The Benidorm Song Festival (), known as the Benidorm International Song Festival () in its last three editions, was an annual song contest held in Benidorm, Spain. The contest, based on the Italian Sanremo Music Festival, was created to promote the city as a tourism destination and Spanish music.
The festival, which used to take place in the summer, ran for 39 editions between 1959 and 2006. It was not held in 1979, 1984, and 1986–1992. Starting in 2022, a revamped version of the festival, under the name Benidorm Fest, has been held by (RTVE) and the Generalitat Valenciana; it served to select the for the Eurovision Song Contest up to 2025.
The festival underwent considerable modifications over the years, such as in the prizes. In 2004, it went from national to international. The contest was usually broadcast on radio or television by (1959), (1960–1985, 1997–2005), Telecinco (1993–1996), or Canal Nou (1997–2006).
History In 1958, at kiosk in Benidorm, the mayor of the city, Pedro Zaragoza, the writer and journalist Carlos Villacorta, director of the press office of the General Secretariat of the Movement, and the journalist , came up with the idea of holding a Spanish summer song festival like the Sanremo Music Festival what had been done in Sanremo, Italy, since 1951. In July 1959, the first edition of the (Spanish Song Festival of Benidorm) was organised by the (REM) at the city's Manila Park.
The mechanics of the festival during the first editions (from 1959 to 1971) consisted of presenting the songs in double version by two performers, as was usual in the song festivals of the moment, including Sanremo. The victory of the song "" and its huge success in Spain guaranteed the continuity of the festival in Benidorm, despite the fact that some cities in the south of the country tried to take over the organisation of the festival. During this period, the festival produced its greatest hits, such as "", "", "", "", and "". It also featured the participation of emerging personalities of Spanish light music, such as Dúo Dinámico, Raphael, , Joe y Luis, , , and Julio Iglesias. In addition, although it was not their catapult to success, during these years artists such as Karina, Víctor Manuel, , Manolo Otero, and Rosa Morena, also participated in the festival.
On the other hand, the period between 1972 and 1985 marked a certain decline of the festival. The press repeated year after year that the quality of the songs was descending and in fact, during these years, the festival only released the hit "", by and awarded prizes to soloists such as , , , or Dyango and songwriters such as Juan Pardo, Dúo Dinámico, or El Lute. Other participants were Betty Missiego, Braulio, Tito Mora, José Vélez, Beatriz Carvajal, Nydia Caro, , Bacchelli, or Tino Casal. The changes in the musical and audiovisual panorama brought by the political transition to democracy led to a growing lack of interest in the festival. The non celebration of the 1979 and 1984 editions and experimental editions in 1983 (non-competitive) and 1985 (which searched for a younger audience, inviting pop-rock groups such as , , or Aerolíneas Federales) failed to raise the interest of the public, which led to the cancellation of the festival from 1986 to 1992.
After a break of seven consecutive years, the contest was held again in 1993, beginning its third phase. In that first year, two categories were differentiated, the pop-rock final and the light song final, but from 1994 onwards, the old formula of awarding prizes to a single song was reinstated. The event became international in 2004, adopting the name of (Benidorm International Song Festival), and ceased to be held after its 39th edition held in 2006 due to the lack of interest from the public and the media. During these last 14 editions, the media repercussion of the festival was null, despite awarding the first prize to , , and La Década Prodigiosa, and the songwriters Pablo Motos and Rosana Arbelo. Other relevant artists of the Spanish music scene who performed at this stage were Esmeralda Grao, Paco Arrojo, , Luis Livingstone, Mikel Herzog, , Barei (as part of the duo Dos Puntos), Jesús Cisneros, and Inma Serrano.
The festival used to be televised live by (TVE), although during the 1960s and 1970s only the final was broadcast, because the festival was designed mainly for the audience present in Benidorm, not as a television programme. The final of the 1973 festival was the first broadcast by some member broadcasters of the (OTI) in Ibero-America, who received it live via satellite; and the final of the 1976 festival was the first broadcast in color. The editions from 1993 to 1996 were broadcast by Telecinco and from 1997, the broadcasting returned to TVE and the regional channel Canal Nou. The 2006 edition did not have national television coverage as TVE dissociated itself from the project and was only broadcast by Canal Nou.
In Summer 2019, a commemorative exhibition to mark the 60th anniversary of the festival was held at the and was visited by more than 10,000 people during its first month.
Golden Mermaid Trophy winners In 2006, the first prize winner was awarded with the Golden Mermaid Trophy () and €36,000 (about US$47,000) to produce a record. Second and third place winners received the Silver Mermaid Trophy () and the Bronze Mermaid Trophy (), respectively. The three prizes previously consisted of , 50,000 ₧, and 25,000 ₧, respectively.
+ Winners of the Benidorm Song Festival Edition Year Song Performer(s) Songwriter(s) 1st 1959 "" 2nd 1960 "" 3rd 1961 "" José Francis 4th 1962 "" 5th 1963 "" 6th 1964 "" Juan Hernando 7th 1965 "" 8th 1966 "" Jorge Domingo 9th 1967 "" Alfredo Doménech 10th 1968 "" Julio Iglesias 11th 1969 "" Manuel Alejandro 12th 1970 "" José Luis García Gutiérrez 13th 1971 "" 14th 1972 "" Eduardo Rodrigo 15th 1973 "" José Emilio López Delgado 16th 1974 "" Juan Erasmo Mochi 17th 1975 "" 18th 1976 "" Dyango Dyango 19th 1977 "" Alfonso Pahino 20th 1978 "" Yunque 21st 1980 "" Jerónimo 22nd 1981 "" José Umbral 23rd 1982 "" Fernando Ubiergo Fernando Ubiergo 24th 1983 colspan="3" 25th 1985 "" Círculo Vicioso 26th 1993 "" El Desierto que Viene "" 27th 1994 "" Esmeralda Grao Rosana Arbelo 28th 1995 "" Tábata Ley José Manuel Molés 29th 1996 "" Malizzia & Malizzia 30th 1997 "" Diego Daniel Juan J. Reyes Santsella 31st 1998 "" Enrique Casellas Enrique Casellas 32nd 1999 "" Quintaesencia 33rd 2000 "" José Antonio Granados 34th 2001 "" Carlos Fénix 35th 2002 "" Marta Solís 36th 2003 "" Carlos Barroso J. Sempere García 37th 2004 "Sweet Lady" Guy Swimer Guy Swimmer 38th 2005 "" 39th 2006 "" La Década Prodigiosa
Legacy The 1961 film was filmed during the second edition of the festival in 1960, showing a fictionalized version of it and featuring some of its performances such as "" by , "" by Elia Fleta, and "" by . However, the festival's winning song, "", is performed in the film by its star, Concha Velasco, while "" is performed by actress Carmen de Lirio.
Notes
References
External links Benidorm, Overview with video of the city. From a local citizen.