Portugal : RTP confirms Eurovision 2021 participation and begins Festival da Cançao process

Portugal : RTP confirms Eurovision 2021 participation and begins Festival da Cançao process
Saturday, 17 October 2020

  • The Portuguese national broadcaster, RTP , has confirmed the country's Eurovision 2021 participation and kicked off the process for the next edition of Festival da Cançao.

    Portugal has confirmed that they will be joing the party in Rotterdam next year marking the country's 52nd participation in the Eurovision Song Contest since  1964. The nation will select its  ESC 2021 hopeful  like in th past years via the format of Festival da Cançao. 

     

    The 2021 edition of Festival da Cançao

    RTP is kicking off the process of the nexr song Festival  with the selection of authors who will create the songs for next year's edition. The Portuguese broadcaster maintains the model adopted in the last editions and the selection will consist of three shows ( two semi-finals and a grand final) scheduled to be broadcast live in February and March. 

    Unlike the previous editions, instead of 16 acts, in 2021 the competition will have the participation of 20 composers: 18 by a direct RTP invitation and 2 selected out of a public submission of proposals. This means that five acts will qualify from each semi final rising the number of finalists to 10. The invited composers will be free to chose the artist/s for their respective songs.The winner will represent Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 (@eurovision 2021), which will take place in the Netherlands, in May 2021.


    For the free submission of songs, all citizens of Portuguese nationality or residents of the country may or may not have published work in the past, including, but not limited to, Portuguese living outside Portugal, as well as citizens of other nationalities residing in Portugal. Applications must be submitted by sending their pusic proposals to the email: [email protected], with the deadline expiring on 25 November 2020. 

    You can find the overall rules and terms of the next Festival da Cançao here. The Portuguese Eurovision 2021 entry will be determined by a combination of 50%-50% public and regional jury voting .

     

    Portugal in Eurovision

    Portugal joined the Eurovision family in 1964 when it was represented by António Calvário, who finished last without any points. Since their debut in 1964 Portugal has missed five times the contest, the latest was in 2016 and has competed in total 51 times in the competition. Before 2016, the best result of Portugal in the contest was a 6th placing in 1996 with Lúcia Moniz performing “O meu coração não tem cor” in Oslo.

    In 2017 the country got its name on the list with the winning countries, as Salvador Sorbal was crowned winner in Kyiv with his song Amar Pelos Dois . Following Salvador’s win the country hosted the 63rd edition of the contest in Lisbon.In 2019 Conan Osiris ,winner of the Portuguese national final Festival da Cançao represented the country in Tel Aviv with his entry Telemoveis. Despite the outstanding alternative performance in the first semi final, Conan failed to qualify to the Grand final.

    This year Elisa won the national final with "Medo de sentir"  but eventually never had the chance to perform on the Eurovision stage as the contest was cancelled due to the covid-19 outbreak. 

     

    Source: Festival da Canção