Introduction

In the national final Filipa Sousa received the highest votes from both the juries and televoters. The song “Vida minha” means “My Life”, it’s another traditional Portuguese song, but not as sad as a fado song. One of the composers is Andrej Babic, who is Croatian and has already brought Portugal a great success with “Senhora Do Mar (Negras Águas)” by Vânia Fernandes in 2008 (13^th) a traditional, but modern song. This year’s song is even more old fashioned with a little sad touch. Portugal is taking part in the strong second semi final where some of the top favourites take part. Due to the high competition it will be quite difficult to qualify here.

History

Portugal takes part in the Eurovision Song Contest since 1964. The debut song “Oração” by António Calvário came last with zero points. This year it will be the 46^th time for Portugal in the ESC. Unfortunately, Portugal has never won the contest; the best place was the 6^th with “O Meu Coração Não Tem Cor” by Lúcia Moniz in 1996. Neither the juries nor the televoters gave the full votes to the Portuguese entries in the past, but in many cases Portuguese entries were of high quality and had to suffer from underserved low points. Often there have been traditional songs with lots of emotion and drama, which are very typical for Portuguese music. There were also some other Portuguese top 10 songs like “A Festa Da Vida” by Carlos Mendes in 1972 (7^th), “Lusitana Paixão” by Dulce Pontes in 1991 (8^th) and “Chamar A Música” by Sara Tavares. Portugal could at least reach the grand final three times.