Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016

Prior to the 2016 contest, Televisión Española (TVE) until 2006, and Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE) since 2007, had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Spain fifty-five times since TVE's first entry in 1961.^[1] They have won the contest on two occasions: in 1968 with the song "La, la, la" performed by Massiel and in 1969 with the song "Vivo cantando" performed by Salomé, the latter having won in a four-way tie with France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. They have also finished second four times, with "En un mundo nuevo" by Karina in 1971, "Eres tú" by Mocedades in 1973, "Su canción" by Betty Missiego in 1979, and "Vuelve conmigo" by Anabel Conde in 1995. In 2015, RTVE placed twenty-first with the song "Amanecer" performed by Edurne.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, RTVE organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. RTVE confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2016 contest on 14 September 2015.^[2] In 2015, RTVE selected both the artist and song that would compete at the Eurovision Song Contest via an internal selection. For their 2016 entry, the broadcaster announced on 18 December 2015 that it would organise a national final similar in format to the one used previously in 2014, which featured a competition among several artists and songs.^[3]

Objetivo Eurovisión was the national final organised by RTVE that took place on 1 February 2016 at the Adisar Studios in Villaviciosa de Odón (Madrid), hosted by Anne Igartiburu with Julia Varela acting as the green room host. The show was broadcast on La 1 as well as online via RTVE's official website rtve.es and the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.^[4][5][6] Six artists and songs competed with the winner being decided upon through a combination of public televoting, an in-studio expert jury and an international jury.^[7][8] The national final was watched by 1.669 million viewers in Spain with a market share of 9.1%.^[9] The international jury consisted of television, radio and music professionals selected by the following broadcasters that are part of the European Broadcasting Union: France Télévisions (France), RAI (Italy), SVT (Sweden) and BBC (United Kingdom).^[10] The three members of the in-studio jury that evaluated the entries during the final were:^[8]

• Loreen – Singer, music producer, won Eurovision for Sweden in 2012
• Edurne – Singer, actress, television presenter, represented Spain in 2015
• Carlos Marín – Baritone, member of classical crossover group Il Divo

On 18 December 2015, RTVE invited the Spanish public to propose their ideal candidates for the national final by using the hashtag #euroapuesta in their social media posts. The most popular proposals were Xuso Jones, Raúl Gómez and Maverick. Among female performers, the most popular were María Isabel, Eva Ruiz, María Villalón, and Lorena Gómez. Former national final participants Brequette, Coral Segovia, and Jorge González were also among the recommendations.^[11] The six competing acts were announced on 29 December 2015 via RTVE's official website and social media platforms.^[12] Among the competing artists was María Isabel who won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest for Spain in 2004 with the song "Antes muerta que sencilla".^[13] 30-second clips of the competing songs were previewed by RTVE on their official website on 19 January 2016, while the songs in their entirety were premiered a day later on 20 January on a special webcast show, presented by Irene Mahía and with three of the candidates (Electric Nana, Maverick and Salvador Beltrán) as guests, that was also broadcast on RTVE's official website.^[4][14][15]

The televised final took place on 1 February 2016. The running order for the six participating entries was determined during a press conference held at Prado del Rey in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid) on 28 January 2016.^[16] The winner, "Say Yay!" performed by Barei, was selected through the combination of the votes of an in-studio jury (30%), the votes of an international jury (30%) and a public televote (40%).^[17][18] "Say Yay!" is the first song performed entirely in the English language that was selected to represent Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest.^[19] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included former national final participants Brequette, Jorge González, Coral Segovia and Mirela, and former Eurovision contestants Loreen, Edurne and the group D'Nash which represented Spain in 2007.^[5][20]

Members of the International Jury^[21]

Jury	Members
Italy – RAI	Nicola Caligiore – Head of the Delegation for Italy at Eurovision and International relations at RAI Marta Cagnola – Journalist, presented and music expert Eddy Anselmi – Journalist with expertise in the Sanremo Music Festival and the Eurovision Song Contest Emanuele Lombardini – Journalist and blogger, founder of the website EurofestivalNews. Cristina Giuntini – President of OGAE Italy
France – France Télévisions	Edoardo Grassi – Head of the Delegation for France at Eurovision Franck Saurat – Television producer Roberto Ciurleo – Director of Virgin Radio Anggun – Singer, represented France in 2012 Antoine Gouiffes-Yan – Director of Marketing for Warner Music France
United Kingdom – BBC	Helen Riddell – Co-Head of the Delegation for the United Kingdom at Eurovision Andrew Cartmell – Television producer Reshmi Bajnath – Independent television producer Gemma Hodgson – BBC producer Hugh Goldsmith – Founder of Innocent Records and ex-director of RCA Records
Sweden – SVT	Christer Björkman – Head of the Delegation for Sweden at Eurovision, producer of the 2016 Eurovision and Melodifestivalen Samuel Andersson – Assistant Contest Producer for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 Leydis Manso – Musician Maria Ericson [sv] – Artist manager Åsa Paues – PR manager, Eurovision press officer, eurofan

The official video of the song, directed by Gus Carballo, was filmed in February 2016 in different locations in Madrid, mainly in a tunnel at Las Tablas neighbourhood, and also features scenes filmed in Barcelona, Berlin, Havana, London, Miami, and Stockholm. The video premiered on 10 March 2016 on RTVE's website.^[22][23] The music video served as the official preview video for the Spanish entry.

Barei made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Say Yay!" as the Spanish Eurovision entry.^[24][25][26] On 13 February, Barei performed "Say Yay! during the second semi-final of the Ukrainian Eurovision national final.^[27][28] On 2 April, she performed "Say Yay!" at the Eurovision Pre-Party in Riga, Latvia, held at the Spikeri Concert Hall.^[29] On 3 April, she performed during the Eurovision Pre-Party in Moscow, Russia, held at the Izvestyia Hall and hosted by Dmitry Guberniev.^[30][31] On 9 April, Barei performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Hera Björk.^[32][33] She was confirmed to perform the song at the Israel Calling in Tel Aviv, Israel on 12 April, but she withdrew from the event due to "production delays".^[34] On 17 April, Barei performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell.^[35]

In addition to her international appearances, she performed the song on the morning show La mañana on La 1 on 3 February.^[36] On 5 March, Barei performed an acoustic version of "Say Yay!" at the El Intruso club in Madrid as a part of the city's Ellas Son-Arte festival.^[37] On 29 March, Barei performed an acoustic version of the song during the #0 talk show programme Likes.^[38] On 28 April, a farewell party was held for Barei before she travelled to Stockholm for the contest, which took place at the Swedish Embassy in Madrid, hosted by Ambassador Cecilia Julin.^[39] On 29 April, she performed during a Spanish Eurovision party, which took place at the Palacio de la Prensa in Madrid, hosted by Julia Varela.^[40]