The Benidorm Festival was born as an event whose ultimate goal was to elect Spain’s representative at Eurovision. This is what happened with Chanel, Blanca Paloma, Nebulosa and Melody. But that won’t happen this year.
RTVE announced on Thursday that it has withdrawn from the Eurovision contest, after the European Broadcasting Union allowed Israel to participate. Therefore, there will be no Spanish presenter at the Eurovision contest to be held in Vienna (Austria), with the semi-final matches being held on May 12 and 14, and the grand final on May 16.
However, the Benidorm Festival will continue. The 18 participants selected this year lose the incentive of going to EurovisionBut RTVE, perhaps anticipating this, gave them another incentive.
Includes Benidorm Fest 2026 rules for the first time A cash prize for the artist who wins the crystal microphone is 100,000 eurosIn addition to another $50,000 for the author of the winning song.
Furthermore, these rules already warned candidates that Spain might not participate in Eurovision. Point 4 of Article D) states: “The winning proposal, As long as RTVE is involved, “He will represent Spain at the European Broadcasting Union’s Eurovision 2026, which is expected to be held in May 2026.”
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In addition, Benidorm Festival participants receive an invaluable promotion through RTVE. Not only during their participation, but public channels broadcast information about them and Artists are relied upon for promotions, events, concerts, and other functions such as providing soundtracks. For events such as the World Cup, the Vuelta Ciclista or series and films in which RTVE has participated.
For example, Daniela Blasco saw her song Oh Nana As the official soundtrack of the 2025 Tour de France In RTVE’s coverage, as with Miss Caffeina in 2024. Mel Ömana provided music for the Women’s European Cup and K!NGDOM for the RTVE Audience Thank You campaign.
They are all following in the footsteps of other past participants like MARLENA Summer love for the olympic games, From the makur with Platinum shines For Euro 2024Written by Gonzalo Hermida with his song for the series The promise And from Sh. Pedro for the series Wild Valley.
An independent event with its own entity
The outlet took part in a media breakfast with Benidorm festival bosses last September, where they had already indicated they wanted to Making the Spanish Festival a unique event with its own entity.
This is what the Benidorm Festival wants Becomes its own brand, similar to the Sanremo Festival (Italy)For this reason, it adopted a production model similar to the Eurovision Song Contest itself. For this reason, for example, there will be general rehearsals with the audience before each concert, i.e. the semi-finals and the final.
This is also important because the winner selection system will be compatible with the system used for Eurovision Feeling it A professional jury will vote for the artists Allowing them to reach the final Depending on what they do in their general trainingbefore the broadcast ceremony.
In addition, the Benidorm Festival is planned to have a “text-level narrative” in 2026, as there are several milestones to be honored this year: The 5th edition of the Benidorm Festival and its 70th anniversary From the first official broadcast on RTVE.
But there is content in the air: it was also planned that Benidorm 2026 and The 65th anniversary of Spain’s participation in Eurovision was noted. This content can be modified or reduced depending on events.