The Spanish participating broadcaster, Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE), organised the national final Salvemos Eurovisión in order to select its entry for the contest.

Ten artists and songs competed in the televised show where a public televote selected "Baila el Chiki-chiki" performed by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre as the winner.

They have also finished second four times, with "En un mundo nuevo" by Karina in 1971, "Eres tú" by Mocedades in 1973, "Su canción" by Betty Missiego in 1979, and "Vuelve conmigo" by Anabel Conde in 1995.

[3] Salvemos Eurovisión was the national final organised by RTVE that took place on 8 March 2008 at its Estudios Buñuel in Madrid, hosted by Raffaella Carrà.

[17] RTVE highlighted that the involvement of a MySpace platform in Salvemos Eurovisión was to make the selection process "more democratic" with the idea of discovering new talents.

However, the Internet voting process, which the general public could vote for any of the artists interested in participating, was accused of being easily distorted with the participation of comedic acts including the eventual winner Rodolfo Chikilicuatre, a comedian who collaborates on the late night show Buenafuente, hosted by popular comedian Andreu Buenafuente on the private channel laSexta.

[18] Users of Internet forums claimed they decided to rise El Gato to the first places of the vote after Buenafuente refused to recognize the fraudulent support for Chikilicuatre.

[19][20] Following Salvemos Eurovisión, the lyrics of "Baila el Chiki-chiki" were changed for the Eurovision Song Contest in accordance to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) rules, due to its political content regarding the referencing of political figures Mariano Rajoy, Hugo Chávez and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top nine songs from each semi-final as determined by televoting progress to the final, and a tenth was determined by back-up juries.

[31] The stage lighting and LED screens displayed bright colours and the names of the four distinct dances mentioned in the song: "brikindans", "crusaíto", "maiquelyason" and "robocop".

[35] The five dancers that joined Rodolfo Chikilicuatre were Disco, Gráfica (Silvia Abril), Leticia Martín, María Ángeles Mas and Cecilia López.