This weekend, Portuguese broadcaster RTP will finish up its three-week festival of song with the grand final of its long-running national final Festival da Canção, which will be used to choose the Portuguese representative to the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam.
Over the last two weeks, the Portuguese public alongside a panel of jury members have selected a total of ten participants from two semifinals to compete for the title from a pool of twenty songs, including eighteen of which were directly invited to participate by RTP and two who won an open call for submissions.
Sunday morning’s show will feature seven regional juries and a public televote in a 50/50 split, but where the televote will prevail in the case of a tie.
The show will be begin on Sunday at 08:00 AEDT, and is scheduled to run for approximately three hours and forty-five minutes.
The running order of the show on Sunday morning is as follows, along with where the Aussievision team originally placed them upon hearing the studio versions, and a short fact about them:
1 – Karetus & Romeu Bairos – ‘Saudade’
Karetus & Romeu Bairos’ ‘Saudade’ came equal fourth in Aussievision’s poll of Festival da Canção songs.
Karetus is formed by DJs and producers Carlos Silva and André Reis, who don’t link their genre of music to any style or rhythm, while Romeu Bairos has been surrounded by traditional music since he was a child.
2 – Joana Alegre – ‘Joana do mar’
Joana Alegre’s ‘Joana do mar’ came equal fourth in Aussievision’s poll of Festival da Canção songs.
Joana has been the lead singer of a band, participated in musicals, and is now working on her second studio album with 2017’s Eurovision-winning songwriter Luísa Sobral.
3 – Fábia Maia – ‘Dia lindo’
Fábia Maia’s ‘Dia lindo’ came equal thirteenth in Aussievision’s poll of Festival da Canção songs.
Fábia could just be Portugal’s biggest Avril Lavigne fan, and initially gained recognition in 2014 for the hip-hop covers she posted on YouTube.
4 – Valéria – ‘Na mais profunda saudade’
Valéria’s ‘Na mais profunda saudade’ came sixteenth in Aussievision’s poll of Festival da Canção songs.
The twenty-three year old fado singer has already participated in music contests such as ‘Vozes da Beira’ previously, and has toured throughout Portugal, Tunisia, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Brazil.
5 – Carolina Deslandes – ‘Por um triz’
Carolina Deslandes’ ‘Por um triz’ came seventeenth in Aussievision’s poll of Festival da Canção songs.
Carolina has competed in the Portuguese edition of ‘Pop Idol’, released three albums, and had her single ‘Mercúrio’ debut at number one on the iTunes chart.
6 – NEEV – ‘Dancing in the Stars’
NEEV’s ‘Dancing in the Stars’ came third in Aussievision’s poll of Festival da Canção songs.
NEEV has had a record contract in Los Angeles, performed at music festivals in Germany and the Netherlands, and has signed contracts with Universal Music France and BMG Germany.
7 – Pedro Gonçalves – ‘Não vou ficar’
Pedro Gonçalves’ ‘Não vou ficar’ came second in Aussievision’s poll of Festival da Canção songs.
Pedro is the only Festival da Canção alum of the mix, having previously placed sixth in the grand final of the 2017 contest with the song ‘Don’t Walk Away’.
8 – Sara Afonso – ‘Contramão’
Sara Afonso’s ‘Contramão’ came ninth in Aussievision’s poll of Festival da Canção songs.
Sara has been singing for as long as she can remember, and even attended a workshop for musical theatre in London before moving to Casablanca, Morocco.
9 – EU.CLIDES – ‘VOLTE-FACE’
EU.CLIDES’ ‘VOLTE-FACE’ came tenth in Aussievision’s poll of the Festival da Canção songs.
EU.CLIDES moved to Paris to start his career as a guitarist, and has been on tour with the likes of Mayra Andrade and the Senegalese group Daara J Family.
10 – The Black Mamba – ‘Love Is on My Side’
The Black Mamba’s ‘Love Is on My Side’ came fifteenth in Aussievision’s poll of Festival da Canção songs.
The band formed in 2010 and have released three studio albums together. They have also toured Portugal, London, Philadelphia, Luanda, Madrid, Seville, and Brazil.
The show will be hosted by Eurovision 2018 host Filomena Cautela and Vasco Palmeirim from the RTP Studios in Lisbon.
Although it was originally stated that if an artist was to test positive for coronavirus they would be removed from the competition, RTP has changed the rules around this so that the artist's semifinal performance (as seen above) would be aired instead.
International fans of Festival da Canção will be able to watch the show on the RTP website (https://www.rtp.pt/play/direto/rtpinternacional) live.
The grand finale of Festival da Canção will be broadcast on Portuguese broadcaster RTP in the morning of March 7 (the evening of March 6 in Europe).
22:00pm-01:45am CET (Europe)
08:00-11:45am AEDT (NSW, VIC, ACT, TAS)
07:30-11:15am (SA)
07:00-10:45am (QLD)
06:30-10:15am (NT)
05:00-08:45am (WA)
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