Portugal: Conan Osíris wins Festival da Canção 2019
After three weeks of live shows and big headlines, Portugal has decided that Conan Osíris should be the act heading to Tel Aviv and represent the country at this year's Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Telemóveis".
It is Conan Osíris for Portugal! Last year's host country has made its decision moments ago with Festival da Canção's 53rd edition and will be represented by Conan Osíris with Telemóveis in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Similarly to the show's semi-finals, the decision was divided between the public and the jury with a few changes. This time around the public had six days to vote for their favorite artist - the voting lines were opened last monday - and the jury wasn't composed by the same seven faces we saw the last two weeks. Instead, and following Eurovision patterns, there were seven districts voting, each with a specialized team that awarded points to each song.
Results
- Conan Osíris – "Telemóveis" (24 points)
- NBC – "Igual a ti" (18 points)
- Matay – "Perfeito" (17 points)
- Madrepaz – "Mundo a mudar" (13 points)
- Surma – "Pugna" (12 points)
- Calema – "A Dois" (11 points)
- Mariana Bragada – "Mar doce" (8 points)
- Ana Cláudia – "Inércia" (7 points)
Unlike the semi-finals, in case of a tie the public vote would be the focus to untie the results.
The Show
Festival da Canção happened in Portimão and was hosted by last year's Eurovision host – Filomena Cautela – along with RTP's Vasco Palmeirim who entertained the audience for roughly two hours.
As usual, the show had quite a lot surprise guests. Amongst them, Isaura and Cláudia Pascoal who got to perform "O Jardim" one last time and Eurovision's 2008 representative Vânia Fernandes who stepped on stage to sing "Senhora do Mar". Armando Gama sang his Eurovision song from 1983 "Esta balada que te dou", as well as Anabela with her song from Eurovision 1993 "A Cidade Até Ser Dia".
Videos for tonight's performances are available on Festival da Canção's YouTube channel.
Portugal in Eurovision Song Contest
Portugal has participated 50 times since 1964. It was a very bad start, as they managed to get Zero Points in the debuting year.
Before Eurovision 2017 they have never won the contest, and 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, where Salvador Sobral won with "Amar Pelos Dois".
Since the introduction of Semi-finals in 2004 Portugal only qualified for the Grand Final 5 out of 13 times.
