Portugal is back in the game after one year-break and they’re doing it big this time! Festival Da Canção has been set once again as the national selection to choose who will be flying the Portuguese colors at the Eurovision Song Contest, taking place in Kiev this year.
Tonight, Portuguese public TV station RTP will be holding the first out of two heats prior to the grand final. The three of them will be taking place in Lisbon, the two semi-finals at RTP’s studio 1, whilst the grand final will be doing it at Coliseu Dos Recreios. All 16 participating acts were privately chosen by the 16 composers who were first approached by RTP to write songs exclusively for the festival. For the first time, they also allowed the songs to be performed 100% in English language. Three of them will do so.
Sónia Araújo and José Carlos Malato will be the ones introducing this first show to the Portuguese audience, where the first eight acts will compete for four available spots in the grand final, they are:
- Márcia – “Agora” (Márcia)
- Golden Slumbers – “Para perto” (Samuel Úria)
- Fernando Daniel – “Poema a dois” (Nuno Feist)
- Deolinda Kinzimba – “O que vi nos meus sonhos” (Rita Redshoes)
- Rui Drumond – “O teu melhor” (Héber Marques)
- Lisa Garden – “Without you” (Pedro Saraiva)
- Salvador Sobral – “Amar pelos dois” (Luísa Sobral)
- Viva La Diva – “Nova glória” (Nuno Gonçalves)
The semi-final qualifiers will be chosen by combining the votes from an expert panel and the televoting (distributed on seven different Portuguese regions including islands) on an equal rate (50/50). This will also determine the winner in the grand final.
Among tonight’s competing acts, fans will be able to recognize Rui Drumond who already represented Portugal back in Kiev 2005 as part of the duo 2B.
You can tune into the show live at 22:05 (CET) either on RTP’s official streaming or on our multi-window platform.
The show is even more exciting as you all know that RTP still keeps the entries as secret and they will be unveiled tonight for the first time.
Stay tuned!