PREVIEW: Festival da Canção 2014, Chapter 2

A week after the first semi-final, Festival da Canção is back. 6 songs have already been selected for the final. Today, ten more artists will perform their songs, five of which will go through to next Saturday’s Grand Final through a 50/50 vote by the public and jury, and later at the end of the night a sixth song will be chosen after voting exclusively by the public .

Festival da Canção has been one of the main topics of conversation in Portugal, especially due to the national and international hype that has been created around Iolanda’s performance last Saturday with her song “Grito”. It led massively in views among the YouTube performances of the ‘Festival da Canção’, as well as generating international reactions throughout Europe, leading to several Fan Blogs talking about the performance.

However, as they say in Portugal, “as contas fazem-se no fim”, which is like saying ‘the math is done only at the end’…. And therefore, the second part of this game is about to begin.

1. Buba Espinho – “O Farol”
2. Cristina Clara – “Primavera”
3. Leo Middea – “Doce Mistério”
4. Filipa – “You Can’t Hide”
5. João Couto – “Quarto Para Um”
6. Huca – “Pé de Choro”
7. No Maka feat Ana Maria – “Aceitar”
8. Maria João – “Dia”
9. Rita Onofre – “Criatura”
10. Silk Nobre – “Change”

Among the 10 songs presented above, there are two that start the show tonight with the spotlight on them: “You Can’t Hide” by Filipa and “Dia” by Maria João. Why? Filipa was initially the fan favorite of fans at this year’s Festival da Canção and presents by far the most pop song of the contest, the one that comes closest to the musical style currently presented in a contest like Eurovision. The artist, who lives in South Africa, won an international covers competition promoted by Ryan Seacrest (historic host of the American Idol competition) in 2013, with her interpretation of “Story Of My Life” by One Direction. The competition brought him recognition in his native South Africa and since then he has collaborated with renowned composers and producers in the United States. Clearly, this level of musical production is reflected in this theme that Filipa presents today, the best produced song of all the 20 songs in this year’s competition.

Maria João is a highlight for other reasons, she is one of the most acclaimed Portuguese singers abroad. Her career has been marked by participation in the most renowned music festivals in the world and she is also the only Portuguese artist to have been nominated for the European Jazz Prize along with Jamie Cullum and Bobo Stenson. What she brings us this year to Festival da Canção is yet another example of her uniqueness. What she brings us is something completely out of the box, even innovative, that no fan has ever seen anything like this at Eurovision. Yes, it’s not to everyone’s taste, but it’s certainly a song that won’t leave anyone indifferent.

In relation to the other artists, and going through the order of performance, Buba Espinho crosses musical genres like no one else and travels from Cante to Fado with the same mastery with which he dominates national pop music and the most urban and current sounds. Cristina Clara is a singer and…doctor, who released her debut album “Lua Adversa” in 2021 and which mainly explores the affinities between urban music from Lisbon and Brazilian choro.

Léo Middea is an outstanding artist of the new generation of Brazilian Popular Music and his second album “A Dança do Mundo” (2016) received positive reviews and was in several selections of the best albums of the year. His latest album “Gente”, which reached 1 million streams one month after its release.

Finally, João Couto is one of the artists chosen through free submission and fully embraces his pop influences; Huca, a Mozambican singer who is known for his social, political and revolutionary compositions will present today a song that fully reflects his African origins. No Maka is a duo of former DJs who were responsible for producing the song “Faz Gostoso” by Madonna, which reached number one on the Billboard, and Rita Onofre released her first album last year and has since toured some important Portuguese stages. .

Historically, since the renewal of Festival da Canção in 2017, the winner of this national team comes from the first semi-final (Cláudia Pascoal is the only exception, in 2018). However, today ten artists fight to contradict history in a semi-final that is expected to be quite balanced and somewhat unpredictable in terms of the final result. Filipa is the favorite of the night, according to the betting odds, but we all know that the Festival da Canção is full of surprises whenever it comes to final results.

What about you? What’s your favorite song from tonight?