Portugal: First five acts advance to Festival da Canção 2026 Final
The first eight acts took the stage for Semi-final 1 of Festival da Canção 2026. Five of the acts received enough votes to move onto the Final held on 7 March
Tonight was the first of three night's for Portugal's national final, Festival da Canção 2026.
We saw the first eight acts perform their songs tonight, with hopes of moving onto to the Final in two weeks.
The first four acts to advance were determined by a 50/50 split between public and jury voting. The four to not advance went to a second round of voting, with one more act advancing determined by via 100% public vote.
Festival da Canção 2026 – Semi-final 1
First round of voting
Second round of voting
Tonight's show took place at Valentim de Carvalho studios in Lisbon and was hosted by Vasco Palmeirim; alongside the green room hosts, Alexandre Guimarães and Catarina Maia.
Next week will be the second Semi-final, where the remaining eight acts will perform and the last five acts to advance to the Final will be determined.
Festival da Canção 2026
Festival da Canção 2026 take place over three shows: two Semi-finals and the Final.
Semi Final 1: 21 February 2025- Semi Final 2: 28 February 2025
Both Semi-finals will see eight acts, with five advancing to the Final from each one. Four acts will be selected by a 50/50 split between jury and public votes, with the last one selected via 100% public vote from the remaining songs.
- Final: 7 March 2026
The Final will see 10 acts looking to receive the Festival da Canção victory. The winner will be decided by a 50/50 split between regional juries and public vote.
The winner will take the Eurovision 2026 stage if they have not chosen to opt out of participating. If the winner chooses not to head to Eurovision 2026, the broadcaster will select an act to travel to Vienna instead.
Portugal in Eurovision
Portugal has participated in the contest 56 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 10 out of 19 times.
