Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017


Portugal participated in and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Amar pelos dois", written by Luísa Sobral and performed by her brother Salvador Sobral. Portuguese broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal organised the national final Festival da Canção 2017 in order to select the Portuguese entry for the 2017 contest in Kiev, Ukraine. After 16 songs competed through two semi-finals and a final, "Amar pelos dois" performed by Salvador Sobral emerged as the winner, collecting the most points from a 50/50 combination of votes from a jury made up of music professionals and a public televote.
Portugal was drawn to compete alongside 17 other songs in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 9 May. "Amar pelos dois" placed first with 370 points, securing its place among 25 other songs in the final on 13 May. In Portugal's, "Amar pelos dois" became the 65th song to win the Eurovision Song Contest, receiving a record total of 758 points and full marks from 18 national juries and 12 national televotes. This was Portugal's first win in the contest since it began participating in.

Background

Prior to the 2017 Contest, Portugal had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-eight times since its first entry in 1964. Its highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been sixth place, which the nation achieved in 1996 with the song "O meu coração não tem cor" performed by Lúcia Moniz. To this point, Portugal has been competing in the contest the longest time without having achieved victory. Since semi-finals were introduced into the contest in 2004, Portugal has failed to reach the final eight times. After failing to qualify to the final in 2015 with Leonor Andrade performing the song "Há um mar que nos separa", the country briefly withdrew from the contest in 2016. RTP confirmed Portugal's return to the competition on 4 August 2016.
The Portuguese broadcaster for the 2017 Contest, who broadcasts the event in Portugal and organises the selection process for its entry, will be Rádio e Televisão de Portugal. Portugal has most commonly selected their entry through the national final Festival da Canção except between 2003 and 2005 where the broadcaster used internal selections and the talent competition Operação triunfo to select their entry. The broadcaster organized the 2017 edition of Festival da Canção in order to select the Portuguese entry for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest.

Before Eurovision

''Festival da Canção 2017''

Festival da Canção 2017 was the 51st edition of Festival da Canção, the music competition that selects Portugal's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Format

The format of the competition consisted of three shows: two semi-finals on 19 and 26 February 2017 and the final on 5 March 2017. The semi-finals took place at RTP's studios in Lisbon, while the final took place at Coliseu dos Recreios, also in Lisbon. The competition featured sixteen competing songs written by composers who RTP invited for the competition. The composers both created the song and selected the performer for their entry. Each semi-final featured eight competing entries from which four advanced to the final from each show. Results during the semi-finals were determined by a jury panel appointed by RTP and votes from the public. In the final, the winner was determined by the votes from regional jury panels and a public voting.
For the very first time, RTP abolished the language restrictions, so that artists may submit songs in any language, even without Portuguese. On 5 December 2016, RTP revealed the names of the sixteen composers that were invited to participate. The invited composers were:
The running order of the semi-finals for the sixteen participating composers was drawn on 17 January 2017.

Competing entries

16 entries participated in the 51st Festival da Canção. Half of the competing performers, the artists drawn to perform in the first semi-final, were revealed on 18 January 2017. The remaining competing artists were announced on 26 January 2017. Among the competing artists was former Eurovision Song Contest entrant Rui Drumond, who represented Portugal in the 2005 Contest as part of 2B.
ArtistSongComposer
Beea"Ao teu olhar"Jorge Fernando
Celina da Piedade"Primavera"Celina da Piedade, Alex Gaspar
David Gomes"My Paradise"Tóli César Machado / Joana Duarte
Deolinda Kinzimba"O que eu vi nos meus sonhos"Rita Redshoes / Senhor Vulcão
Fernando Daniel"Poema a dois"Nuno Feist / Nuno Marques da Silva
Golden Slumbers"Para perto"Samuel Úria
Helena Kendall"Andamos no céu"João Só
Inês Sousa"Se o tempo não falasse"Noiserv
Jorge Benvinda"Gente bestial"Nuno Figueiredo
Lena d'Água"Nunca me fui embora"Pedro Silva Martins
Lisa Garden"Without You"Pedro Saraiva / Lisa Garden
Márcia"Agora"Márcia
Pedro Gonçalves"Don't Walk Away"João Pedro Coimbra
Rui Drumond"O teu melhor"Héber Marques
Salvador Sobral"Amar pelos dois"Luísa Sobral
Viva La Diva"Nova glória"Nuno Gonçalves

