Spain | Eurovision Gala Details Announced

RTVE have already confirmed that popular Spanish singing competition Operación Triunfo is going to be used again this year as the national selection process for Spain's Eurovision representative and now we have even more details of how the special 'Eurovision Gala' is going to work. In the press release, RTVE have confirmed that the selection show will be aired in January 2019, how the show is going to work and reveals plans for an open invitation to songwriters to submit songs in November 2018. Last night Gala 2 of this years Operación Triunfo aired - seeing another contestant eliminated leaving only fifteen people still fighting it out to represent Spain in Tel Aviv. All details on the Eurovision Gala can be found below:

Song Submission - Public and Invitations:

The song submission period will be between November 1st and November 15th and the rules follow the same template as all Eurovision song submissions. The song must not be over 3 minutes long, must not have been performed publicly or released commercially prior to September 1st 2018 and by submitting the song you are giving RTVE full rights to the song and for the winning Eurovision Gala performer to sing the song publicly and at Eurovision next May. A committee will then decide the top 10 publicly submitted songs to progress to the next round.

In addition to open public submissions, an invitation has been sent to prestigious songwriters across the panoramic music industry to submit songs too. Similarly, a committee will also decide the top 10 songs to progress to the next round.

Public Vote to Decide National Selection Songs:

The next stage of the process will see the 20 songs assigned to different Operación Triunfo performers, either solo, in duets or in groups. All recordings will then be posted online where users registered to the RTVE website can vote for their favourites. The top three in the public vote will automatically proceed to January's special Eurovision Gala. An evaluation committee of RTVE management plus the professors at the Operación Triunfo academy will then decide up to seven others that will then be performed at the Gala too.

Eurovision Gala - How will it work?:

This year there were two rounds of voting - with the top three songs in the first vote earning a place in the superfinal where the public decided that romantic duet 'Tu Cancion' by Amaia y Alfred would go to Lisbon. The plans for next years Gala have been mixed up. The format will look like this:

1. Performance of all participants

2. Voting of the spectators

3. The most voted performance will determine the song and representatives of Spain in Eurovision 2019

In the event of a tie, a new round of voting would be opened, with the scoreboards being set to 0.

If you haven't already make sure to check out our one stop guide to Gala 2 of Operación Triunfo here.

Are you happy with the changes? Are you looking forward to the Eurovision Gala? Tell us who your favourite contestant on OT is in the comments below or via our social media - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & YouTube.

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