RTVE modified its Eurovision conditions twice and favored BMG
From the 90s and until the celebration of the benidorm fest, RTVE has been including a abusive clause in the contracts of the artists who represented Spain in Eurovision.
As revealed the portal specializing in television Bluper five years ago, in 2017, RTVE keeps 50% of the publishing rights of all the songs from our country that come to the festival. The public corporation has been profiting for years from the work of the original composers: exactly, with half of all the money generated by the songs since they are chosen.
These leonine conditions discouraged artists and record labels from applying to the festival. "Many authors and record companies expressed that it was an outrage that this would continue to occur when RTVE has nothing to do, in authorship and rights, with the song that reaches Eurovision," says an expert on the subject. "It is also not known where the money that was generated from those rights would end up , although we can be confident and think that it helped RTVE to support the festival".
This year, as part of the renewal image that the channel wants to offer in regards to the festival, RTVE announced that it would eliminate the abusive clause. A) Yes, the author of the winning song would retain 100% ownership of the publishing rights.
This positive change in the rules of the game it served RTVE to encourage artists and record companies to present their proposals. This was confirmed by its communication director, María Eizaguirre, at the press conference offered to clarify the controversy surrounding the voting.
"Evidently, is an inducement: not only for the record companies but for anyone who wants to submit to the contest", he answered a question from this newspaper. "And it is not a temporary decision, but has been adopted after the complaints that for many years accused RTVE of staying with rights that did not correspond to him".
It must be remembered that, of the 13 shortlisted songs, only two (Marta Sango and Unique) were chosen through the open call. The rest were direct invitations to "artists of recognized prestige", as Maldita revealed after a request for transparency.
Thus, the great winner of this edition is not only Chanel Terrero, otherwise the five composers of his theme, SloMo, and the record company that publishes them, BMG, of the Bertelsmann conglomerate.
Chanel, unknown to the masses until she arrived at the Benidorm Fest, He won first place thanks to the vote of the professional jury. The public gave first and second place to the Galician band Tanxugueiras (with 70% of the vote) and the Catalan singer Rigoberta Bandini (with 18%), while the demographic jury left Chanel in second place, behind of Tanxugueiras. But the professional vote, which RTVE has broken down without names, weighed more.
as we count in THE NEWSPAPER OF SPAIN, there are those who see signs of 'finger' in this election. Chanel's name sounded like a favorite from the first day in Benidorm among the journalists who were there covering the event, for comments that sometimes came from the TVE workers themselves.
Eizaguirre, to questions from this newspaper, has defended that "Chanel's candidacy was the one that could arouse the most surprise. It was a general comment, because it was not a well-known song or among the favorites. Seeing the rehearsals there was a surprise. But when they have asked me which was my favorite, I have never spoken. It is unfair to say that we have defended one candidacy over others. That said, I think it's a good song. If during these days someone has spoken to me about Chanel rehearsals, obviously I will have said that His staging was impressive."
Former director and president of RTVE and music industry expert Josep Manuel Silva declared in this medium that "probably" Chanel's triumph would be "product of a pact", from synergies between record label BMG and public television.
RTVE is interested in having money and a team behind the winner to help with the costs of preparing the gala (the dancers, their rehearsal hours...) and the promotion of the song. Y the record company is interested in appearing, especially if you know that you are going to be the owner, for the first time in a long time, of 100% of the rights.
RTVE now starts a European tour together with Chanel. "We are going to establish which countries we want to go to and prepare a budget to see how far we can go," said the communications director. "The record companies have their own plan of action." The goal is for the song to be known in the rest of the continent before reaching Turin.
But the synergies between the corporation and the record company BMG do not end here. Since 1992, the only year in which there was an exception and the authors maintained 100% of the editorial rights was in 2008. The year of Chikilicuatre, the freak of El Terrat which the public made the winner because there was no professional jury. The beneficiaries of these rights were La Sexta, El Terrat, the authors of Baila el Chiki Chiki (David Fernández and Joan Grau) and BMG. At that time integrated into Sony-BMG, it was the label that published that hit born in the Buenafuente program. The same one that now launches Chanel.
industry sources downplay to this coincidence and suggest that, at that time, it was El Terrat (the Buenafuente production company) who pressed for keeping 100% of the rights. Asked about this matter, Eizaguirre has said he does not know "the reasons" why that decision was made that year.
Chanel is not the only artist that BMG has brought to the song festival. The Brown sugar, who already represented Spain at Eurovision in 1990, were preselected this time to sing Postureo. On the day of the first semi-final, the bookmakers ranked them 10th out of 13. However, both the jury and the demographic vote voted to make them finalists. The jury gave them more points than the favorite Taxungueiras (39 versus 38) and the opinion poll placed them first with 20 points, above Tanxugueiras and Chanel. They did not go through the public vote, which left them penultimate.
On the other hand, Vallecano Xeinn is also under Bertelsmann's umbrella. His candidacy was supported by the production company Fremantle, which is part of the group. In Spain, Fremantle produces Mask Singer, Got Talent and The Dancer (on TVE). In the second semi-final, she gave Xeinn the second highest score, just below Rigoberta Bandini. The public left him third.
Having won the favorites of the public and the opinion poll jury, the Galician Tanxugueiras, 100% of the publishing rights would have been for them for being the authors of the song and for the small record label that publishes them, Calaverita Records. In her case, as in Rigoberta Bandini's, the costs of the Benidorm Fest performance (dancers and costumes) came entirely out of her pocket.
