Porutgal: Festival da Cançao 2021 competing acts to be unveiled on January 20

Porutgal: Festival da Cançao 2021 competing acts to be unveiled on January 20
Saturday, 09 January 2021

  • The acts that will compete in the upcoming Festival da Cançao 2021, the show that will determine Portugal's Eurovision hopeful, will go public on January 20. 

    Portugal will be selecting the nation's Eurovision 2021 representative through its iconic festival Festival da Cançao 2021. The acts that will be participating in this year's national selection are set to go public on January 20, one month before the first semi final hits our screens. 

    The performers of each song have been selected by the songwriters themselves which have been earlier selected by the Portuguese broadcaster, RTP. Just a month ago the names of the songwriters were released along with the semi-finals allocation, which looks like below: 

    Semifinal 1 - February 20
     
    • Anne Victorino d'Almeida
    • Fábia Maia
    • Filipe Melo
    • Helder Moutinho
    • IAN
    • Irma
    • Karetus
    • Miguel Marôco
    • Stereossauro
    • Tatanka
     
    Semifinal 2 - February 27
     
    • Carolina Deslandes
    • Da Chick
    • Joana Alegre
    • João Vieira
    • Neev
    • Pedro da Linha
    • Pedro Gonçalves
    • Tainá
    • Virgul
    • Viviane

     

    The 2021 edition of Festival da Cançao

    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 on 20 and 27 February and the final on March 6. 

    Unlike the previous editions, instead of 16 acts, in 2021 the competition will have the participation of 20 composers: 18 have been invited directly RTP and 2 selected out of a public submission. 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 that will represent Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 will be determined by public (50%) and jury voting (50%).

     

    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.