Spain: Benidorm Fest’s voting system will benefit the jury’s opinion more!
Benidorm Fest will serve as the Spanish national selection process for Eurovision 2024 for the third consecutive year. The galas will take place next week from January 30 to February 3rd and RTVE has revealed the voting rules for the upcoming Benidorm Fest edition.
Benidorm Fest 2024 voting process
The winner of Benidorm Fest 2024 and therefore the Spanish representative in Eurovision 2024 will be decided as following:
- on a 50% by a jury, which will consist of the following individuals, four domestic and four foreigners, all of them professionals:
-
- Beatriz Luengo (Actress, dancer, singer, composer, known for her roles in the iconic series “Un Paso Adelante” and her musical achievements, including two Latin Grammy Awards – Head of the Jury)
- Guille Milkway (Producer, DJ, singer of La Casa Azul)
- Ángela Carrasco (Singer, Actress)
- Carlos Baute (Spanish singer, composer, actor and presenter)
- Lee Smithurst (Head of UK delegation)
- Nicoline Refsing (Artistic Director of Eurovision 2014)
- David Tserunyan ( Head of the Armenian delegation)
- Marta Piekarska ( Head of the Polish delegation)
- on a 25% by a demoscopic jury
- on a 25% by the televoting, through phone calls and SMS
The advantages of the jury
The opinion of Benidorm Fest’ jury is definitely in pole position when it comes to decide on the outcome of the selection.
First, and according to the competition’s rules, after combining the jury and public votes, if there is a tie for first place, the entry that received the highest number of votes from the jury will be chosen. As a result, in the event of a tie, the verdict of the jury will be used as a tie-breaker instead of public voting.
Furthermore, the Benidorm Fest jury acquires a “hidden” advantage. The aforementioned advantage relates to the voting system itself.
In theory, jury voting accounts for 50% of the outcome, with the remaining 50% determined by public voting through the demoscopic panel and televoting. In fact, the sum of the points given by all jurors (54*8 = 432) and those given by the public -demoscopic panel and televoting- (216 +216 = 432) is the same.
However, the distribution of the points benefits the jury’s opinion more. Let’s compare the highest score an entry can get from each voting group:
- If all eight jurors award an entry with their highest score, 12 points, the total score will be 96 points (12*8).
- When it comes to public voting, the winner of each category receives 40 points, the second receives 35, and the last subsequently receives 16 points. If an entry wins both the televoting and the demoscopic voting, it will receive a total of 80 points (40+40).
Hence, the maximum score an entry can achieve is higher in the jury voting and that definitely benefits the jury’s favorites.
Benidorm Fest 2024
Sixteen artists will take part at Benidorm Fest 2024, the Spanish selection process for Eurovision 2024. The sixteen participants will compete in two semi-finals of eight, while eight participants in total will advance to the Final, vying for the ticket to Malmö.
These are the participants of the first semi-final (in the official running order):
- Lérica – “Astronauta”
- Noan – “Te echo de -“
- Sofía Coll – “HERE TO STAY”
- Mantra – “Me vas a ver”
- Miss Caffeina – “Bla, bla, bla”
- Quique Niza – “Prisionero”
- Angy Fernández – “Sé Quién Soy”
- Nebulossa – “ZORRA”
These are the participants of the second semi-final (in the official running order):
- María Peláe – “Remitente”
- Dellacruz – “Beso en la mañana”
- MARLENA – “amor de verano”
- st. Pedro – “Dos extraños (Cuarteto de cuerda)”
- Jorge González – “Caliente”
- Yoly Saa – “No se me olvida”
- Roger Padrós – “El temps
- Almácor – “Brillos platino”
The first semi-final will take place on January 30, the second semi-final on February 1, while the Grand Final will take place on February 3.
Last year’s Benidorm Fest winner and hence the Spanish representative in Liverpool was Blanca Paloma, with her song “Eaea“, finishing in the 17th place of the scoreboard.
Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for all the news!
