Napa from Portugal: "The staging will translate the message of the song"

Napa is a band of five boys that come from the Madeira Islands, an autonomous region in Portugal. For reference, the islands are 970 km away from Lisbon and their regionalism is strong.

Previously named Men On The Couch, Napa won Festival da Canção 2025 with "Deslocado," a song about leaving home (in this case the Madeira Islands) to go somewhere where bigger opportunities may arise (Lisbon). And now they're on their way to Basel.

Before the national selection contest, the song went viral on Portugal's TikTok, which obviously helped their Festival da Canção triumph. Either way, and even so, Napa tied Diana Vilarinho on the overall chart and won by one point over Fernando Daniel. The fact that they ranked higher amongst the televote gave them the passport to Eurovision.

This stirred controversy in the country with many criticizing RTP, Portugal's public broadcaster, for its voting method, and Napa themselves as some people didn't consider "Deslocado" a worthy Eurovision song.

Luckily that page has been turned and Napa are counting down the days for Basel. We address the results controversy either way:

– Because we're a band, it is easier to digest, Diogo Góis (guitars) says.

– If we were solo acts I think it'd be tougher. But either way, after three days, the hate was gone. We didn't even had to worry, they laugh.

– We also agree that sometimes it's best just to laugh it off, João Rodrigues (drums) adds.

– There were some really insane comments. Some people even said Cristiano Ronaldo made us win!

"Deslocado"

The ones who were against Napa's victory would say "Deslocado" is not a Eurovision song, and it wouldn't reach the remaining competing countries.

During our conversation, the band highlights the moment when they met a fan at the Dutch pre-party. She was Lithuanian and knew "Deslocado" from beginning to end. In fact, the Amsterdam pre-party was Napa's first "Eurovision experience," and they admit they were shocked at how dedicated the Eurovision community is.

– The song isn't just about the Madeira Islands' people. It's a song about students and workers that leave their country looking for better opportunities elsewhere, João explains.

– It's a transversal message and it certainly can resonate with Europe, a continent with open borders where it's easy to go from one place to another. Who doesn't have a cousin in Sweden or a girlfriend living abroad? This is European history or even world history.

It's a transversal message and it certainly can resonate with Europe.João Rodrigues

Making the message clear and having it come across is one of Napa's main concerns. The simple staging they had in Festival da Canção 2025 will obviously be changed:

– We've been working on the performance in order to translate the message. We want it to be clear, he adds.

Moreover, the band is aware of all of the technology there is in Eurovision and how they have techniques at their disposal they've never seen before. They're fascinated by the videos that play on the stage floor:

– We don't think we will have this opportunity ever again so we want to make sure we use these resources to tell the story of the song, but always keeping our essence there: we are a garage band that plays in rehearsal rooms and in small stages. That's Napa.

Without spoiling too much, João ends up adding that they intend to have a video telling the story of the song while it's being performed.

The journey to Eurovision

As you may have already understood, the five boys aren't exactly Eurovision fans. They know about it, they know a few songs, but only now they're discovering the whole Eurovision world.

I assume participating in Festival da Canção and Eurovision wasn't a goal. More of an opportunity?

– That's right, we don't really follow it. We decided to go for the challenge itself and also to promote our work, João says.

– In fact, we submitted a song last year that wasn't selected, so it was a big surprise when RTP invited us for this year's edition.

Eurovision is a milestone in our career.João Rodrigues

Without high expectations, they got themselves on this Eurovision rollercoaster but are happy they did it as the experience has been amazing.

– It's a milestone in our career. There aren't a lot of people who get to represent Portugal in Eurovision, he concludes.

Francisco Sousa (bass) adds:

– You also get a lot of exposure with it and reach an audience you wouldn't otherwise. We're an Indie band, we wouldn't usually reach so many people.

The band concludes they're happy, and after all the drama they do feel the support from the Portuguese people. Moreover, they assure us they'll stay away from any controversy while in Basel.

As for their ultimate goal, the boys from Napa want to show to the world that there are bands in Portugal who play good music:

– I mean, I will assume there are some people who consider our music good, João jokes.

– But that's our goal. Show what we do in Portugal and carry the Portuguese indie flag. We also hope people will check our previous albums, and that other indie artists will feel inspired on trying something like Eurovision.

Guilherme Gomes, Francisco Sousa, Diogo Góis, Lourenço Gomes, and João Rodrigues are the current lineup of Napa. As mentioned before, the band went through some changes. Back then Napa was called Men On The Couch, and from the current lineup only Guilherme and João were part of it.

Men On The Couch was founded in 2013 as a cover band that eventually started writing original songs and in English, something that gradually changed to Portuguese as well. The shift from English to Portuguese was also a reason for the name change, and this was anything but an easy task.

– We had a list of over 200 possible names for the band, João shares.

Napa in its essence is a a type of leather made by tanning sheepskin. The group eventually agreed on this name as it also shared a connection with their previous name, Men On The Couch (napa is used to produce couches).

What's the main difference between Men On The Couch and Napa?

– Not much. I think it was a natural progression of the band from 12 years ago up until today. Maybe the main difference was how we wrote songs in English and now we do it in Portuguese.

As for the vibe it remains the same, and Napa remains Napa:

– Something we agreed on right from the beginning of this journey was that we'd go to Festival da Canção and now Eurovision as Napa. We are not changing our concept, and we hope that people also realize our authenticity by bringing to the show something that we like and represents us.

Napa will perform "Deslocado" in the first Semi-final of Eurovision 2025 on 13 May.