Benidorm Fest 2022
The competition consisted of two semi-finals and one final. In total, 14 candidate songs compete divided between the two semifinals, that is, seven participate in each one. In each semifinal, the four songs with the most votes among the national (30%) and international (20%) professional juries, the demographic panel (25%) and the televote (25%), went directly to the final. During the final, the eight classified songs were performed again to determine which would represent Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, following the same voting system as in the previous galas. Alongside the song competition, the live shows included performances by national and international guest artists. In the first semi-final, Salvador Sobral, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, performed " and Marlon performed " as interval acts. During the interval of the second semi-final, Ruth Lorenzo, who represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014, performed Sergio Dalma's "" (the entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1991) and Niña Polaca performed "Nora". The final was opened by Pastora Soler, who represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, performing her entry ". The interval of the final featured Nia and performing ", and Soler reappearing to perform "". In addition, and Spanish Eurovision entrant Blas Cantó made an appearance to hand the trophy to the winner. The names of the initial 14 artists and songs were announced on 10 December 2021. All the songs were made available on RTVE Play and RTVE's website on 21 December 2021. On 23 January 2022, Luna Ki announced their withdrawal from Benidorm Fest due to a combination of personal issues and the inability to use autotune under Eurovision rules. The two semi-finals were held on 26 and 27 January 2022, and the final was held on 29 January 2022. The running order of the semi-finals, which was decided by the organizers, was revealed on 13 January 2022. The running order of the final was decided by a draw held on 28 January 2022. The first semi-final was held on 26 January 2022. Chanel, Tanxugueiras, Blanca Paloma and Varry Brava qualified for the final. The second semi-final was held on 27 January 2022. Rigoberta Bandini, Rayden, Xeinn and Gonzalo Hermida qualified for the final. The final was held on 29 January 2022. Following Benidorm Fest, allegations of favouritism arose regarding Chanel's victory. One of the members of the national jury, Miryam Benedited, had previously worked with Chanel as a choreographer, leading to allegations of cronyism, as Chanel received the maximum amount of points from the jury. Furthermore, Spanish viewers expressed frustration with the voting format, when it was revealed that Tanxugueiras, who finished in third place, had won the public vote with 70.75%, while winner Chanel only received 3.97%. Public votes were only worth 25% of the total score, while the professional jury votes were worth 50%. RTVE released a statement acknowledging the viewers' dissatisfaction with the selection, and promised to open a dialogue to improve future editions of Benidorm Fest, but maintained that they would support Chanel as the Spanish representative. Both Rigoberta Bandini and Tanxugueiras, who came in second and third place, expressed their support to Chanel, and called for fans to accept the results.
Controversy
Luna Ki, Rigoberta Bandini, and Tanxugueiras.