By: eurovisionunion
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Who will fly the Spanish flag at Eurovision 2018?

A little while back, we announced that Operación Triunfo would return as the format to be used to select the Spanish Eurovision act for 2018. Now we’re getting closer and closer to the end of the series, which means we’re inching closer towards knowing who will represent Spain this year!

Operación Triunfo has been a huge success in Spain, and it’s grabbed the attention of international fans as well. The revived interest in the show has been encouraging, as Spain hasn’t had the best run of results in previous years.

There are now six participants left in the competition:

  • Amaia

  • Miriam

  • Alfred

  • Aitana

  • Ana Guerra

  • Agoney (wildcard entry)

These six entries will perform a total of nine songs at the Eurovision Gala stage of the competition, which is the portion of the series which will determine which song and act will take to the Eurovision stage in May. Now you might be saying, six competitors but nine songs? Yes, the maths is a bit off, but as well as the five finalists (minus Agoney who is a wildcard) performing alone, there will be a range of duets and group performances.

So, here are the entries in the running:

  • Aitana – Arde

  • Alfred – Que nos sigan las luces

  • Amaia – Al Cantar

  • Ana Guerra – El Remedio

  • Miriam – Lejos de tu piel

  • Agoney & Miriam – Magia

  • Aitana & Ana Guerra – Lo Malo

  • Alfred & Amaia – Tu Canción

  • Aitana, Alfred, Amaia, Ana Guerra & Miriam – Camina

These songs were internally allocated to the artists, and were received from around 200 submissions. During the week, the artists have been coached on their performances, culminating on the 29th of January.

There will be two rounds of voting. The first round will see three acts qualify to the second round, and these three will be chosen by the public, via telephone, SMS and the official Operación Triunfo app. The second round of voting will be solely public vote as well, and the winner will go on to represent Spain at Eurovision in Lisbon, Portugal.

Throughout the show there will also be a panel to comment on the performances. This panel consists of:

  • Victor Escudero – Editor at the Official Eurovision Song Contest website

  • Luisa Sobral – Singer, songwriter, winning songwriter of Eurovision 2017

  • Julia Varela – Journalist at RTVE, commentator of Eurovision in Spain

  • Manuel Martos – Musician, music executive and artistic director at Universal Music Spain

The show will also feature performances from Luisa Sobral, Conchita Wurst (winner of Eurovision 2014), J Balvin, and the eliminated contestants of the competition who will perform a medley of the winning Spanish Eurovision songs, La La La and Vivo Cantando.

Watch the first live performances of the songs in the playlist below: