conference included some special guests: Massiel (Spain 1968, Eurovision winner), Blanca Paloma (Spain 2023), Ana Maria Bordas (co-producer of the festival and Head of the Spanish delegation), Pablo Cebrian and Cesar Vallejo (directors of the festival), and Rayden (“Benidorm Fest 2022”), Sandra Valero (Spain, JESC 2023) and Carlos Higes (Spain JESC 2022)
Here are the main points:
- 16 artists will be shortlisted to participate in the festival. 8 of them will compete in each semi-final.
- “Benidorm Fest 2024″ semi-finals will be held on the 30th of January 2024 (Tuesday) and the 1st of February 2024 (Thursday). The grand final will be held on Saturday, the 3rd of February 2024.
- The list of participating artists will be revealed during the Latin Grammy Awards in Seville, on the 11t of November 2023.
- RTVE will arrange a songwriting camp, where Spanish and international composers and writers will be welcomed. Some of the songs will be sent as submissions for the festival.
You can watch the press conference here:
“Benidorm Fest 2024” – Main Regulations
- First of all, the submission window has already opened. Artists are welcome to submit their songs starting on the 16th of May and ending on the 10th of October 2023. RTVE opted for a longer submission window to encourage more artists to submit songs.
- RTVE might invite established composers, singers, and lyricists to submit songs.
- As in recent years, it will be possible to submit songs without a performer.
- One of the main points of the regulations is that all singing must be live, without any vocal effects. It sounds like RTVE is trying to avoid vocoder, autotune, or any Luna Ki case.
- RTVE will form a professional committee, consisting of professional musicians and RTVE representatives. They will shortlist up to 16 acts and an additional 6 backup songs.
- “Benidorm Fest 2024” will feature 2 semi-finals and a final.
- Each show will be determined by:
- 50% international and national jury
- 25% public votes
- 25% demographic jury, representing different parts of the population.
- Solo artists must have Spanish nationality or permanent residence in Spain. At least 50% of the members must meet this condition for groups.
- The song lyrics must be in Spanish or in any other official language of the country: Aranese, Basque, Catalan, Galician, and Castilian. However, up to 40% of the lyrics might be in any foreign language (like English).
Blanca Paloma represented Spain at Eurovision 2023.
She performed the song “Eaea” and ended up 17th in the grand final:
Who would you like to see representing Spain at Eurovision 2024?
Eurovision 2024 will be held in Malmö, Sweden.
The semi-final will be held on the 7th and 9th of May 2024, and the grand final will be held on the 11h of May 2024
So far, the following countries have confirmed participation in Eurovision 2024: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Israel, Moldova, Estonia, Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Spain, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Malta, Serbia, Switzerland, Lithuania, and Azerbaijan.
