Spanish TV has published the rules that govern its choice of song for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. Viewers of TV talent show Operación Triunfo (OT) get to choose who sings for Spain, but RTVE has kicked off the search for a song.
The submission period runs from 1-15 November and songs must be in Spanish or an official regional language of Spain (Galician, Basque or Catalan).
Twenty songs will make a ‘short list; ten selected by an expert jury (the usual OGAE and music industry mix) with the rest picked by a panel of TV show and production company staff.
After 1 December, the sixteen OT hopefuls will be assigned songs – some to be performed as solo numbers, others as duets or groups. At some point they’ll be uploaded to a website for an online vote with the three most popular making the Gala Eurovisión.
The production company will add seven more songs to pad the evening out to a show likely to run on well into the small hours.
Gala Eurovisión will be 100% televote with only one round of voting (unless there is a draw).