Elisa Portugal Eurovision 2020 Medo de Sentir

They’re one of the last countries to confirm for Eurovision 2021 — but at last Portugal’s broadcaster RTP has RVSP’d for Rotterdam. Portugal will again use their long-running national final Festival da Canção to select their act for Eurovision.

The broadcaster confirmed the news this evening, providing relief to fans who were worried they hadn’t yet heard anything from RTP.

O Festival da Canção 2021 dá os primeiros passos com a seleção dos autores que irão criar as canções da edição do…

Posted by RTP – Festival da Canção on Friday, 16 October 2020

With the announcement, RTP confirmed that they will be using the same songwriter-focused format for the national final. This year 20 songs will compete in the contest — up from 16 in 2019 and 2020.

Eighteen of the songs will come from established songwriters invited by RTP. The songwriters will also decide which artist will perform their song. As we’ve seen in previous years, sometimes the songwriter performs their own song or they may select a well-known singer.

The broadcaster will internally pick the final two entries from public submissions. This will be open to Portuguese citizens or residents. The deadline for submitting songs is 25 November.

The show itself will consist of two semi-finals made up of ten songs each. Five songs from each semi will qualify for the grand final.

Keeping with the new Eurovision rule that allows pre-recorded backing vocals, Festival da Canção 2021 now also allows this to be used in the competition — or acts can stick with live backing vocals.

Voting in the semi-finals will be done by 50% televote and 50% expert jury. For the grand final, it will be 50% televote and 50% regional juries. In the event of a tiebreak, the televote favourite wins.

The rules also confirm that the winner of Festival da Canção 2021 will be the Portuguese act at Eurovision 2021. The Covid-19 pandemic is also referenced, with the rules noting that the show will still go on, even if it is not possible for the Portuguese act to travel to the Netherlands.

Will Elisa participate in Festival da Cançao 2021?

She won Festival da Canção 2020 but was unable to represent Portugal at Eurovision 2020. Since the cancellation of the 2020 song contest, fans have been wondering if Elisa Silva will have another shot at Eurovision.

Shortly after Eurovision 2020 was cancelled, Elisa told fans on Instagram, “Hello! Me and [songwriter] Marta [Carvalho] won’t go to Eurovision 2021”.

And unlike Estonia who has guaranteed their 2020 winner a place in the 2021 national final, there’s no mention in the FdC 2021 rules of anything that would give Elisa or Marta a sure entry in the competition.

Elisa was not the outright favourite to win the 2020 national final. The jury gave their top score to Filipe Sambado’s indie-pop track “Gerbera amarela do Sul”, while the televote’s favourite was Bárbara Tinoco’s cute number “Passe-Partout”. Elisa, however, was the second favourite for both and picked up the ticket to Rotterdam.

Confirmed countries for Eurovision 2021

Fans are another step closer to learning the confirmed line-up for Eurovision 2021. 10 October was the latest that broadcasters could withdraw from the contest without penalty.

So far, 39 countries have provisionally confirmed for Eurovision 2021

But still to confirm are broadcasters from Belarus and the UK. As well, while Moldova‘s Natalia Gordienko appears to be working on her entry for Eurovision 2021, broadcaster TRM has yet to publicly confirm their participation.

The EBU is expected to release the list of confirmed acts for Eurovision 2021 in mid-November.

What do you think? Who would you like to see compete in Festival da Canção 2021? Should Elisa and Marta enter again? Tell us your thoughts below!

Read more Portugal Eurovision news here

15 Comments
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Rodrigo
Rodrigo
3 years ago

Fado Bicha should go this year!

jtp
jtp
3 years ago

I agree. Filipe was out of this world and the metaphors in the lyrics were delicious.

Erasmus
Erasmus
3 years ago

Loved Portugal’s entries for the past 4 years! Hope they send something alternative again.

Last edited 3 years ago by Erasmus
Stephen
Stephen
3 years ago

I don’t agree with backing vocals being. It should be live. Thank you portugal for confirming

Candy
Candy
3 years ago

Does anyone know what Conan Osiris is up to these days? I miss him.

Vagabondo
Vagabondo
3 years ago
Reply to  Candy

His latest single is called ‘Baza Agora’ in collaboration with Messias Maricoa. It was released back in May this year. Prior to that he was involved in another collaboration with Branko and Ana Moura called ‘Vinte Vinte’. Before Covid-19 forced artists to stop their planned concert tours, he did a live show in Lisbon which was aired on RTP in late 2019. He later served as a jury member on Festival De Cancao’s 2020 edition.

Rottendam
Rottendam
3 years ago

I’m really surprised the UK are still to announce. If they were to withdraw, that would be huge!

sam
sam
3 years ago
Reply to  Rottendam

maybe if the BBC withdrew then the uk could compete as its separate countries

Nicolas
Nicolas
3 years ago

Great news from Portugal finally! I’m really excited about what they will come with – my secret wish is something alternative and authentic like Pugna (sang by Surma) or Telemóveis.

Nevertheless, increasing number of entries from 16 to 20 is a very good step 🙂

Last edited 3 years ago by Nicolas
Alex
Alex
3 years ago

oh god, why can’t they do an internal selection with something fresh? This format will keep giving them no qualifications, they should either re-design the whole format or do internal selections for Eurovision. The juries are picking the wrong songs all the time… they didn’t even vote for Salvador in 2017.

Jonas
Jonas
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex

Incorrect. The juries did pick Salvador, it wasn’t even close. It was the televoters who put him second.

Joe
Joe
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex

If it weren’t for them favoring Barbara Tinoco, I’d say Portugal’s yet another example of a local televote not knowing what was good for them.

Rica
Rica
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex

I’m portuguese and I kinda agree with you. I feel like this format doesn’t help our chances at all.

Joe
Joe
3 years ago

Very excited. I appreciate that Portugal don’t care so much about getting Salvador-level results as much as they do sending authentic, locally-reflecting acts. Real change from FdC’s dear-god-what-do-we-have-to-do-to-do-well-at-this-stupid-thing dark ages.

Colin
Colin
3 years ago

Welcome, Portugal! Can’t wait for FdC songs.

Now only UK and Belarus to confirm…