Tonight all finalists for Objetivo Eurovisión, Spain’s national selection for Eurovision 2017, got confirmed during Eurocasting concert. The show was the final stage of the Spanish selection’s wildcard round, which was won by LeKlein.
The event
The Eurocasting concert took place at Ciudad de la Imagen in the municipality of Pozuelo de Alarcón, Community of Madrid. It was broadcast on TVE’s Red Button service as well as online via the broadcaster’s official website. Hosted by Irene Mahía and Paloma G. Quirós, the event’s purpose was to determine the wildcard artist who would join internally selected artists for the Objetivo Eurovisión 2017 final.
Three entrants, Javián with No Somos Héroes (We are not heroes), Fruela with Live It Up and LeKlein with Ouch!!, were competing tonight for the chance to get the wildcard ticket to the Spanish national final. These had been selected by a professional jury out of ten entries that had been shortlisted as a result of an online vote.
The Eurocasting concert included guest performances by Azucar Moreno, who sang their 1990 Eurovision entry Bandido, and David Rees, who performed an accoustic mash up of former Spanish entries including Europe’s Living a Celebration (2002), Vivo Cantando (1969), Dime (2003), Dile Que La Quiero (2001), Say Yay! (2016), Vuelve Conmigo (1995), Eres Tú (1973), Estando Contigo (1961), Bailar Pegados (1991), Bandido (1990), Quédate Conmigo (2012), Amanecer (2015), Dancing In The Rain (2014), En Un Mundo Nuevo (1971), and finisihing with La, La, La (1968).
The results
In the end, it was LeKlein with Ouch!! who was selected by the public as the wildcard for the Objetivo Eurovisión final. The voting took place via the TVE’s official Eurovision app and official website and the results were as follows:
| artist | entry song | share of the vote | place |
| Javián | No Somos Héroes (We are not heroes) |
21.7% | 2nd |
| Fruela | Live It Up | 15.0% | 3rd |
| LeKlein | Ouch!! | 63.3% | 1st |
You can watch LeKlein’s Eurocasting performance of Ouch!! in the video below:
It was not just the wildcard that got determined tonight however. During the night, it was confirmed that the internally selected artists and entries to make up the list of the Spanish final for Eurovision 2017 are as follows:
| artist | entry song | |
| 2 | Maika Barbero | Momento Crítico |
| 4 | Manel Navarro | Do It For Your Lover |
| 1 | Mario Jefferson | Spin My Head |
| 3 | Mirela | Contigo |
| 5 | Paula Rojo | Lo Que Nunca Fue |
| wildcard | LeKlein | Ouch!! |
It is worth noting that Mirela is known to Eurovision fans as a participant in Spanish national finals for both the Eurovision Song Contest (2007 – runner-up, 2009) and the Junior version of the contest (2004, the year Spain went on to win the event with María Isabel). Mirela has also taken part in talent shows such as La Voz, the Spanish edition of The Voice. Mirela’s songwriter, Tony Sánchez-Ohlsson, co-wrote 2007 Spanish entry I Love You Mi Vida (I love you my darling) as well as writing Pastora Soler’s 2012 Eurovision entry Quédate Conmigo (Stay with me) and Edurne’s 2015 entry Amanecer (Dawn).
Maika Barbero on the other hand, appears to be a long-standing favourite for many Spanish Eurovision fans to represent the county in the Eurovision Song Contest. Allegedly a Eurovision fan herself, Barbero was the second runner-up in the first, 2012 series of La Voz, the Spanish edition of The Voice.
The background to Eurocasting concert
This was the final stage of the selection’s Eurocasting wildcard round. Eurocasting was the only route publicly open to submit entries. During the period of 27th October to 27th November, a total of 392 entries were received by public broadcaster RTVE.
On 1st December, these were shortlisted down to 30 for an online vote running until the 12th of the same month. The shortlist including songs by Javi Soleil of D’Nash (Spain 2007) and Brequette (2014 Spanish final runner-up).
This is the second time in a row that the Spanish broadcaster is following the Objetivo Eurovisión format. Last year, the national selection was won by Barei, who finished in 22nd place in Stockholm. You can watch Barei performing her entry Say Yay! in the video below:
