Part 1
"Tê-la aqui tão perto, Como o vento do deserto, Acordado em mim"
Portugal kicked-off their national selection for Eurovision 2024 with the first semi-final of Festival da
Canção 2024, on February 24th 2024. This year RTP celebrates the 60th anniversary of Festival da
Canção.
The show took place at the RTP studios in Lisbon and had Tânia Ribas de Oliveira and Carlos Malato
as main hosts with, like usual, Inês Lopes Gonçalves in the green room. But several familiar faces from
the history of the festival and RTP were also on stage introducing the ten competing acts, like
Portugal’s first Eurovision participant, António Calvário.
The first semi-final started with a homage to Sara Tavares (who sadly left us last year) and her
Eurovision entry “Chamar a música”, thirty years after it was presented in Dublin. The homage was by
Selma Uamusse and several other musicians, a few of them from Sara Tavares family. They performed
a gospel/African flavoured version of the Portuguese entry to the Eurovision 1994 mixed with some
other well known songs by Sara Tavares.
The voting in this semi-final happened in two stages: first, the jury of seven elements had 50% of the
decision to select five acts to qualify for the final, while the other 50% came from the public vote. On
the second stage, only the public was responsible to select one more act to qualify for the final, among
the five songs which had not qualified yet.
The ten songs competing were:
1) Nena with "Teorias da conspiração"
A well sung pop ballad
2) Perpétua with "Bem longe daqui"
Here we had a bit of a 70s pop, very light vocals
3) Mela with "Água"
A song that becomes a bit boring and repetitive, especially as the singer was quite a bit out of tune
4) Mila Dores with "Afia a língua"
Folk pop, with many influences from Portuguese traditional sounds.
5) Left. With "Volto a ti”
Nicely sung ballad
6) Rita Rocha with "Pontos finais"
Another pop ballad.
7) Noble with "Memory"
The only song sung in English in this semi-final. A very strong ballad and Noble was flawless.
8) João Borsch with "...Pelas costuras"
Some rock, some electronic and some dance influences in this performance, probably the most different
one, visually speaking.
9) Iolanda with "Grito"
This is another ballad with Fado and Portuguese folk influences. Very strong vocally.
10) Bispo with "Casa portuguesa"
Portuguese Hip-Hop with a very nice flow.
And then... the usual. Recaps, short interviews with the participants and with the members of the jury.
Part 2
"Tu estás livre e eu estou livre, E há uma noite p'ra passar"
The show went on with more recaps, more short interviews and the second homage of the night.
In 2024 one of the most famous pop-rock groups of the 90s, Delfins, are celebrating 30 years of career
and they were on stage with a homage to António Variações (who would turn 80 years old in 2024 if he
was still alive).
António was a singer, composer, lyricist and pop idol from the 80s. Before singing one of their biggest
hits, Delfins sang a cover of the huge “Canção do Engate”, a must, as it was one of the most important
songs from António and Delfins were the first group to cover one of António ́s songs, exactly this
flirting song.
Part 3
Finally we have results (not immediately, but...). Qualified from the first stage of voting, in random order:
1) Nena with "Teorias da conspiração"
2) Perpétua with "Bem longe daqui"
6) Rita Rocha with "Pontos finais"
8) João Borsch with "...Pelas costuras"
9) Iolanda with "Grito"
Qualified from the second stage of voting (public votes only):
7) Noble with "Memory"