Spain was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1971 with the song "", composed by , with lyrics by , and performed by Karina. The Spanish participating broadcaster, (TVE), selected its performer through the competition and, subsequently, the song internally once the national final was over. The song, performed in position 6, placed second out of eighteen competing entries with 116 points.
====== (TVE) decided to produce , a musical series in which some of the most popular singers in Spain would compete to go to the Eurovision Song Contest 1971. The broadcaster prepared a shortlist of twenty artists that were important at the time for their popularity, sales or quality; some of them refused to participate because of scheduling conflicts or other reasons, among them Marisol, Juan Pardo, Miguel RÃÂos, and VÃÂctor Manuel. Ten candidates participated at the competition: , Júnior, Karina, , Jaime Morey, Encarnita Polo, , , Nino Bravo, and RocÃÂo Jurado.
The series consisted of twelve shows that aired weekly from October 1970 to December 1970. The shows were produced at Prado del Rey in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid). In the first show (17 October), hosted by Massiel and Julio Iglesias, the candidates were introduced to the audience. The ten following shows centered on one contestant each: the protagonist would host the show and sing several songs from their repertoire, while the rest of contestants would sing a song each related to a particular theme. The schedule was the following:
The final was held on 30 December 1970, hosted by José Luis Uribarri. The winner was decided by a jury panel, consisting of a member of the Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers, a member of the Guild of Entertainment, a representative of the General Administration of Television and Broadcasting, and five additional chairs. Each member of the panel had to award a set of 10âÂÂ1 points to the acts after each broadcast. Karina was declared winner, but the position in the ranking of the rest of candidates was not disclosed. Magazines and published that Jaime Morey, who would be internally selected to represent , came in second place, while Dova was third.
Despite the popularity of the program, the format of was not used again by TVE to choose its entrant; in fact a national final was not organized again until 1976. The format is considered in Spain to be a precursor to reality singing competitions like Operación Triunfo in the 2000s.
After winning , TVE internally selected "" for Karina. The song was composed by , and had lyrics by . The title of the song was leaked on 19 February 1971. The song was released on 1 March.
The Eurovision Song Contest 1971 was held on 3 April 1971 at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Karina performed "" sixth in the running order, following and preceding . She was accompanied on stage by as backing singers. The first verse of the song could not be heard, since the sound engineer did not open Karina's microphone until the second verse. Waldo de los RÃÂos conducted the event's orchestra performance of the Spanish entry. The song received 116 points, coming in second place.
TVE broadcast the contest in Spain on TVE 1 with commentary by JoaquÃÂn Prat.
Each participating broadcaster appointed two jury members, one below the age of 25 and the other above, with at least 10 years between their ages, who voted by giving between one and five votes to each song, except that representing their own country. All jury members showed their votes on screen during the voting sequence. The Spanish jury members were Noelia Alfonso, who was Miss Europe 1970, and Francisco Madariaga from TVE.