Eurovision 2010: Popstar Queen dethroned in Spain

By Jamie McLoughlin on Jan 22, 10 08:52 AM

Popstar Queen - disqualified from the Spanish preselection. Tsk.

As you may remember from a previous blogpost, Spanish TV invited potential acts for this year's Eurovision to submit potentail winners online, which the public will then whittle down from the 313-strong (yes, that's 313) longlist via an internet vote to the 10 songs which will be performed in Spain's national final soon.

This is the same process that they've used in the past two years, one producing a comedy song about chickens and the other a run-of-the-mill pop thing which finished way down the bottom of the scoreboard in Moscow.

But in the past 24 hours, four songs have been eliminated from the preliminary round for not playing by the rules. Naughtiness has its price - and these cheeky singers are paying.

The most high-profile loss from the longlist is the song that was sitting at the top of the public vote before the announcement was made. Popstar Queen's Soy Un Tsunami had the benefit of its performer, TV presenter and journalist Karmele Merchante enjoying both fame and fanbase across the country. Her jokey song (although I don't think there's much to laugh about in a tsunami) had the backing of private TV station Telecinco, where her hugely popular chat show Salvame airs five days a week.

And that could be where the problem lies. Frustratingly, the article announcing the disqualification doesn't give the reason why Popstar Queen won't be taking part anymore. However, it's highly likely that TVE, Spain's main channel which broadcasts the Contest has a problem with a rival trying to elbow its way in to their party. Whatever the reason, it's caused a big sigh of relief around the fan world, where joke entries aren't exactly welcomed with open arms.

This latest revelation means the song - and fan favourite - En Una Vida by Coral is now top of the longlist.

You have to feel sorry for the other three acts given the Big E - Chimo Bayo, Kejio and Juan Losada who are being overshadowed by the largest casualty of rule-breaking in what must be a pretty duff day for them.

If you have the stamina to work your way through (now 309) songs gunning for glory in Spain's Eurovision preselction, this is the place to go. The public vote ends at noon Spanish time on February 5.