After that historic third place achieved by Chanel in Eurovision last year, this desire to try again is through the roof. The first step will be taken in the last week of January, when the semifinals and the grand final will take place, of which On Saturday, February 4, the song that will represent Spain in Liverpool will be released. However, we have already given names and faces to the people on the jury, who will have a large part of the responsibility in that decision.
Last year, RTVE inaugurated the Benidorm Fest as a contest to choose the Spanish song that participates in the Eurovision Song Contest with great audience success and controversy over the jury’s votes. This year, the voting procedure will be as follows:
How the vote will work at the Benidorm Fest
In the two semifinals, which will be held on January 31 and February 2, the 18 participating songs will be put to a vote. The eight finalists will come out of these two galas and will face each other for first place on February 4. For all the galas, the responsibility will fall 50% on a professional jury25% for a demographic jury and the remaining 25% will be a matter of televoting.
We already know the professional jury of the #BenidormFest!
✨ Nina (spokesperson)
✨ Christer Bjorkman
✨ Tali Eshkoli
✨Nicola Caligiore
✨Katrina Leskanich
✨William Lee Adams
✨ Brave Irene
✨ Juan Jose Santana #TheFestivalYouWant https://t.co/FyhTwqdvLc— Eurovision RTVE (@eurovision_tve) January 25, 2023
While all viewers will be able to access televoting, the demoscopic sample consists of a jury selected by IPSOS and made up of a set number of people, divided between men and women and age groups. However, the group that carries the most weight is the professional jury, since your vote makes up half of the whole equation. And, for this reason, it is so important who compose it.
The Benidorm Fest 2023 Jury
Although Nacho Cano will not finally be part of the Benidorm Fest 2023 jury because he is busy with the preparations for Malincheothers eight professionals linked to the world of music and the European festival from different areas they will meet in this national preview of Eurovision. Of these, eight members, five are international and three are national.
GirlSpanish Spanish representative of Eurovision in 1989 with the song born to love and director of the Academy in the first editions of Triumph operation, will act as spokesperson for the professional jury. The rest are made up of:
Sweden’s representative in 1992 and member of the Eurovision production team, Christer Bjorkman; the head of the Eurovision Israel delegation and coordinator of the 2019 edition held in this country, Tali Eshkoli; the head of the Eurovision delegation, Italy Nicola Caligioire; the representative of the United Kingdom in Eurovision 1997, Katrina Leskanich; the founders of wiwiblogs (the European reference media specialized in the festival) and presenter for the BBC, William Lee Adams; the director of The last home (the program specialized in urban music on Radio 3), Irene Brave Y Juan Jose Santanacomposer and president of OGAE.
Cover photo | Valero Rioja (official photos of the Benidorm Fest)