presented to the public, with two artists being ultimately selected to proceed to the second stage of the competition. Eurocàsting was initially set to take place between November 2003 and January 2004 in the format of a talent show similar to the Spanish Operación Triunfo, however the idea was later dropped. The second stage was the six televised heats which took place between 18 January and 22 February 2004 with two songs competing in each show. One song was selected to proceed from each heat to the third stage, the semi-finals, which took place on 1 and 8 March 2004 with three songs, one of them being performed as a duet between the two finalists, competing in each show. One song was selected to proceed from each semi-final to the final. The fourth stage was the final, which took place on 15 March 2004 and featured the two songs that qualified from the semi-finals being performed by the two finalists. The winning artist and song was selected separately during the final, with the artist selection taking place throughout the nine shows of 12 Punts. The results of the heats, semi-finals and the final were determined by a combination of votes from a five-member professional jury and a public vote via SMS in Andorra and Catalonia. Each juror had an equal stake in the final result, while the public vote in each state/region had a weighting equal to the votes of a single juror. The members of the jury panel were: Marc Llunas – singer Salvador Cufí – representative of record company Música Global Catheryne Metayer – Director of Cor de Petits Cantors d'Andorra Josep Maria Escribano – Director of the Conservatory of Andorra Oriol Vilella – musician Eurocàsting Auditions for Eurocàsting took place on 26 October 2003 at the Fira d'Andorra in Andorra la Vella. Applicants were required to be aged at least 16, have Andorran citizenship or residency as of 2002 and fluency in Catalan. 40 applicants that attended the auditions were presented in November 2003 and a public vote that registered 16,000 votes selected the top six candidates to qualify for the next stage, which were announced on 4 December 2003. An additional three artists: Bis a Bis, Jordi Botey and Marta Roure were invited by RTVA to directly compete in the next stage as established acts that have released an album in the previous five years. On