Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009


Portugal will be present at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia. Portugal's entrant was chosen through the Festival da Canção 2009, held on 28 February 2009 by the Portuguese broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal. The winner of the contest was Flor-de-Lis with "Todas as ruas do amor", gaining maximum marks from the jury, as well as coming second in the televote.

Before Eurovision

Festival da Canção 2009

Festival da Canção 2009 was the 45th edition of Festival da Canção, the music competition that selects Portugal's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest.
First details on Festival da Canção 2009 were released in October 2008. In a change from Festival de Canção 2008, RTP dropped the use of invited producers in the contest and held an open call for songs to anyone wishing to take part. The finalised rules for the 2009 edition of Festival da Canção were released on 2 December 2008.

Format

The competition featured twenty-four songs. All twenty-four songs first faced an online vote held between 19 and 30 January 2009 where the top twelve songs advanced to the final. In the final, held on 28 January 2009, the winner was determined by a combination of the votes from 20 regional juries and televoting.

Competing entries

Artists and songwriters were able to submit their song entries until 12 January 2009. Only Portuguese composers were allowed to submit entries, and songs were required to be performed in Portuguese. RTP received 393 entries, and a selection committee chose twenty-four entries for the online voting. On 19 January 2009, RTP revealed the twenty-four competing entries at a press conference, hosted by the broadcaster CEO José Fragoso and Sílvia Alberto. The selection jury included the head of delegation José Poiares, Tozé Brito, Fernando Martins and Ramón Galarza.
Among the artists who have submitted songs but have not been chosen for the online voting stage were Bruno Henriques, Catarina Ferreira, Cláudia Madeira, Evelyne Filipe, Filipa Ruas, Filipa Sousa, Hugo Biqueira, Kássio, Leandro, Nuno Paiva, Nuno Durão & Ariana, Sofia & Fred, Sónia Santos, Tânia Gonçalves & Cheng, and Wanda Stuart.

Online voting

After the twenty-four competing entries were announced, an online public vote ran from 19 January 2009 until 30 January 2009, enabling local and international users to vote for their favorite entries via RTP's official website each day. The twelve entries with the most votes advanced to the final of Festival da Canção 2009.
On 24 January 2009, RTP deleted more than 20,000 votes deemed to be fraudulent. RTP's head of delegation, José Poiares, confirmed that "the broadcaster reserves the right to remove votes when these are shown to be fraudulent" and that such a process "will be continued until the final voting day". More fraudulent votes were removed during the same day, as well as rumours that certain songs may be disqualified due to being publicly heard before October 2008. "Sem ti não quero acordar" performed by Pedro Daniel was disqualified, due to the song having been performed at the Lagoa Song Festival in 2006, as well as having been used in a television commercial in September 2006. "Sinto sentido" performed by Pedro Duvalle was also disqualified due to the song being possibly performed during a concert held on 17 June 2008 in Viseu. RTP has announced that they will study the originality of the two songs, but will only disclose their findings if either of the two songs is in the top 12 at the end of the voting on 30 January 2009.
On 28 January 2009, Miguel Cervini withdrew his song "Não está" from the competition after he disagreed with over 4,000 votes being removed from his song that RTP deemed to be fraudulent. The online voting ended on 30 January 2009, with 117,639 valid votes being made over the 11-day period. Luciana Abreu won the voting, gaining 11,193 votes. From the 12 qualifying songs, "Sinto sentido" performed by Pedro Duvalle, came 11th in the voting. However, RTP disqualified the song from the competition, due to having been performed prior to 1 October 2008, breaking Eurovision rules. He was then replaced in the final by "Lua sem luar" performed by Nuno Norte, who came 13th in the voting.

Final

The final was held on 28 February 2009 at the Teatro Camões in Lisbon, hosted by Sílvia Alberto. The 12 qualifying artists from the online voting held in January 2009 competed during the show, and the winner was determined by a combination of the votes from 20 regional juries and televoting.
The winner was Flor-de-Lis with "Todas as ruas do amor". Flor-de-Lis received the maximum 12 points from the juries, and came second in the televote. Favourite in the televoting, online voting winner Luciana Abreu, received only 4 points from the juries.

At Eurovision

Despite qualifying from the semi-finals for the first time in the 2008 contest, Portugal had to qualify from the semi-finals again in 2009 as it was not one of the "Big Four" or the host of the 2009 contest. Portugal competed in the first semi-final on 12 May 2009, performing 16th in the running order, following Finland and preceding Malta and won a place in the final where it finished 15th.
It has been announced by RTP that the commentator for the semi-finals and final will be singer and TV host Hélder Reis, while the announcer of the Portuguese votes during the final was supposed to be Sérgio Mateus, who also acted as green room commentator during Festival da Canção. In the end, Helena Coelho announced the Portugueses votes.

Split results

Semi-final 1

Final

12 points10 points8 points7 points6 points

  • 5 points4 points3 points2 points1 point