El jurado eligió la canción.

Eligió is the preterite form, used for a completed action in the past: the jury chose.

• elige = chooses / is choosing (present)
• eligió = chose (simple past)
• ha elegido = has chosen (present perfect)

In this sentence, eligió tells you the choosing happened as a finished event.

Eligió is third person singular in the preterite.

That means it can mean:

• he chose
• she chose
• it chose
• you chose (formal singular, usted)

Here it matches el jurado, which is grammatically singular, so eligió is the correct form.

In Spanish, jurado is usually treated as a singular collective noun. Even though it refers to a group of people, grammatically it behaves like a singular noun.

So Spanish says:

• El jurado eligió... = The jury chose...

not:

• El jurado eligieron...

This is similar to how English can treat jury as a single unit, although English sometimes varies by dialect and style.

Spanish normally uses definite articles more often than English.

• el jurado = the jury
• la canción = the song

In this sentence, both nouns are presented as specific things, so the articles are required.

Also, the articles show the grammatical gender:

• el for masculine singular nouns
• la for feminine singular nouns

Because it is the thing being chosen.

Ask the question: What did the jury choose?
Answer: la canción

So:

• El jurado = subject
• eligió = verb
• la canción = direct object

Spanish often follows the same basic order as English here: subject + verb + object.

The accent mark in canción shows where the stress falls: can-CIÓN.

Without the written accent, Spanish stress rules would make it sound wrong. The accent is needed because the word ends in -n, and words ending in a vowel, -n, or -s are normally stressed on the second-to-last syllable. But canción is stressed on the last syllable, so it must be written with an accent.

It is partly irregular.

The infinitive is elegir, not eligir. In some forms, the stem changes:

• elijo = I choose
• elige = he/she chooses

In the preterite, the third person forms have a spelling/sound change:

• eligió = he/she/it chose
• eligieron = they chose

This change helps preserve pronunciation.

This happens because elegir is an -gir verb with stem changes in some forms.

In the preterite, many stem-changing -ir verbs change e → i in the third person:

• elegir → eligió
• pedir → pidió
• servir → sirvió

So eligió is the expected third-person preterite form of elegir.

Not if you want the same meaning.

La canción eligió el jurado would mean something like The song chose the jury, which changes the roles completely.

In the original sentence:

• El jurado is the chooser
• la canción is what was chosen

Word order matters, especially when there are no pronouns or extra markers to clarify who is doing what.

Yes, depending on context.

Jurado most often means jury, but in some contexts it can refer to a judging panel or panel of judges, especially in competitions, music contests, TV shows, or awards.

So El jurado eligió la canción could naturally mean:

• The jury chose the song
• The judges chose the song
• The panel chose the song

The exact English translation depends on the situation.

In Spain, eligió is pronounced approximately eh-lee-HYOH.

A few useful points:

• the stress is on the last syllable: -gió
• the g in gi sounds like a strong throaty Spanish j sound
• the written accent on ó shows the stressed syllable

So the word does not sound like English elih-gee-oh.

Yes. Spanish often drops the subject when the verb already makes it clear.

So you could say:

• Eligió la canción.

This means He/She/It chose the song or The jury chose the song, depending on context.

However, keeping El jurado makes the sentence clearer and more explicit.