Over at That Eurovision Site the team will be ranking national finals throughout the season. The next national final that the team have taken a closer look at was Portugal’s Festival da Canção. Specifically the final, which will take place on March 9th. Festival da Canção will select the Eurovision representative for Portugal.
You can see the results of our rankings from Semi-Final one here, you can then see the results from semi-final two here
Who is taking part in the Final of Festival da Canção 2024 ?
There are twelve artists taking part in the final of Festival da Canção 2024 . The twelve artists taking part are as follows:
| Running Order | Artist | Entry |
| 1 | Silk Nobre | “Change” |
| 2 | Rita Onofre | “Criatura” |
| 3 | Noble | “Memory” |
| 4 | Buba Espinho | “O Farol” |
| 5 | Nena | “Teorias de Conspiriação” |
| 6 | Iolanda | “Grito” |
| 7 | No Maka ft Ana Maria | ”Aceitar” |
| 8 | Cristina Clara | “Primavera” |
| 9 | Rita Rocha | “Pontos Finais” |
| 10 | Leo Middea | ”Doce Mistèrio” |
| 11 | Perpètua | ”Bem Longe Daqui” |
| 12 | João Borsch | ”….Pelas Costuras” |
Who are our favourites from the Festival da Canção final
We ranked the songs taking part in the final of Festival da Canção, using a 1-12 ranking. 1 being our favourite, 12 being our least favourite song. We then calculated the average of all our rankings. Right below, you can see our top 3 for this selection as well as their average scores.
3rd. No Maka ft Ana Maria – “Aceitar” (4.00)
2nd Rita Onofre- “Criatura” (3.50)
1st Iolanda – “Grito”:
What did some of our team members have to say about their favourite songs from the second Semi-Final of Festival da Canção 2024?
Euan (“Aceitar”): An extremely simple, yet beautifully effective backing track adds great emphasis to Ana’s sweet vocals. The overall stripped back nature of the song, and the staging from the semi final, have really allowed the beauty of the lyrics to take focus. Even at first listen, despite understanding almost no Portuguese, the tone and sentiment still came through. To me this is exactly the sort of entry Portugal should be sending; aggressive saudade.
Jazzi (“Criatura”): There is something that really stands out about this to me, it has a really nice build to the chorus, and the vocalisations in the chorus are utterly stunning, there is something dark yet very traditional about this I absolutely love it. Rita’s voice also suits a song of this style to a tee. Really enjoy this song.
Daniel (“Grito): I’m a sucker for a female ballad and this is the best one of the entire season. iolanda is an incredible vocalist, and the staging works really well for the song, and the song itself is great both in lyrics and composition. Festival Da Canção is my favourite national final of the year, most of the songs would rank very high in my personal ESC rankings, but iolanda for me is so far above the rest. I’ve never heard a note so good it changes the aspect ratio before.
Portugal’s Eurovision Journey
Portugal debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest with António Calvário’s “Oração” in 1964. Since then, Portugal has participated in the competition 54 times – appearing the final 45 times. Their only win in the competition came in 2017 with Salvador Sobral, performing his heart-wrenching song “Amar Pelos Dois”.
Portugal’s most recent participation was with Mimicat with the song “Ai, coração”. Mimicat managed to qualify for the Grand Final and once there, she finished in 23rd place. She received a total of 59 points, of which 43 points came from the jury and 16 points came the televote.
Who would you like to see represent Portugal in Malmö? As always, let us know what you think by commenting below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Threads and Bluesky for all things Portugal at Eurovision 2024!
News Source: That Eurovision Site
Photo Credit: RTP
Euan T
[…] Festival da Canção is a Portuguese music festival held every year. Artists apply, but they also get invited to take part in the festival by the broadcaster RTP. Festival da Canção selects the Portuguese representative for the Eurovision Song Contest. This national final is one of the oldest national finals and has been going for 57 years. The first edition of Festival da Canção was all the way back in 1964. The festival was held in 1970 and 2000 despite the country not taking part in the contest, first due to a boycott, and then in 2000 due to be relegated from the contest. […]