Portugal is one step closer to finding its act for Eurovision 2023. Broadcaster RTP has now revealed the 20 composers who have been chosen to write a song for the country’s national final, Festival da Canção 2023.
The line up was revealed during TV show A Nossa Tarde. Among the 20 are past Eurovision and Festival da Canção stars.
Festival da Canção 2023 composers
- André Henriques
- April Ivy
- Bandua
- Bárbara Tinoco
- Churky
- Cláudia Pascoal
- Dapunksportif
- Edmundo Inácio (public submission)
- Inês Apenas (public submission)
- Ivandro
- Jacinta
- Mimicat (public submission)
- MOYAH (public submission)
- NEOH SOHO
- Quim Albergaria
- SAL
- Teresinha Landeiro
- The Happy Mess
- Voodoo Marmalade (public submission)
- You Can’t Win Charlie Brown
Eurovision fans will know Cláudia Pascoal from being Portugal’s home entry when the country hosted the contest in 2018. She won Festival da Canção with “O Jardim”, composed by Isaura. However, now it’s Cláudia’s turn to be the one who writes the music.
Bárbara Tinoco is also no stranger to Festival da Canção, having finished second in 2020. She performed “Passe-Partout“, which was written by Tiago Nacarato. So Bárbara will also now have the chance to show off her songwriting skills.
It is up to the composers to decide if they wish to perform their own song at Festival da Canção, or whether they would like someone else to be upfront and sing. Therefore, there’s still a chance we see both Cláudia Pascoal and Bárbara Tinoco returning to the Festival da Canção stage.
RTP originally planned on directly inviting 16 composers to participate. The remaining four would be chosen through the open song submission portal for the public, where 667 songs were submitted.
However, one of the acts invited by RTP unfortunately had to pull out following an unforeseen personal event. Instead, the Portuguese broadcaster has filled their space with an additional fifth entry from the public submissions.
Festival da Canção 2023: Dates
RTP has also revealed all the dates you’ll need for your diary.
We’ll be able to hear all 20 songs for the first time on 19 January. This will also reveal who is singing each entry.
The semi-finals are scheduled to occur on 25 February and 4 March. Then on the 11 March, the grand final will take place and we’ll finally find out who will represent Portugal at Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool.
Are you excited by the composers selected for Festival da Canção 2023? Do you hope to see Cláudia Pascoal and Bárbara Tinoco return to the contest? Let us know all your thoughts in the comments below.
Last year, everyone can check that out on wiwi archives, i have written that MARO would be the darkhorse when we get to know all the composers…
This year the darkhorse is BANDUA!!! Trust me ;D
Very good set of composers, once more. My absolute fav in this bunch is possibily the biggest surprise: You You Can’t Win Charlie Brown. Of course, Barbara and Cláudia’s participation as composers are not a surprise as they have been having quite a lot of airplay. Personally, I prefer Cláudia’s stuff, which has much more edge than Barbara. Also, great to see so many female composers over the year, which is in the industry is still a very male-dominant role. My guess is that the winning song will come from someone less known, as it has been the case since… Read more »
I really hope that is the case!
Obviously hope that Cláudia and Bárbara are performing their own songs but excited regardless!
Claudia’s IG feed left me without any doubts she will
April Ivy please sing your song!
I wonder how many of these composers are going to sing their own songs.
loving claudia pascoal’s new radioactive look! and barbara tinoco is currently doing great in the portuguese charts, happy to see her too!