🇵🇹 TES Reviews: Smooth Sailing for The Black Mamba

Up next today is Portugal, who are being represented by The Black Mamba. The Black Mamba will be singing the song ‘Love Is On My Side’ in this year’s competition.

What did we think of Portugal’s rehearsal?

Starts off black and white much like the national final performance, at the second verse it the transitions to blue lighting and you can see the shadows of an orchestra on the LED. In the second chorus the lighting turns a ambient orange and we see a figure walking along the city at night on the bridge LED. On another LED we see a heart being projected. At the end Pedro is on the forward stage and is very much the focal point of the performance, as he has been throughout.

This has old school crooner/ New York city vibes throughout the performance and it worked even better matched with Pedro’s smooth vocal.

What we made of Portugal’s rehearsal.

Rory: I was quite scared of seeing the staging for Portugal, as the song was heavily underrated by the fandom in the run up to rehearsals. However, I’m happy to say that the staging is overall really quite nice! It’s not entirely different from what we saw in Festival da Cancao. Rather, it’s a more refined version. I love the backdrop during the second chorus where we see the woman walking through the lamp posts as Pedro walks to the B stage. All I’m asking for is staging that doesn’t dilute the story – and Portugal delivered on that. Overall, I’m quite happy!

Jazzi: I am happy with this, I think it looks nice and the atmosphere of the staging really suits the song. This has always been one of my darkhorses to qualify, and my opinion has not changed, I just feel like juries will eat this up. this is a competent and smooth performance throughout. I really like the New York Crooner vibe this song seems to have it is something unique which we do not see in Eurovision that often. This feels like they have taken their staging from the national final and elevated it for the bigger stage.

Rosie: I’m feeling very conflicted on Portugal right now. They’ve staged the song beautifully, starting with the black and white in 4:3 before opening up into full screen colour, with the LED orchestra behind them (which works perfectly!). Pedro and the band are sounding fantastic as well. I’m just feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the lyrics of the song, which feel like they’re co-opting the experiences of sex workers to make an artistic statement the more I hear it. It’s a personal point for me, and not one I expect will be a major point for other people, but the graphic of a girl walking at night alone along a dark street did set me on edge a bit. It’s very much a personal gripe of mine, and it’s a shame that I’m seeing it now after such a beautiful performance, but it’s caused some conflict in me that I’m going to want to think about further.

What do you think of ‘The Black Mamba’s first rehearsal? Let us know in the comments below or at social media. Don’t forget to follow ‘THAT Eurovision Site’ over at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

News Source: EBU/That Eurovision Site

Photo Source: Arlindo Camacho