ForoCoches (literally "CarsForum") is a Spanish Internet forum established in 2003. Founded for discussion about cars and other transport, the site has since been noted for online trolling campaigns. As of May 2018, the forum had around 700,000 registered accounts. [1] Belonging to the Spanish manosphere, it is conspicuous for its misogynistic content. [2]
In 2009, a campaign by ForoCoches resulted in FHM magazine naming Curri Valenzuela – who was then aged over 60 – as the sexiest journalist. [3]
ForoCoches ran a campaign for John Cobra to be selected to represent Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. In the second round, broadcast live on Televisión Española, he praised the forum while insulting and gesturing at the crowd. [4] Site creator Alejandro Marín reflected "We have trolled a pathetic programme, full of fakes and of piss-poor musical quality, paid for by the public". [5] The channel's president, Alberto Oliart, apologised in the Senate of Spain and said that measures would be made to stop abuses of the voting system. [6]
ForoCoches ran a hoax story in August 2010 that an imaginary 18-year-old footballer named Néstor Coratella had transferred from Uruguay's Danubio F.C. to Spain's Villarreal CF. A fake Facebook profile, fake Danubio academy website and a photoshopped page from the Uruguayan newspaper Observa led to several Spanish media outlets believing the story. [7]
In March 2016, ForoCoches campaigned on the British Royal Navy's "name our ship" proposal, requesting that the ship be named after Blas de Lezo – a Spanish admiral who defeated the British at the Battle of Cartagena de Indias in 1741. The option with over 30,000 votes was removed, [8] and the ship was named the RRS Sir David Attenborough.
In May 2018, some users of the forum illegally published photographs and personal information of the victim of the La Manada rape case. Marín banned 200 users and removed the illegal posts from public view, saying that he would cooperate if contacted by the police. [1] Several companies, including Mapfre, removed their advertisements from the website after a boycott. [9]
Some of ForoCoches's users use rhetoric associated with the alt-right and the Manosphere. These include terms familiar to English-speaking sympathisers to those movements, including Chad – a confident alpha male – and original terms such as Charo – a middle-aged, dyed-hair, radical feminist. [10] [11]
Auryn was a 5-member British-Spanish boy band founded in 2009. Signed to Warner Music, they sang in English and Spanish.
Spain has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in every edition since 1961, in total 62 times. Since 1999, Spain has been one of the "Big Five" countries, along with France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, that are automatically prequalified for the final each year as they are the biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
The participation of Spain in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest first began at the inaugural Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2003 which took place in Copenhagen, Denmark. Televisión Española (TVE), a division of Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE) and member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), were responsible for the selection process of their participation. Spain used a national selection format, broadcasting a show entitled Eurojunior, for their participation at the contests. The first representative to participate for the nation at the 2003 contest was Sergio with the song "Desde el cielo", which finished in second place out of sixteen participating entries, achieving a score of 125 points. Spain did not participate from 2007 to 2018, but returned to the contest in 2019.
Admiral Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta was a Spanish navy officer best remembered for the Battle of Cartagena de Indias (1741) in the Viceroyalty of New Granada, where Spanish imperial forces under his command decisively defeated a large British invasion fleet under Admiral Edward Vernon.
Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 with the song "I Love You Mi Vida" written by Thomas G:son, Andreas Rickstrand, Tony Sánchez-Ohlsson, Rebeca Pous Del Toro. The song was performed by the group D'Nash. The Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) organised the national final Misión Eurovisión 2007 in order to select the Spanish entry for the 2007 contest in Helsinki, Finland. The national final consisted of four heats, a semi-final and a final and involved 57 competing acts. Five acts and five songs ultimately qualified to compete in the televised final where a public televote first selected the top five to advance to the second round. In the second round of voting, a regional televote exclusively selected "I Love You Mi Vida" performed by Nash as the winner. The group was later renamed as D'Nash for the Eurovision Song Contest.
Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song "Baila el Chiki-chiki" written by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre and Friends. The song was performed by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre. The Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) organised the national final Salvemos Eurovisión in order to select the Spanish entry for the 2008 contest in Belgrade, Serbia. 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.
Blas Cantó Moreno is a Spanish singer and songwriter. He rose to prominence as a member of the Spanish band Auryn. In 2017, he embarked on a solo career. His debut studio album Complicado was released in September 2018, the album peaked at number one on the Spanish Albums Chart. He was going to represent Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam, with the song "Universo" but the competition was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He represented Spain instead in Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song "Voy a quedarme".
Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with the song "Dile que la quiero" written by Alejandro Abad. The song was performed by David Civera. Songwriter Alejandro Abad represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1994 with the song "Ella no es ella" placing eighteenth in the competition. The Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) organised the national final Eurocanción 2001 in order to select the Spanish entry for the 2001 contest in Copenhagen, Denmark. Twenty artists and songs competed in the televised show where an in-studio jury and a public televote selected "Dile que la quiero" performed by David Civera as the winner.
Matías Prats Luque is a Spanish sports and news journalist.
Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song "Algo pequeñito" written by Jesús Cañadilla, Luis Miguel de la Varga, Alberto Jodar and Daniel Diges. The song was performed by Daniel Diges. The Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) organised the national final Destino Oslo, La Gala de Eurovisión 2010 in order to select the Spanish entry for the 2010 contest in Oslo, Norway. Ten artists and songs selected through an Internet public vote competed in the televised show where an in-studio jury and a public televote selected "Algo pequeñito" performed by Daniel Diges as the winner.
Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with the song "Que me quiten lo bailao" written by Rafael Artesero. The song was performed by Lucía Pérez. The Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) organised the national final Destino Eurovisión in order to select the Spanish entry for the 2011 contest in Düsseldorf, Germany. The national final consisted of two heats, a semi-final and a final and involved 24 competing acts. Three acts and nine songs ultimately qualified to compete in the televised final where an in-studio jury first selected one song per act to advance to the second round. In the second round of voting, a public televote exclusively selected "Que me quiten lo bailao" performed by Lucía Pérez as the winner.
Asturias Forum, previously known as Forum of Citizens is a regionalist political party in the Principality of Asturias.
Rubén Doblas Gundersen, better known as elrubiusOMG or simply El Rubius, is a Norwegian-Spanish YouTuber whose channel primarily consists of gameplays and vlogs. He has the most subscribers in Spain and is among the 50 channels with the most subscribers of the platform in the world.
Blas de Lezo (F-103) is a Spanish Navy guided missile frigate of the Álvaro de Bazán class. This is the third ship class of air defense frigates in the Spanish Navy. It was named after the 18th century Spanish Admiral Blas de Lezo. The ship was built by Izar Shipbuilding in Ferrol, Spain and entered into service in 2004.
Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Tu canción", written by Raúl Gómez and Sylvia Santoro. The song was performed by Amaia Romero and Alfred García. The Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) used the ninth series of reality television talent competition Operación Triunfo as the platform to select the Spanish entry for the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal. Amaia and Alfred with "Tu canción" were selected by the vote of the Spanish public from among nine competing entries.
Okdiario is a Spanish digital newspaper founded in September 2015 by the journalist Eduardo Inda. Its editorial ideology is aligned with neoliberalism and Spanish nationalism. The newspaper's motto is El sitio de los inconformistas.
Sherpa is a Spanish artificial intelligence company specializing in predictive conversational digital assistants. It was founded by Xabi Uribe-Etxebarria in 2012 and is based in Erandio and Silicon Valley. In 2018, Fortune magazine included Sherpa in its ranking of the 100 best artificial intelligence companies.
Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song "Voy a quedarme" written by Blas Cantó, Leroy Sanchez, Daniel Ortega "Dangelo" and Dan Hammond. The song was performed by Blas Cantó, who was internally selected by the Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) to represent Spain at the 2021 contest in Rotterdam, Netherlands after he was due to compete in the 2020 contest with "Universo" before the event's cancellation. Blas Cantó was announced as the Spanish representative on 18 March 2020, while the national final Destino Eurovisión 2021 was organised in order to select the song Cantó would perform. Two songs competed in the televised show where a public vote exclusively selected "Voy a quedarme" as the winning song, receiving 58% of the votes.
Hostal Royal Manzanares is a Spanish comedy television series starring Lina Morgan. It aired from 1996 to 1998 on TVE1.
The Madrid Forum is an anti-communist organization created on 26 October 2020 by the Disenso Foundation think tank of the far-right Spanish political party Vox. Its founding document, the Madrid Charter, was primarily signed by conservative, ultraconservative, and far-right politicians from the Americas and the Iberian Peninsula, including members of the Republican Party in the United States, Venezuelan opposition members, Cuban dissidents, Fujimorists of Peru, and other representatives of political parties from Latin America.