This Saturday in Getxo and Sunday in Arrasate will begin the tour of this year’s National Championship. What characterizes Euskal Herria is that the participants cannot sign up directly, the opportunity to sing in it must be gained in two ways: on the one hand, the finalists of the previous edition of the Euskal Herria Championship have the opportunity to participate live and, on the other, those who have remained in the highest positions of the championships of the different countries have the opportunity to sing in the Basque Country.

How many bertsolaris from each country will participate this year?

The Association of Bertsolaris Fans started the organization of the General Championship in 1986 (previously organized by Euskaltzaindia and first jointly by Euskaltzaleak and Euzko Gaztedi). That same year it set the quantities of each country in the Basque Country. Since then, the proportions have been changing and we must also bear in mind that Álava and Bizkaia organised a first tournament and another jointly Navarra and Iparralde. Over time, each of these countries organized their own tournament, so in the General Championship each country went on to have its own number.

The number of participants in this year’s competition was as follows, with the exception of the previous tournament finalists: From Álava there will be 2 bertsolaris, 10 from Bizkaia, 16 from Gipuzkoa, 5 from Navarra and 3 from Iparralde. Once this year’s championship was contested, the Bertsozale Elkartea Association will review, within the overall review it will carry out, the maintenance of these amounts or the changes for the next tournament.

If we value each other's path more than the championship position?

"Give the best of yourself", "make you enjoy enjoying", etc., are the goals of bertsolari to start the championship, as reflected in the greetings that are heard. But once the spectacle wheel is launched, it is difficult to make a (auto) valuation beyond the scores and positions on the table.

We have brought to this infographic some harvest data that everyone has collected throughout their trajectory, in the belief that these experiences can be useful for singing at this year's Central Championship: if you have previously sung at the General Championship Finals, if you have the National Championship and if you have put the country's txapela. There are, of course, other data that will serve for this year’s championship, but we have not got into it for lack of space: how many country finals have sung, or the number of seats it has made in the last year...

According to the infographic data, the bertsolaris have been organized into five groups: the current champion Maialen Lujanbio, who will sing live in the final; those who participated in the previous championship final; those who today are champions of the countries; the bertsolaris who have more experience in the General Championship; those who are going to participate for the first time; and the others (because with them they have not even the first time in the Ramos).

For the emotional care of the bertsolaris and to contextualize each work of the bertsolaris to their extent or context in the comments of the bar, it would not be bad to look again at the trajectory of each one, see as a step further within the path to those who will sing in the fokupa of the General Championship.

Knowing that the experience and backpacks are as unpredictable as the bertso, as the backpack, that each bertsolari will perform (or not) in a particular session.