The Portuguese act and song was chosen on March 9th through their established selection process "Festival da Canção". Before the final there were two semi-finals. Each semi consisted of two rounds of voting: in round one 5 songs qualified through a mixture of public voting (50%) and jury voting (50%) then an extra finalist was voted for solely by public televoting. In the final the winner was selecting by a 50/50 mix of jury and public votes. The winning act was Iolanda singing "Grito" (Shout)
Iolanda Costa showed a great passion for music as a young child and as a result her parents sent her to study music at Tecnimúsica, a school in Pombal. She then moved to Lisbon where she graduated in Communication Sciences from ISCSP then moved to London, where she studied songwriting at the British and Irish Institute of Modern Music, at the University of Sussex. She also participated in a number of talent shows including the Portuguese versions of Pop Idol and The Voice. In 2022, she took part in Festival da Canção as the co-author/composer of the song "Mar no fim", performed by Blacci. Then last year she unveiled her debut EP "Cura" which was mostly written during the COVID pandemic lockdown.
The song starts acapella with the first two lines just voice alone. It very much grabs your ears but also your eyes. Iolanda is all in white, as are her dancers whose faces are also obscured by white lacy head coverings. The backing track overall is rather minimal and apart from some guitar parts and strings most of the song is driven by the drumming. The song flows nicely from verse to pre chorus to chorus and back again. The final chorus is elongated with the main refrain being repeated before a final reprieve. Just like the start, the backing track fades out so all you can hear is voice. Curiously, the title of the song does not appear in the song text. I guess the name "Grito" (Shout) reflects the anger or release of stress that the song deals with. There is also a moment when Iolanda elongates the end of one of the words to sound like a shout.
Out of all the songs in the national final this one probably had the most interesting, artistic and visual staging. The dancers' movements are rather exaggerated - almost mimelike - and the tableaux they make behind Iolande are almost reminiscent of songs like "Rhythm Inside". The backdrop pulsates from white to black and back again: sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes very slow. The song itself is very Portuguese, and that isn't just to do with the language. This kind of folky, artistic ballad is the kind of thing we have become accustomed to during "Festival da Canção". This song definitely tells a story and Iolanda has an amazing connections down the camera. I might have been tempted - in past years - to suggest this song may have had almost no chance of qualification. However, between all the brashness and weirdness, songs like this could well stand a chance. I also feel that if it were to qualify, this would be another song whose points would probably increase with the jury score.
ARTIST - Iolande
SONG - Grito
WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Iolanda Costa, Alberto Hernández
No comments:
Post a Comment