PORTUGAL

The Portuguese Final was held on March 7th at the Coliseu Comendador Rondão Almeida in Elvas, hosted by Filomena Cautela & Vasco Palmeirim. Before the final there were 2 semi-finals, with four songs qualifying from each. The winner was chosen by a mix of televoting and the aggregate score of 7 regional juries. Going to Rotterdam is Elisa Silva with "Medo de sentir" (Fear of feeling)

Elisa is wearing a rosey coloured top with puffy sleeves and a pair of maroon/burgundy sequinned trousers. She also is sporting some rather large gold earrings. The backdrop is quite ethereal and looks like golden flecks floating around in water. There is also many beams of blue light too. Elisa is accompanied on stage by 2 dimly lit backing singers behind her and Marta, the writer of the song, who does backing vocals and plays the piano. The two of them harmonise well together and also seem to have good chemistry. It is almost a bit of a shame this is not more of a duet type affair as that would give the song an extra dimension.

The start of the song has a kind of low key jazzy, cabaret feel which extends until the end when the instrumentation becomes much much more prominent. Verse one starts straight away and is quite wordy for such as quiet opening. This runs straight into the chorus which has more of a simple melody and more made of the rhyming syllables the end of the lines. This then runs quickly again into verse 2 and another chorus which gets us just over half way through the song. Here we have a bridge which is where the instrumentation becomes more apparent. The drum parts are almost marching band like and there are some nice string harmonies too. This stops at the end of the bridge and the start of the very last chorus is sung quietly with little backing but comes back in half way through. The ending kind of  just stops with a bit of 'oh-ohing' after the chorus which is a bit of a shame.

This song has a lot of promise but the execution of it has been poor. Elisa sings this really well and her voice really suits this style of song, but for me there are two main issues with the song. Firstly the melody of the chorus. The lines in the where Elisa sings the melody going down just doesn't sound right and I wonder if the rest of the backing singers could continue singing up whilst Elisa sings down. At least this way the tune won't feel quite so sparse and will also maintain that catchy refrain in the chorus. Secondly this song needs to decide if it is a subtle tender chanson or a a gutsy power ballad because the backing track is so over the place I'm not sure what it is trying to be. The start of the song works so well, I just wish they kept it intimate and quiet. When it does go 'big' the soundscape just doesn't appear as it feels empty and uninspiring.
As much as Elisa does a good job and the song has a nice melody this just doesn't cut the mustard as it stands. It feels very empty and directionless and this is not going to stand out at all in semi 2. The languages sounds lovely and I don't think any attempt to change the language would be a wise move. After a number of years where they have chosen more interesting songs the Portuguese seem to have reverted back to type and chosen something the rest of Europe is going to find uninteresting. Such a shame.

Artist - Elisa Silva
Song - Medo de sentir (Fear of feeling)
Composer - Marta Carvalho
Lyricist - Marta Carvalho

PORTUGAL

The Portuguese Final was held on March 2nd at the Portimão Arena, hosted by Filomena Cautela & Vasco Palmeirim. Before the final there were 2 semi-finals with four qualifying from each. The winner, chosen by televoting (50%) & regional juries (50%), was Conan Osiris with “Telemóveis” (Mobile phones)

Conan is joined on stage by his dancer, João Reis Moreira and they are dressed similarly in white fluffy gowns and trousers and both have long gold finger adornments. Conan is also wearing a gold face piece which covers his chin and cheeks. Also on the stage is a small flight of stairs that is used through the performance to go up, down and sit on. The background is fairly innocuous as there is so much on stage to look at but mostly consists of red flashing lights and the motif of a red rose that is blooming.

The song is a multi-faceted song with nods to minimal techno, indie, world music and fado. Unlike most commercial songs this doesn’t really have a reoccurring verse/chorus repetitive structure although the backing track has certain rhythms and themes that repeat as well as some lines that come back time and again. The backing track Is really the star of the show with lots of minor key macro beats with yelps and bells interspersed between them. It has a real visceral tribal feel to it which is really brought home by the dancing. The ending of the song is oddly elongated, which creates premature clapping and keeps it going until the conclusion.

This is a piece of art. Like all art, some people get it some people don’t. The same is true with this. It is visually and aurally stunning and intricate but this might just be a bit too much for the everyday common watcher of Eurovision. It has certainly polarised the fans - even some of the people who wanted it to win lauded its creativity but are not that fond of the actual song – but being talked about is always better than not being talked about. This does need work and if anything he can afford to make this more outrageous, more strange and more weird. Although the Portuguese language makes this rather an unintelligible piece to the average listener, it does give him the scope to focus on the outrageousness of the performance. I just hope that Conan keeps control of his show and is not persuaded to change or add things he is not happy with. However odd this might be, you really get the sense that this is authentic. I personally love its quirks and how I hear or see something different on every play. This is possibly a bit too out there and a bit too alternative for Eurovision but I think it is a really pointer to the way in which the contest is going.

Considering the amount of publicity this has got and will get during the contest, this will be getting a lot of eyes on sets during its semi final – the song and its performance went viral before it even got to the final of Festival Da Cancao. People who love this will absolutely love it and those who don’t will find it confusing, find it just too weird or find it absurd. Whichever way it goes this is a must must MUST see event.

ARTIST –  Conan Osiris with

SONG – Telemóveis (Mobile phones)

MUSIC -  Conan Osiris

LYRICS - Conan Osiris