Portugal: 320 songs submitted for Festival da Canção 2020

Portugal’s public broadcaster, RTP, announced two days ago the 16 composers to take part in the Festival da Canção 2020, the country’s national final for Eurovision 2020. Shortly thereafter, it was revealed that RTP has received 320 songs want to take part in the process of selection the Portuguese representative for the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.

120 more songs were submitted than last year. But that is a slightly lower number than the record of 346 songs in 2018, when Portugal hosted the largest television show for the first time in history.

The 16 composers selected to compete at the Festival da Canção 2020 and claim Portuguese representation in Rotterdam next May are the following:

– António Avelar Pinho
– Blasted Mechanism
– Cláudio Frank (from the radio show  Master Class)
– Dino d’Santiago
– Dúbio ft. +351 (open invitation)
– Elisa Rodrigues
– Filipe Sambado
– Hélio Morais
– Jimmy P
– João Cabrita
– Marta Carvalho
– Meera
– Pedro Jóia
– Rui Pregal da Cunha
– Throes + The Shine
– Tiago Nacarato

Festival da Canção 2020 will take place on 3 separate nights. The semifinals will take place on February 22nd and 29th at the RTP studios in Lisbon. The final, however, will take place on March 7 at a venue not yet announced, with eight finalists vying for the  right to represent Portugal at the Eurovision song contest.

This year, Portugal was represented by Conan Osiris with the song “Telemoveis”. Although a favorite  of many fans, he failed to qualify for the Final, finishing 15th with 51 points. The country of the Iberian Peninsula has won the competition once, just two years ago with Salvador Sobral singing the “Amar Pelos Dois” and breaking the biggest negative record for the country in the history of the competition.