Portugal: Iolanda wins Festival da Canção 2024 with "Grito"

The Eurovision 2024 national selection season is officially over with Portugal finding its representative for Malmö during the late and long Final of Festival da Canção 2024, which also celebrated RTP's 67th birthday.

Presented by former Eurovision host Filomena Cautela and TV host Vasco Palmeirim in RTP's studios in Lisbon, the 12 finalists took the stage one last time hoping to convince both the regional jury and the public that they were the right choice for Eurovision. The public has been voting through the entire week.

Once the votes were in, Iolanda and the song "Grito" were declared the winner.

"Grito" was written by Iolanda and Luar.

Tonight's event did feature a few guests, but only as interval acts. A tribute to Portugal's democracy took place with multiple artists such as Filipe Melo, Samuel Úria, and Ana Lua Caiano. Paulo de Carvalho (Portugal 1974) wrapped up the performance with his Eurovision song. A video homage to the Portuguese singer also took place.

Mimicat (Portugal 2023) also served as the interval act. The former Eurovision star performed her winning song "Ai Coração." In addition to that, she joined The Black Mamba (Portugal 2021), Anabela (Portugal 1993), and Tó Cruz (Portugal 1995) in paying homage to ABBA (Sweden 1974).

Iolanda

Iolanda is a Portuguese singer and songwriter.

Given her early love for music, her parents made sure she followed her ambitions. She went on to study music and even enrolled in the Conservatorium. At the age of 17, Iolanda moved to Lisbon and graduated in communication.

Regardless, her true passion was music. Therefore, in order to perfect her music abilities she moved to London to study in the University of Sussex.

It was just last year that Iolanda released her first EP, "Cura." Nonetheless, she had already attempted fame through many years by participating in multiple TV shows such as Portuguese Idol and The Voice.

In 2022 she participated as a composer for the song "Mar No Fim." These days she's better known for singing a mix between Portuguese traditional sounds, pop, and R&B.

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 were three shows, two Semi-finals and a Final, and all were 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.