PORTUGAL

The Portuguese Final was held on March 5th at Teatro Camões in Lisbon. Initially 24 songs were in the running for the ticket to Düsseldorf. The songs were placed on the RTP website and voted on for one week. The top 12 were then given a place in the televised final. The overall winner was chosen by a combination of 20 regional juries (50%) and televoting (50%).

1) Sete Saias - Embalo do coração
The all female group is all dressed in traditional clothing and playing interesting instruments. This is a very typical Portuguese folk song in the style of the 2009 entry and the girls seem to be doing their fair share of the singing. The visuals of this song are very striking and would look good on the ESC stage. The song is pleasant enough but not at all catchy.

2) Carla Moreno - Sobrevivo
Carla is backed by 3 female and 2 male backing singers/dancers. This is an electro up beat number, not normally seen in Portuguese finals which also has some English words.. Carla is wearing a very bright blue dress which is very noticeable. She also gets involved in the dancing too. Looks and sounds very polished. An English version could do very well.

3) Nuno Norte - São os barcos de Lisboa
This is a folk inspired number with what seems to be quite a large story telling quality to it. As the song progresses it has more dramatic rock qualities to it. Nuno is backed by 5 instrumentalists Nuno’s voice is a little thin at times and can be difficult to focus on. He is very passionate during the song. The song is very difficult to remember and has no typical structure.

4) Rui Andrade - Em nome do amor
This is a slow, moody, dramatic ballad and has does have echoes of “Senhora do mar” about it. Rui is alone on stage. His is the only person you see and hear on the track, which in itself is brave. However he is able to keep ones attention to the very end. The song progresses very well and he is putting a lot of passion and effort into his singing. A very strong ending too.

5) Henrique Feist - Quase a voar
Another folky song with strange instruments and dancers on stage. Henrique has an accordion player and 4 dancers onstage. They are all dressed in a kind of peasant way. The start of the chorus has more of a “Zorba” feel with the seed increasing as it goes. There is quite extensive choreography which the singer also does.. This set up to would also fit the ESC stage

6) Wanda Stuart - Chegar à tua voz
Another slow dramatic ballad. Wanda (who is no spring chicken) has blue hair and a very ‘uplifting’ top shall we say! She is backed by 5 others who are dressed in a kind of Medieval military way which lots of props. The song has a decent progression although is a little tricky to remember and follow along. Shame that there is not much movement in the song.

7) Tânia Tavares - Se esse dia chegar
Tania is backed by 4 backing singers, dressed in the same way as her, plus one male dancer. The dancer interacts quite a bit with the dancer but they also move together as a group and this mirroring makes the performance quite strong and memorable. The song is a dramatic ballad but does not seem to progress anywhere once it starts. Nota bad song.

8) Inês Bernardo - Deixa o meu lugar
Inês sings a slow song reminiscent of a rumba tune. She is joined by a male and female dander, 2 backing singers and a park bench. Inês has a strange voice that doesn’t seem to project well. This song feels like the type of muzak you might hear in any Mediterranean bar or restaurant. The whole song, performance and feel of the song do not fit together

9) Filipa Ruas - Tensão
This a dance type number. Filipa is dressed in a military style leotard dress with golden shoulder pads. She is supported by a band and 2 female singers/dancers. Filipas starts the song by sounding like she is shouting. She then sings most of the chorus badly as it is far to low for her. The choreography for the song is also quite strange and the whole thing does not fit together.

10) Homens da Luta - Luta é alegria
This group is all dressed in 60/70s hippy clothing and are all holding banners relating to the song. The songis very chanted and goes on and on. It feels like a really bad song from a failed musical from the time. I feel like this song needs to have a lot more movement and oomph rather than them just standing in a line. This looks promising but is a disappointment.

11) Axel - Boom Boom Yeah
Sounds like this should be a really fast up tempo number is more a medium paced drummy song. He has a DJ and accordion player behind him as well as three drumming backing singers. Axel moves around the stage in his sliver suit. The song feels a bit of a damp squib as you just feel that the song and backing have no oomph, which befits the title

12) Ricardo Sousa - O mar, o vento e as estrelas
The final song is medium tempo song with a very orchestral background. Behind the singer, 2 backing singers and 3 instrumentalists appear. The song is very Portuguese sounding. The tempo of the song is quite fast, and at times a little garbled which makes the song not very memorable. The backing track sounds much more interesting than the words.

The phone lines open.
After the odd recap of the songs, Glen Vella from Malta is introduced to the aduence. After a brief intro he sings an acappell verion of the chorus of"One Life" with audeicen clapping away to the beat. This boy is getting around - you got to give him some props for that! Then the audience is entertained by a dance troups dancing to "Waterloo" but in number of styles - the original version, a tango style, then a hip-hop version, samba version and elctro-disco style.

The voting window is now closed! So, the 20 regional juries now share their votes.
Before we hear the results of the televote we have last year's Portuguese entrant Filipa taking the stage. She also helps read out the votes.

The winner with a total of 6 points rom the juries and 12 from televoting is... "Luta é alegria" by Homes da Luta.
This win is not recieved well by the crowdin the hall

SINGER – Homes da Luta
SONG – Luta é alegria (The struggle is joy)
MUSIC – Vasco Duarte
WORDS – Jel