Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) tonight picked Maro with ‘Saudade Saudade’ as the Portuguese entry to the contest through the national selection Festival da Canção.
The show was broadcast live from RTP’s Studio 1 in Lisbon, hosted by Filomena Cautela and Vasco Palmeirim. The ten finalists were judged by means of a televoting and a jury composed of representatives from the seven statistical regions of Portugal (Lisbon, North, Central, Alentejo, Algarve, Madeira and the Azores). Their rankings, drafted and combined using the same system adopted for the semi-finals, determined the winner, with the televoting score taking precedence in the event of a tie for first place.
So there are the words but Phil, I hear you ask, what does it all *mean* for the contest – well, the show was scheduled for nearly four earth hours (with ten songs, I know, it’s like Portugal had nothing else to show on their main channel or something!) – They also showed bits of FdC history and some decent songs as an interval.
Results
The voting stopped being a contest half way through the televoting when I realised that ‘Saudade, Saudade’ was going to walk the final. Maro won the Televote and the juries as well.
| Song | Performer(s) |
|---|---|
| Drøm d bort | Sandra Lyng |
| Ekko inni meg | Jone |
| Prohibition | Swing’ it |
| Waist | Ella |
| Fuego | Alejandro Fuentes |
| Turn off my heart | Bjørn Olav Edvardsen |
| Love you in a dream | Elsie Bay |