Portugal: The Black Mamba wins Festival da Canção – To Eurovision 2021 with "Love Is on My Side"

The long and final late night of this unusual Eurovision season continues with another country selecting their artist and song for Rotterdam.

The Black Mamba won Festival da Canção and will represent Portugal in Eurovision 2021 with the song "Love Is on My Side".

"Love Is On My Side" is written by Pedro Tatanka.

The results were split in half between the public and the jury each worth 50%. There was a record of over 73,000 votes casted.

Tonight's final show was hosted by Filomena Cautela – Eurovison 2018 host – and Vasco Palmeirim. Inês Lopes Gonçalves was in the green room.

The show featured multiple special guests and homages:

• Carlos Do Carmo (Portugal 1976): honoured by Ricardo Ribeiro, Ana Moura and Camané. The singer passed away on 1 January 2021;
• Dino De Santiago (Festival da Canção 2020 as a composer): performed an homage to Carlos Do Carmo;
• Cláudia Pascoal (Portugal 2018) and Filipe Sambado (Festival da Canção 2020): performed as part of an homage to Portuguese legendary composers;
• Elisa (Portugal 2020): performed her Eurovision song “Medo de Sentir”.

The Black Mamba

The Black Mamba is a Portuguese band formed in May 2010 whose music style shuffles between blues, soul music and funk.

They have released three albums so far and toured cities such as London, Philadelphia or Madrid. The band has already performed in big worldwide festivals such as Rock In Rio Brazil in 2013.

The band's vocalist – Pedro Tatanka – has a solo project as well where he mostly sings in Portuguese and in a rather different register.

"Love Is On My Side" is a song about hope and about never giving up on your dreams.

Festival da Canção 2021

This year's Festival da Canção will have all of its shows being held in RTP's studios in Lisbon due to the COVID-19 situation.

The 55th edition of Portugal's national selection has three shows:

• 20 February 2021: Semi-final 1
• 27 February 2021: Semi-final 2
• 6 March 2021: Final

Portugal in Eurovision Song Contest

Portugal has participated 51 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 14 times.