Elisa is going to Rotterdam for Portugal

After Salvador Sobral, Cláudia Pascoal and Conan Osíris had winning the last three years of the renewed edition of Festival da Canção, the city of Elvas hosted the 2020’s Portuguese national final Saturday evening, presenting the eight finalists coming from the two previous semifinals.

Filipe Sambado, Jimmy P, Tomás Luzia, Elisa Rodrigues, Throes + The Shine, Kady, Elisa, Bárbara Tinoco, these were the main stars of the evenings. Bárbara Tinoco was the favorite artist to win the competion, but some people started to say during the last week that Elisa or Jimmy P could take the trophy at the end.

The show started with Filipe Sambado, presenting us an artistic and extravagant performance, with very tradicional Portuguese music and lyrics. This entry was a surpring qualifier from the first semifinal and yet it seems to sound better in Elvas’ stage with a more colorful staging and an improved confindence by the the singer. Also, the crowd seems to like it very much.

Then, it was Jimmy P’s Time, the rap singer of the competition. With his unique style and presenting us a biographic song, he gives us an intense performance with some gospel backing vocals. The crowd loves him and it proves that this song might end near the top of the voting proccess.

Now, it comes Tomás Luzia… He definitely won’t win the show, but he presents us a decent song showing the good artist he is. He’s alone at the stage and his song is not bad, although it sounds a bit outdated… It’s expected that he will finish near the bottom at the end; however, he deserves applauses for his courage to remain loyal to his music style.

Elisa Rodrigues is along Tomás one of the least favorits of the night and she presents us a slow dancing song wih some african vybes. She’s gorgeous on stage with a blue jumpsuit and she transmits a lot of confidence on stage. Therefore, the song doesn’t stand out among the others and no one still believes that this entry is going to Eurovision.

OK, now it’s time for Throes + The Shine… They “rock” in every single level. With an Electronic-afro song, they show us the best performance of the night… Nice melody, nice production, nice staging and a very energetic performance. They de serve to be one of the most voted songs of the evening, although their song might not be so accepetable by the national public, as it doesn’t have any elements of portuguese culture.

Kady is coming… She give us here another symbol of african culture with her ‘kizomba’ song and she looks beautiful, a real diva, presenting a good performance with great visuals on stage. Her entry is not so strong as the previous one and we can anticipate it finishing in the fourth/fifht place… Composed by the Dino de Santiago who acted in the interval act of Eurovision 2018, that fact might attract some jury votes, but I don’t think public will be crazy about the song.

Now, it’s Elisa with the most touching song of the evening. On stage, she sings next to the composer of the song, Marta, who is playing the piano. This is a new thing on the performance, as Marta wasn’t on stage in the first semifinal. Now, they are also singing together and presenting us a beautiful moment. The song is good and people loved it inside the arena. It can maybe be the upcoming winner of Festival da Canção!

And we are arriving to the last song of the night with the favourite Bárbara Tinoco. She changed the dress from a yellow one to a green one and the performance remains the same, with four people dancing and the composer Tiago Nacartao playing the guitar. The public love it, period. Bárbara is catchy as it is the song too. It seems the most solid entry for Eurovision and it has for sure the public support, mainly from ‘The Voice viewers, as Bárbara Tinoco and Tiago participated in the tvshow some years ago.

After the eight contestants had performed, the voting process started and it lasted two hours… During the interval act, there were many tribute performances, as usual in any edition of Festival da Canção. But the biggest highlight was the performance of Conan Osíris and his dancer João, presenting us an acoustic version of “Telemóveis”. He slayed, as always…and the connection between him and the audience was so strong that proved to the world that this song will continue to be a national anthem for a long time, despiste the bad result in Eurovision 2019.

So, after almost 3 hours of show, it was time for the big announcenement… ‘Who would represent Portugal in Rotterdam next May?’.

It all started with the 7 regional juries and, suddendly, a huge surprise came… Filipe Sambado was winning almost all 12 points from the juries and Barbara Tinoco was starting to book a place in the second half of the table. So, after all jury votes counted, we could easily see that Filipe had won the juries with 76 points, followed by Elisa who finished second with 55 points. Then, Kady finished third, Jimmy P came forth and in fifth place, with the same amount of points, it came Bárbara and Throes + The Shine. Also, as expected, Elisa Rodrigues and Tomás both got the last places.

Now, it would come the most important part…the public voting announcement, completing 50% of the votes.

AND with 3 points, Elisa Rodrigues!! (expected, finishing last overall)

With 4 points, Filipe Sambado (Big shock for the artist who was clearly expecting more from the public and maybe winning the grand final… It came third overall)

With 5 points, Throes + The Shine! (ok, this was the biggest disappointment of the evening! The most stunning performance of the evening… had finished seventh overall)

With 6 points, Jimmy P!! (another shocking situation, as he had received 12 points from the public in the second semifinal… He finished 6th overall!!)

With 7 points, Kady! (the kizomba girl finished 4th overall)

So, now it was THE moment.. If Elisa would get now the 8 points from the public, Bárbara could still win… If not, Elisa would be the winner.

AND, with 8 points, Tomás Luzia (After the last place with the juries, he reached the 6th position overall)

IT WAS OVER: ELISA WILL REPRESENT PORTUGAL IN EUROVISION 2020, with the song “Medo de Amar” (Afraid of Feeling)…

With 10 points from the public, Elisa is now the only winner of the past editions of Festival da Canção who didn’t win any voting, neither the jury one nor the public one. Bárbara Tinoco finished second overall, after getting the 12 points from the jury…

On the Day before International Women’s Day, it’s the third time in four years that a female composer wins Festival da Canção, following Luísa Sobral in 2017 and Isaura in 2018, and it’s the second time in the last three years that Portugal send two female singer to Eurovision.

Salvador Sobral, Cláudia Pascoal, Conan Osíris and Elisa… these are the four winners of the refreshed Festival da Canção that had its return in 2017. About 2017, we all know the History…Amar pelos Dois won Eurovision with a record of points!… However, in 2018 Portugal ended last in the final with ‘o Jardim, and last year’ Telemóveis’ almost finished last in the first semifinal of Eurovision.

So, will Elisa push Portugal up again in Eurovision, giving to her country a qualification? Or will she become another deception for the portuguese eurofans?… In 2 months, we’ll all know the answer.