This evening, the Portuguese held their ‘Festival da Canção’, the traditional show for choosing their Eurovision entry, in the Teatro Camões in Lisbon. Ten songs were on show for the public to choose (yes, you guessed it) by televote.
Marco Rodriguez – Em Agua E Sal. The first song of the night was a ballad in which Marco was joined on stage by a guitar and, later, by a violinist.
Carluz Belo – Cavaleiro Da Manhã. The second song and the second ballad of the night. This time, some African influences were thrown in for good measure.
Big Hit – Por Ti Portugal. This song follows a similar line to many that have been in the Festival before in that it refers to Portugal quite a lot.
Lisboa não sejas francesa – Porto de Encontro. This is a song in the traditional Portuguese ‘Fado’ style, although it does have a modern feel to it.
Vânia Fernandes – Senhora Do Mar. One of the pre-festival favourites, this song calls on Portugal’s seafaring traditions, being about someone lost at sea.
Vanessa – Do Outro Lado Da Vida. The sixth song of the night and the fifth ballad. If this song qualifies, the stage presentation would need some work.
Ricardo Soler – Canção Pop. This is basically a pop song which was performed quite well.
Alex Smith – Obrigatorio Ter. In what is proving to be a good night for fans of the ballad, Alex gave a good performance of the eighth song of the night.
Tucha – O Poder Da Mensagem. This is another song that will need some work on the performance if it qualifies tonight.
Blá Blá Blá – Magicantasticamente. Anyone familiar with the songs that Paul Curtis wrote for the UK ‘Song for Europe’ in the eighties would have been able to sing along to this one, even if they hadn’t heard it before. It did receive a good reaction from the audience, though.
While the Portuguese public were casting their votes, the rest of us were entertained by tonights performers each singing a Eurovision winner.
It seems no televoting results can be given without some unnecessary mucking around and tonight was no exception. An envelope was brought on to the stage containing the names of three acts who were in contention. One of those, Marco Rodriguez, was then sent back to the rest of the singers, leaving the remaining two singers, Vânia Fernandes and Alex Smith, clinging to each other. Finally, we got to the winner………. Vânia Fernandes will represent Portugal with Senhora Do Mar.
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In my view
This song is the reason I love Portuguese music. After a few dodgy efforts trying to please the Eurovision audience, they have returned to what they do best, a beautiful ballad.
The opinion expressed in "In my view" are those of the author and are not necessarily the one of EuroVisionary.com.
