Portugal: Festival da Canção 2017 finalists selected

The Portuguese broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) held the second semi-final of this year's Festival da Canção.

Semi-final 2 – Results

1. Celina da Piedade – "Primavera" (19 points)
2. Jorge Benvinda – "Gente bestial" (17 points)
3. Pedro Gonçalves – "Don't Walk Away" (16 points)
4. Lena d'Água – "Nunca me fui embora" (14 points)
5. Beatriz Felício – "Ao teu olhar" (13 points)
6. Helena Kendall – "Andamos no céu" (13 points)
7. David Gomes – "My Paradise" (12 points)
8. Inês Sousa – "Se o tempo não falasse" (6 points)

Festival da Canção 2017 – Final Line-up

Running order

1. Jorge Benvinda – "Gente bestial" (17 points, semi-final 2)
2. Pedro Gonçalves – "Don't Walk Away" (16 points, semi-final 2)
3. Lena d'Água – "Nunca me fui embora" (14 points, semi-final 2)
4. Salvador Sobral – "Amar pelos dois" (20 points, semi-final 1)
5. Fernando Daniel – "Poema a dois" (17 points, semi-final 1)
6. Celina da Piedade – "Primavera" (19 points, semi-final 2)
7. Deolinda Kinzimba – "O que eu vi nos meus sonhos" (12 points, semi-final 1)
8. Viva La Diva – "Nova glória" (22 points, semi-final 1)

Festival da Canção 2017

There will be 16 songs in Festival da Canção 2017, competing for the honor of representing Portugal at Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Kyiv. The songs will be divided into two semi-finals with eight songs each:

• Semi-final 1: 19 February 2017
• Semi-final 2: 26 February 2017
• Final: 5 March 2017

There will be eight songs in the final – four songs from each of the two semi-finals. The winner of Festival da Canção 2017 will be decided by 50/50 jury/televoting. The juries consist of 7 regional juries from across Portugal.

Composers have been invited by RTP, the national broadcaster of Portugal, to submit songs for Festival da Canção, and the songs will be revealed by RTP at the end of January 2017.

Portugal in Eurovision Song Contest

Portugal has participated 48 times since 1964. It was a very bad start, as they managed to get Zero Points in the debuting year. They have never won the contest, and never made the top-5. In fact Portugal holds the record for most appearances in the contest without a win! The best result is a sixth place in 1996, and they ended last three times: 1997, 1974, 1964. Since the introduction of Semi-finals in 2004 Portugal only qualified for the Grand Final 3 out of 11 times.