Host nation, playing on home turf. A winsome little number – Cláudia Pascoal sings in that over-emotional style that makes it hard to call her out for being flat.
The staging at the national final was a tad on the strange side. Cláudia’s straight-jacketed companion coming to life does make for one of those ‘golden moments’ in future “Isn’t Eurovision mad?” compilation shows.
I’m certain the song itself is terribly worthy, but when Cláudia finally mumbles to a stop, I’m left thinking it was pleasant, but forgettable.
In any other year, I’m certain fans would dismiss ‘O Jardim‘ as yet another Portuguese non-qualifier. It’s merely the one-off success of Salvador that has allowed anyone to consider this more seriously.
To my ears, this is (pre-2017) business as usual for Portugal.