The 2024 Song Contest begins today in an edition that celebrates the 60 years of existence of the Portuguese national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest.
The year was 1964 when António Calvário presented the song “Oração” in the first edition of the Festival da Canção, having represented Portugal in the European competition in Copenhagen…none other than the neighboring city of Malmo, where this year’s Eurovision will take place in May. At the time of its first European participation, Portugal failed to obtain any points with its song in the final vote, having shared last place with Germany, Yugoslavia and Switzerland. However, as they say in Portuguese, “Passado é passado” (Past stays in the past).
53 years after its Eurovision debut, Portugal achieved its first victory in the contest with a record of points still to be broken today. Since 2017, the Festival da Canção has brought Eurovision closer to the Portuguese music industry than ever before. From that year until today, almost all the main artists playing on Portuguese radio have been participating in Festival da Canção, inspired by Salvador Sobral’s victory with “Amar Pelos Dois”. And the fact is that since then Portugal has managed to bring to the competition a diversity of musical and artistic styles that have impressed Europe. What do Salvador Sobral, Cláudia Pascoal, Conan Osiris, Black Mamba, Maro and Mimicat have in common? They have all represented Portugal at Eurovision in the last seven years, following their respective victories at the Portuguese national selection. 6 participations, 1 victory, 3 songs in the top 12, and only one song that didn’t make it to the Eurovision Grand Final, “Telemóveis”, by Conan Osiris, which ironically were at the time one of the favorite songs to win the big victory in Rotterdam according to betting odds.
However, “Passado é passado”! A new page of the main Portuguese song contest starts today. 10 artists will present their songs at the RTP evening today, to be joined by another ten in the semi-final on Saturday next weekend. From each semi-final, 5 songs will be chosen by the public and the jury, in a 50/50 vote which will go on to the Grand Final on March 9th. And do you want to know the most interesting facts? Of the last seven winners of the Festival da Canção, six of them came from the 1st semi-final. So who will be competing today?
- Nena – “Teorias da Conspiração”
- Perpétua – “Bem Longe Daqui”
- Mela – “Água”
- Mila Flores – “Afia a Língua”
- Left. – “Volto a Ti”
- Rita Rocha – “Pontos Finais”
- Noble – “Memory”
- João Borsh – “…Pelas Costuras”
- Iolanda – Grito
- Bispo – Casa Portuguesa
Of the 10 names presented above, 3 of them are already well-known names on Portuguese radio. Nena, Noble and Bispo are by far the artists who go into tonight with a step forward due to some of their past songs being radio hits and, therefore, already having large legions of fans. However, interestingly, since the Festival da Canção was renewed in 2017, none of the fan-favorite artists have won the contest, which shows that this contest, in fact, only starts tonight… and until then, everything is just poor predictions.
For all this, it is also worth looking at the remaining artists who start tonight without the media favoritism of the three artists mentioned above. Iolanda, with the song “Grito”, is the one leading the betting odds to win this year’s Festival da Canção. Additionally, the song “…Pelas Costuras” by João Borsch is the winner of the OGAE Portugal vote for tonight. In turn, Rita Rocha presented herself to the public in 2021 on The Voice Kids, and gave voice to the song “Into the Void”, part of the soundtrack of the acclaimed Portuguese Netflix series, Rabo de Peixe. Mela, one of the artists chosen for the Festival da Canção through free submission, is also a former contestant on The Voice Portugal, and Mila Dores is a jazz singer, having won the “Young Jazz Musician award” given by the British promoters Jazz Yorkshire. LEFT, also chosen for free submission, already exceeds 20 million streams on Spotify with its discography and finally Perpétua is a group of four friends who made their debut in music in 2020 and are preparing their second album of originals this year.
The Festival da Canção has been an absolute revelation of national talent in recent years and one of the most unpredictable national finals in Europe. One thing we cannot deny: tastes aside, Portugal has brought quality to Eurovision lately, year after year, and we can’t wait to find out who will represent Portugal this year in Sweden!
And you, what is your favorite song to win the Festival da Canção 2024? The first chapter of this frenetic annual story begins today!
