Following the announcement of the songs that will compete at Benidorm Fest 2025, Spain’s RTVE have announced changes coming to the voting for its Eurovision selection.
Demiscopic Death
For the first three editions of the contest the voting has been decided by a jury weighted with 50%, with a demiscopic jury, and televote weighted 25% each respectively. RTVE have announced that for next year’s show this will come to an end, with the demiscopic vote being omitted from future contest. Instead, the jury and televote will be equally weighted. This is in addition to the previously announced decision that the voting in the semi final will now not be revealed until after the end of the final. Previously a full voting break down appeared at the end of the show.
In addition to the voting reforms announced, it was revealed that voting will now also take place via their website to improve the access to voting.
What’s still to come?
- Unknown – The split of acts between the two semi finals
- 28th of January – Semi Final One
- 30th of January – Semi Final Two
- 1st of February – Grand Final
What is Benidorm Fest?
Following a decade and a half interval, Spain’s national broadcaster RTVE revived the Benidorm International Song Festival, and transformed into Spain’s selection show for Eurovision. This is not the first time RTVE has experimented with pre-existing formats to select it’s Eurovision entrants; having previously intermittently used Operación Triunfo. Though this time was to much greater success, as inaugural winner Chanel ultimately finished third at the 2022 contest in Turin. Originally held between 1959 and 2006, the winner of the contest would go on to receive the prestigious award the Sirenita de Oro (trans. The Golden Mermaid). Though the winners of the current iteration of the contest receive a bronze microphone instead.
As the contest is at its heart a celebration of Spanish music, the lyrical contest of each song must be at least 60% from on of the official languages of Spain. Voting in Benidorm Fest consists of a hybrid system, with three voting methods: jury, demiscopic, and televote. the jury consists of music professions ranking the competitors, and makes up 50% of the vote. The demiscopic vote is a weighted system meant to balance the vote based on the demographic make up of Spain, and makes up 25% of the vote. The final 25% of the vote consists of simple televote.
Spain’s Eurovision Journey
Spain debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961 with Conchita Bautista’s “Estando Contigo”. The country earned its first win in 1968 with Massiel’s “La La La”, and won again in 1969 with Salome’s “Vivo Cantando” in an infamous four-way tie. Although they have yet to win again, Spain earned several 2nd place finishes, most famously with Mocedades’ “Eres tu” in 1973 and Anabel Conde’s “Vuelve conmigo” in 1996.
In 2024, Spain selected Nebulossa. As part of the Big 5, Nebulossa did not need to qualify to the Grand Final from the semi-finals. At the close of voting, their song “ZORRA” finished 22nd, with a total of 30 points. Of these, 19 points came from the jury, whilst 11 came from the televote.
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News Source: RTVE
Photo Credit: RTVE
Rory Gannon 
That Eurovision Site