Shows

The 51st Festival da Canção consisted of two semi-finals and the final, each with eight entries in competition.
Semi-final 1
The first semi-final took place at RTP's studios in Lisbon on 19 February 2017, hosted by Sónia Araújo and José Carlos Malato. In the first semi-final eight entries participated, and of these eight, four advanced to the final. The qualifiers were determined by a 50/50 combination of votes from jury members made up of music professionals and a public telephone vote. Real Combo Lisboense performed as the interval act with a medley of songs that did not win Festival da Canção.
Semi-final 2
The second semi-final took place at RTP's studios in Lisbon on 26 February 2017, hosted by Tânia Ribas de Oliveira and Jorge Gabriel. In the second semi-final eight entries participated, and of these eight, four advanced to the final. The qualifiers were determined by a 50/50 combination of votes from jury members made up of music professionals and a public telephone vote. Real Combo Lisboense performed as the interval act with a medley of songs that did not win Festival da Canção.
Final
The final took place at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon on 5 March 2017, hosted by Sílvia Alberto and Catarina Furtado. In the Final eight entries participated. The winner was determined by the televote and the votes from regional juries.

Incidents

On social media, the manager of the official Facebook page of Festival da Canção commented that "For many of the composers, Eurovision was not the goal but rather to have this opportunity to showcase more of Portuguese music". The comment was met with controversy among Portuguese Eurovision fans.
RTP's programming director, Daniel Deusdado reacted to the criticism by saying "Social networks catch fire for anything. If we had said otherwise, that is, that we make a song to win Eurovision, people later would said: and why should we win Eurovision? This should be for providing a platform for Portuguese music For us, everything is fine. The aim is to push for Portuguese music I can say that half of the forest didn't burn"
Following the first semi-final, jury panellist Nuno Markl publicly revealed on social media that he had given top marks to Salvador Sobral, which sparked calls for his replacement. It was also pointed out that Markl works with one of the composers competing in the second semi-final, João Só, at Rádio Comercial, which could cause conflict of interest. On 22 February 2017, Markl submitted his resignation from the jury panel, but it was not accepted by RTP.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2017, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Portugal was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2017, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.
Once all the competing songs for the 2017 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Portugal was set to perform in position 9, following the entry from Azerbaijan and before the entry from Greece.

Semi-final

Because of health issues, it was not possible for Sobral to be away from his health management for two weeks. Therefore, the first two rehearsals of Portugal were performed by his sister and composer of the song Luísa Sobral. She took part in the technical rehearsals on 30 April and 4 May in Salvador's stead, after which Salvador took part in the dress rehearsals on 8 and 9 May. This included the jury show on 8 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.
At the end of the show, it was announced that Portugal finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualified for the grand final. Later, it was revealed that Portugal was the most voted country in the semi-final, by both the jury and the televoting.

Final

Shortly after the second semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the reverse order the countries appeared in the semi-final running order. Portugal was drawn to compete in the first half. Following this draw, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. Portugal was subsequently placed to perform in position 11, following the entry from Denmark and before the entry from Azerbaijan. As a result, Portugal won the contest with 758 points overall; 382 from the juries and 376 from the televoting. For the winner's encore, Salvador and Luísa sang the song as a duet.
"Amar pelos dois" managed to receive points from 39 of the 42 international juries, only failing to receive any from Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Portugal themselves, as they could not vote for their own entry.

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Portugal and awarded by Portugal in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

Points awarded to Portugal

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Portugal in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the televoting and jury voting conducted during the two shows. The country finished in first place on both occasions. In the semi-final, Portugal was ranked first with 370 points overall, garnering 197 from the televote and 173 from the jury vote. Portugal received 12 points from the televoters in Albania, Belgium, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden, and received 12 points from the juries of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iceland, Latvia, Moldova, Poland and Spain. In the end, Portugal won the contest with 758 points overall; 376 from the televote and 382 from the jury vote. In the grand final, Portugal earned a total of thirty sets of 12 points. The country received maximum scores from the televoters in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Switzerland, and received top marks from the juries of Armenia, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Points awarded by Portugal

Split voting results

The Portuguese jury comprised: