Eurovision: I was misquoted, Spanish entrant insists

Pastora Soler will be the 19th act to perform during Saturday's final

Spain's Eurovision entrant has denied reports she was asked not to win by her country's public television channel.

Pastora Soler told the BBC she had been misquoted by a "very bad" journalist.

Her comments followed a widely circulated story that quoted her as saying Spain would struggle to host the event if she were to win this weekend.

Speaking on Friday, she insisted that "Spanish public television want to win and me too".

"We want to win this Eurovision," Soler told the BBC World Service. "If we win, Spain will be very happy with us."

It is written in the contest rules that the public broadcaster of the nation that wins must host the following year.

"Spain have a lot of place to have the competition," the singer went on. "It's not a problem for us."

Her remarks followed an earlier interview she gave to ABC Punto Radio in which she said Spain's TVE channel would find it "really difficult" to stage the contest.

"If we were to win, it will be impossible because of the costs," she said, in an interview translated from her native tongue.

During the interview she joked that the broadcaster had asked her not to win, but immediately added that "of course" they had not actually done so.

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Pastora Soler will sing her ballad Quedate Conmigo (Stay With Me) at Saturday's final, to be held in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku.

Spain last won the competition in 1969, when it shared a four-way tie with the UK, the Netherlands and France.

Thursday saw 10 more countries named finalists in the second semi-final held ahead of Saturday's main event.

Swedish entrant Loreen, considered by some to be the favourite this year, was among the successful acts to go through.

Lithuania, Malta, Norway and Turkey were among the other nations to join the 26 finalists.

The evening saw eight countries eliminated from the competition, among them Bulgaria, Croatia, Portugal and the Netherlands.