Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976

Spain was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 with the song "Sobran las palabras", written and performed by Braulio. The Spanish participating broadcaster, Televisión Española (TVE), selected its entry through a national final. It was its first national final since 1971 and the last one until 2000.^{[citation needed]}

Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976
Eurovision Song Contest 1976
Participating broadcaster	Televisión Española (TVE)
Country	Spain
Selection process	Voces a 45... Hacia el Eurofestival 76
Announcement date	28 February 1976
Competing entry
Song	"Sobran las palabras"
Artist	Braulio
Songwriter	Braulio García Bautista
Placement
Final result	16th, 11 points
Participation chronology
◄1975 • 1976 • 1977►

Before Eurovision

National selection

Televisión Española (TVE) held the national selection of its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 at its studios in Prado del Rey, hosted by Pilar Cañada [es] and Jana Escribano [es], and aired on TVE 1. It consisted of three special shows of its regular musical program Voces a 45, specifically staged and titled for the occasion Hacia el Eurofestival 76. All the twenty-eight songs in competition were presented on 8 February 1976, were performed again on 15 February, and the final results were revealed on 28 February. Radio Nacional de España (RNE) also aired all the songs on Radio Nacional: on 9–13 February it aired six songs each day on its regular program Estudio 15-18, and on 14 February it aired all the songs in a special broadcast. Fourteen performers participated, each one with two songs, accompanied by the RTVE Light Symphony Orchestra conducted by Agustín Serrano. The winner was chosen by postal vote with a voucher printed in several weekly magazines.^[a] Only the top four songs with the most votes were revealed.^[1]

Show 1 – 8 February 1976

R/O	Artist	Song
1	Miguel Ángel	"Cuando todos cantemos juntos"
2		"Adiós María"
3	Juan Erasmo Mochi [es]	"Ángel mío"
4		"Vive conmigo"
5	Mike Kennedy & Los Bravos	"Dios bendiga la música"
6		"Nunca nunca nunca"
7	Don Francisco & José Luis	"Entre los pliegues de una manta"
8		"Canta y ya seremos dos"
9	Tony Landa	"Para tí"
10		"Adiós"
11	Óscar Janot	"Óyeme"
12		"Ven conmigo"
13	Morena & Clara	"Tu mal comportamiento"
14		"El chico que yo más quiero"
15	Braulio	"A tí que hoy despiertas a la vida"
16		"Sobran las palabras"
17	Myriam de Ryu	"El músico y la rosa"
18		"Pequeño ruiseñor"
19	Nubes Grises	"Recuerdos"
20		"Nace el sentimiento"
21	Lorenzo Santamaría [es]	"Piensa en mí"
22		"Si tu fueras mi mujer"
23	Daniel Velázquez	"Perdóname, perdóname"
24		"Palabras, sólo palabras"
25	María José Prendes	"Yo soy mujer sin tí"
26		"Adiós amor"
27	Eddie Santiago	"Una vez más"
28		"Dime"

Results

Artist	Song	Place
Braulio	"Sobran las palabras"	1
Lorenzo Santamaría [es]	"Si tu fueras mi mujer"	2
Eddie Santiago	"Una vez más"	3
Daniel Velázquez	"Perdóname, perdóname"	4

Controversy over voting vouchers

Nearly 85,000 votes were received. Controversy arose when it was discovered that some participating artists' teams had abused the voting system by collecting votes for their candidate.^[2][3]

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 1976 was held on 3 April 1976 at the Nederlands Congresgebouw in The Hague, the Netherlands. Braulio performed "Sobran las palabras" twelfth in the running order, following Finland and preceding Italy. Joan Barcons conducted the event's orchestra performance of the Spanish entry. The song received 11 points, coming sixteenth in a field of eighteen.^[4]

TVE broadcast the contest in Spain on TVE 1 with commentary by José Luis Uribarri. Before the event, TVE aired a talk show hosted by José María Íñigo introducing the Spanish jury, which continued after the contest commenting on the results.^[5]

Voting

TVE assembled a jury panel with eleven members. The following members comprised the Spanish jury:^{[citation needed]}

• Alfonso Lapeña – chairperson and Head of Broadcasting at TVE
• Francisco Otero Besteiro [es] – sculptor
• Ángel Nieto – motorcycle racer
• Javier Escrivá [es] – actor
• Mercedes Alonso [es] – actress
• Pilar Trenas [es] – journalist
• Pedro Gutiérrez "El Niño de la Capea [es]" – bullfighter
• Florentino Casanova – student
• Rita Aragón [es] – actress
• Ana Alonso – student
• Cristina Galbó – actress

The jury awarded its maximum of 12 points to the United Kingdom.

Points awarded to Spain[6] Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points  Italy  Monaco  United Kingdom 2 points 1 point  France  Greece

Points awarded by Spain[6] Score Country 12 points  United Kingdom 10 points  France 8 points  Austria 7 points  Monaco 6 points  Finland 5 points  Ireland 4 points   Switzerland 3 points  Netherlands 2 points  Germany 1 point  Israel

Notes

1. Each viewer could only send one vote. They had to attach a photocopy of their National Identity Card (or that of the head of the household for those under 16) to the completed voucher for the vote to be considered valid. The voucher appeared in the following weekly magazines: Diez Minutos, Garbo, ¡Hola!, La Actualidad Española [es], Lecturas [es], Personas, Pronto, Semana [es], Teleprograma [es], Teleradio, and Telva. The deadline was 22 February. Three trips for two people each to attend the Eurovision Song Contest were raffled off among the voters of the winning song.