Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with an entry selected through the second series of the reality-show ''

Operación Triunfo ''Star Academy'', called ''Operación Triunfo'' ("Operation Triumph") in Spanish-speaking countries, is a highly successful television pop music talent contest with viewer voting and reality show elements. Format There are many versions of t ...

''.

Beth Beth may refer to: Letter and number *Bet (letter), or beth, the second letter of the Semitic abjads (writing systems) *Hebrew word for "house", often used in the name of synagogues and schools (e.g. Beth Israel) Name *Beth (given name) lists p ...

with the song "Dime", composed by Jesús María Pérez and Amaya Martínez, was chosen through televoting by the Spanish public. At Eurovision, Beth placed 8th with 81 points.

Before Eurovision

''Operación Triunfo''

The second season of ''Operación Triunfo'' was broadcast from the Mediapark Studios in

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Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

and was hosted by Carlos Lozano. After the regular final of ''Operación Triunfo'' that took place on 27 January 2003 (where

Ainhoa Cantalapiedra Ainhoa Cantalapiedra Cuñado (born 25 September 1980) is a popular Spanish singer and songwriter. She is the winner of the second series of ''Operación Triunfo'' (Spanish version of ''Star Academy''). Early life Born in Galdakao, since 1998 sh ...

was declared the overall winner of the season), the top three contestants - Ainhoa herself,

Manuel Carrasco Manuel Carrasco Galloso (born January 15, 1981) is a Spanish pop singer (of romani descent) from Isla Cristina (Huelva), Spain. He rose to fame during his participation in the second edition of the reality talent competition ''Operación Tri ...

, and

- qualified for the Eurovision phase of the contest.

Final

The final took place on 17 February 2003. Three songs were assigned to each contestant among those submitted to national broadcaster TVE, making a total of nine songs. A jury first eliminated one of the songs assigned to each artist, and then a finalist song was chosen for each contestant through televoting. At the close of voting for the second round, Beth with "Dime" received the largest percentage of the vote and was proclaimed the winner.

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Beth performed 12th in the running order, following

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and preceding

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. At the close of the voting she had received 81 points, placing 8th of 26. Spain automatically qualified for the grand final, of the 2004 Contest; as part of the "Big Four".

Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2003

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Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...