Portugal: Six songs qualify for Festival da Canção 2024 Final

The late and long nights of Portugal's Festival da Canção are officially back with the broadcast of the first Semi-final.

Broadcast live from RTP's studios in Lisbon, 10 acts took the stage hoping to convince both the public at home and the jury that they should be coming back on 9 March to perform at the Festival da Canção 2024 Final.

In the first round Rita Rocha, Nena, Perpétua, Iolanda, and João Borsch were the chosen ones taking into account both the jury points and the televote points. In the second round, the public had total control and decided that Noble should join the lineup.

Tonight's Semi-final was hosted by Portuguese TV hosts Tania Ribas de Oliveira and José Carlos Malato, while Inês Lopes Gonçalves energized the green room with the night's contestants.

Selma Uamusse opened the night with a performance of "Chamar a Musica" (Portugal 1994), paying homage to Sara Tavares who passed away last year. Many familiar faces from the history of the festival took part in the show, such as Sílvia Alberto (also former Eurovision host), Elisa (Portugal 2020), Inês Santos (Portugal 1998), Suzy (Portugal 2014), António Calvário (Portugal 1964), and Filipa Sousa (Portugal 2012).

The band Delfins served as the interval act.

As for the jury panel of the Semi-final, it featured:

• Gisela João (singer)
• Benjamim (musician)
• Lia Pereira (journalist)
• Miguel Esteves Cardoso (writer)
• Lura (singer)
• Pedro Oliveira (musician)
• Mimicat (Portugal 2023)

Festival da Canção 2024

While failing to compete in the two most recent and previous editions of the Eurovision Song Contest held in Sweden (2013, 2016), Portugal will be in Malmö hoping to continue the series of good results.

Festival da Canção 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the show that has almost always been used as the country's national selection contest for Eurovision. There will be three shows, two semi-finals and a final, and all will be held in RTP's studios in Lisbon.

• 24 February 2024: Semi-Final 1
• 2 March 2024: Semi-Final 2
• 9 March 2024: Final

Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest

Portugal has participated in the contest 54 times since 1964. It was a very bad start, as they managed to get zero points in their debut year.

Before Eurovision 2017, they had never won the contest, and had never made the top 5. In fact, Portugal held the record for most appearances in the contest without a win!

But that changed in 2017, when Salvador Sobral won with "Amar Pelos Dois."

Since the introduction of the Semi-finals in 2004, Portugal has only qualified for the Grand Final 8 out of 17 times.