Spanish broadcaster RTE won a major ratings victory on Saturday night with their revamped national selection process Benidorm Fest 2022. Just under three million viewers tuned in to watch newcomer Chanel’s surprise triumph, representing a 21% vote share and the highest ratings for any show on Spanish television that night.
The show has already won positive feedback from many fans for the high quality of the entries, many of which are already hitting the Spanish charts. Chanel took the gold after winning the professional jury vote, although the televote leader was Galician trio Tanxugueiras, with hotly-tipped favourite Rigoberta Bandini finishing in second place overall.
Chanel will perform her slickly choreographed dance-pop confection Slo Mo in the Eurovision Grand Final on 14 May in Turin, Italy. She will be hoping to break Spain’s six-year run of finishing within the bottom five. They last saw significant success in 2014 when Ruth Lorenzo took 10th place with Dancing In The Rain.
A new entry to the three timers club…
Moldova also selected their entry for Turin on Saturday night, with the announcement that folk-punk outfit Zdob și Zdub would return for their third crack at bringing Eurovision to Chisinau.
The group memorably represented Moldova on their first ever entry back in 2005, where they finished in 6th place with Boonika bate doba. They returned in 2011 with So Lucky, which ended in 12th place. This puts them in an elite group of acts to have represented their country on three occasions in three separate decades – a testament to their enduring local popularity.
Their song for 2022, Trenulețul, is already a big hit with over 1.7 million views on YouTube. Moldova’s best result to date was a third-place finish for SunStroke project in 2017 with Hey Mamma!
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