Anabela was born in Almada in 1976. She started singing at the age of 8 and released her first single, when she was 11 years old.
In 1989 she represented Portugal at the UNICEF International Festival, in the Netherlands, and placed second being awarded also the best interpreter prize. 1989 was a great year for Anabela, as she also won the “Grande Noite do Fado”, an annual competition dedicated to the Fado music.
In 1993 she went to Millstreet, Ireland, to represent Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest with “A cidade (até ser dia)”. At 16 years old, she achieved the second TOP10 for Portugal since 1980, placing 10th with 60 points.
Anabela kept releasing albums (worth mention is the CD “Encontro” (2006) where she covers classics from the Portuguese music as duets with Carlos Guilherme, a Portuguese tenor) and embraced a musical theater career, mostly in the Portuguese adaptations of well know musicals, by La Féria.
In 2018, Anabela returns to Festival da Canção (FDC) with “Para te dar Abrigo” in an effort to represent Portugal on home soil at the ESC 2018. Composed by Fernando Tordo (ESC1973) with lyrics by Tiago Torres da Silva, “Para te dar Abrigo” is a great song with some sort of a Brazilian flavour, which Anabela delivers with the happiness and joy we got used after watching her in Millstreet. She placed 4th in SF 1 of FDC and then, on March 4th 2018, she placed 6th in the grand final. Enjoy!