Singer Manel Navarro (Picture: Getty)

Spain’s Eurovision Song Contest campaign is in tatters before it’s even begun after a controversial national song selection final at the weekend.

Do It For Your Lover by Manel Navarro was selected as the Spanish Eurovision entry.

Manel Navarro tied with the popular choice Mirela with her upbeat Spanish pop entry Contigo only for the judges to hand victory to the song that came third in the televote.

Here’s Manel’s song –


And here’s Mirela’s –

Everything was going well until the voting started.

Three celebrity judges were to announce their points before the public vote was added to the mix to give the result.



Two judges put Manel first and hot favourite Mirela last, while the third judge placed Mirela first and Manel second.

The studio audience was clearly upset by this and loud booing and complaining could be heard in the broadcast.

The Spanish public placed Mirela first and Manel third, overturning the deficit and resulting in a tie on 58 points each.

After some frantic discussion, it became clear that the three judges would each cast a vote to decide which act would win and go forward as Spain’s Eurovision entry.

Mirela’s expression said everything.

$H*T!!! The moment @MirelaCofficial realises it's a tie and the jury gets to decide. pic.twitter.com/fo4UGqx81Y — wiwibloggs (@wiwibloggs) February 11, 2017

The result has caused a huge Eurodrama after an apparent friendship on Twitter between one of the judges, radio host Xavi Martinez and Manel emerged.

The below conversation (screen shot by Wiwibloggs) took place before Xavi was confirmed as a judge.

Twitter user @Magitorras was congratulating Manel on the release of Do It For Your Lover, when Xavi replied and promised to make the song ‘an anthem’.

Manel replied: ‘Thank you brother! Hoping you are my talisman!’

(Picture: William Lee Adam / Wiwibloggs.com)

A day later, he tweeted a photo of himself with Manel during the broadcast of his Los40 radio show.

Xavi gave his maximum 12 points to Manel and Mirela in last place, enough to prevent Mirela from victory.

Many in the audience began to walk out before Manel could reprise his song.

He was visibly shaken by the audience backlash, gesturing to the crowd before apologising after the show.

¿Ha hecho Manel un corte de mangas a sus críticos durante la polémica? #ObjetivoEurovisión https://t.co/rKR9KCWUJ1 pic.twitter.com/CSUKHHK7JL — FormulaTV (@FormulaTV) February 11, 2017

There were reports that punches had been thrown at Xavi Martinez after the broadcast, with several Spanish entertainment stars taking to Twitter to say #NoToViolence.

Spanish politician demands answers after Eurovision scandal

While RTVE stand by the decision and have stated that the rules were clear before the show and nothing untoward happened, after a huge public backlash across Spain, Deputy for Toledo Jose Miguel Camacho is now demanding an inquiry.

¿Qué pasó y por qué pasó lo que pasó en el agitado y polémico #ObjetivoEurovisión de @eurovision_tve ? Preguntas de @JoseMiguelCama1 pic.twitter.com/XnGggMAjKJ — PSOE Congreso (@gpscongreso) February 13, 2017

Could Spain be forced to reverse the result?

Among the questions being asked is who approved the selection process and who was responsible for selecting the jury members and whether Spanish broadcaster RTVE has considered revoking the results of the show.

History says this won’t bode well for Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest

This is the second time in three years that the Spanish final has resulted in a tie.

In 2014, Ruth Lorenzo, former UK X Factor finalist tied for first place with Brequette.



On that occasion, Ruth was declared the victor after winning the public vote.

She went on to finish 10th at the Eurovision Song Contest, Spain’s best result for several years.

However, the chances of a good Eurovision result are not good if the song fails to win the public vote at home during its selection process.

In the same year, Germany’s Ann Sophie failed to win the German final but the winner decided he did not want to perform at Eurovision.

Ann Sophie, who only came second in the public vote went forward but failed to score a single point at Eurovision.

Our own Eurovision history has a similar lesson.

In 2008, Andy Abraham was knocked out of the British Eurovision final only for Terry Wogan to give him a wildcard return.

He went on to represent the United Kingdom… and finished last.

Sweden’s 2013 entry by Robin Stjernberg failed to qualify directly for their national final, Melodifestivalen.

He missed out on a top two place in his semi final and had to qualify through the second chance round before winning the final by placing first with the jury but only second with the public.

The song finished 14th, Sweden’s lowest result since 2011.