The latest Eurovision 2025 national selection to get up and running is Portugal’s Festival da Canção, with semi-final 1 taking place on Saturday.
Ten of this year’s acts took to the stage, all vying for one of the six qualifying spots in the grand final.
Jorge Gabriel and José Carlos Malato guided us through proceedings.
Festival da Canção 2025: Semi-final 1
Results
There are two rounds in the semi-finals. Initially, five finalists were chosen by a combination of 50% jury and 50% public voting. These were:
- Marco Rodrigues – “A Minha Casa”
- Margarida Campelo – “Eu sei que o amor”
- Josh – “Tristeza”
- Bluay – “Ninguém”
- Jéssica Pina – “Calafrio”
The phone lines were then opened for a second time, with the public able to select a sixth act as the final qualifier, who was:
- Peculiar – “Adamastor”
Non-qualifiers
- Xico Gaiato – “Ai Senhor”
- Rita Sampaio – “Voltas”
- Du Nothin – “Sobre Nós”
- Capital da Bulgária – “Lisboa”
The festival returns next weekend, where another ten acts will battle it out in semi-final 2 for the remaining six slots in the grand final.
What do you make of semi-final 1? Could any of these acts go on to win Festival da Canção 2025? Share your thoughts in the comments.
I loved Sobrals song because of it‘s simplicity, this song is not as strong, and they are trying to elevate it with the staging, but unfortunately it‘s too forced.
if he wins and goes to esc, he certainly needs to ditch this staging idea. this avangard take is too SJB-esque: outdated and unfit to this song
To be honest, now that i saw again the performance, I kind of get the idea: he is floating in his state of mind , being pulled by a thread, and the pole ( hope) is the only thing he can be grabbed to. I still would prefer a simple staging, playing with camera shots and lights, but in this moment I see this with a different mood
I wished Tristeza was kept very simple, and it doesn’t need all this levitation, fingernails, and drama. Potential winner the song and the voice are absolutely fabulous and stunning. A truly talented artist, but the staging distracts us from what the song is about. If chosen to represent Portugal, as it stands it will go the same way as Australia in 2022, juries will like it, but the public will not. It may not even qualify. A winning song these days either uses camera work and staging to the full effect or it’s kept absolutely simple with lights. I wished… Read more »
Josh’s signature nails aren’t going anywhere. He always wore them, even when he was a complete stranger in the blind audition on The Voice Portugal. The rest may undergo major or minor changes, given that the artistic director is the same person who conceived Iolanda’s presentation last year.
Unpopular opinion: don’t get the Tristeza hype. The song is a bit one-note and the gimmick is cool but it’s impressive for about the first 20 seconds, the rest of the time it just becomes very obvious that he is completely constrained in his movement, it limits the song’s crescendo in particular.
Tristeza has a strong potential. Not every song should be an upbeat, ass shaker, joke act this year. So if Portugal chooses this song, it will definitely stand out. It’s deep, meaningful, emotional and personal, something that is lacking this year’s contest.
Agree one hundred percent. It’s classy something missing from almost all qualified acts so far . Bit gutted Lisboa didn’t go through though it was my fave this year followed by josh and then peculiar, all in my humble opinion of a higher standard than other qualified acts
I fully expected Josh to be alone with a microphone and give us the chills 100%, but this is interesting. This could have the same wow effect as Nemo with the platform if done right. I think he needs to either start on the floor then go up or lose the right hand at some point, or both, so it has an escalation. The camera work and lights also need to be changed. The outfit is too black, which doesn’t help with the background. A stunning white suit Silman-style could do the trick. Overall, this has great potential. Please Portugal,… Read more »
Josh is still my winner with his beautiful song Tristeza. I hope that he will represent Portugal in Basel
Sobre nos is my fave FDC song
Lisboa going out is *harsh*
Oh thank goodness Peculiar is in the final. They had me worried for a bit there.
Adamastor is in the final? Oh thank god. That’s my number 1 favorite for Portugal this year. I thought I was going to face another disappointment, but I got lucky. Bit of a shame it didn’t make it in the first round but better late than never.
I liked only songs nr 1 and 6. I hope they’ll qualify
And 4.
Ai senhor, minha casa y Josh
What a ridiculous result!!!! what is wrong with the Portuguese juries and televoters?
Marco, Margarido and Bluaye are literally my bottom 3 of ALL 20 songs that takes part in this years contest. Dullest songs EVER! Absolutely NO creativity! At least Josh has a very haunting and interesting ballad. Calafrio was nice as well, but still – song 1, 10 and 7 are better than most of these, even song 3 – and also nr 2 if the staging had been a bit better.
Only public I think…
Results in the semis for FdC are always a bit strange to me.
Nothing is wrong, perhaps something is wrong with you.
I think in this case the public is to blame. The problem is that the audience in the FdC semi-finals is relatively low and composed, for the most part, of older people. As this year FdC has several quality songs, the jury’s vote would have been divided and the conservative taste of this older audience prevailed.
Yay Margarida Campelo!!!
Congrats Jessica Pina, Josh, Marco Rodrigues, Bluay, and Margarida Campelo for qualifying.
Common public put Peculiar or Xico Giata through for the 6th qualifier. Heartbroken that we won’t get both in the final.
*Gaiato
wait, peculiar didn’t make it in the first round of voting? I hope he’s not robbed of making it to the final.
Results time!
Yeah agree Peculiar was the best tonight. The most interesting performance and moreover he is a very handsome man.
It’s very professionally choreographed and performed, indeed. The song seems to have a double-meaning between internal struggles and literally being a soldier, which may resonate with Portugal. Yeah, it could do well.
Agree, good song, singer on point, dancers on point, lighting on point, it could definetely do well.
Josh: What a disappointment! Margarida Campelo: What a performance! Peculiar: Great effort! Jessica: Nice choreo.
I just watched Josh’s performance. I can imagine a certain conversation going something like this:
Singer/songwriter: We’ve written a really deep and beautifully sad song. How can it win Eurovision?
Choreographer: If we hook Josh to a pole and levitate you, the sadness will artistically manifest; plus we’ll give you nail extensions like Loreen.
Josh: So I’m going to show people exactly what my colours are… while hanging from a pole? Awesome, let’s do it.
LOL Exactly
Staging needs a lot of work. Nails are Josh’s trademark.
Levitation was an interesting and unique idea with bad results.
If meaningless, should be forgotten.
Levitation on its own would be a wonderful interpretation of the song and amazing to look at. However, so far this performance does not look like levitation; It looks like Josh is just hanging from a pole, so all of the emotion of the song is being replaced with a pole.
I think it could still work as a levitation effect through different camerawork, or the pole could be a different object more in keeping with the song. Good luck in the final anyhow; “Tristeza” is such a beautiful song.
I really don’t care about Josh’s staging. I’m here for the song and his amazing voice. In fact, I closed my eyes during the whole performance and it was heaven. He’s without a doubt my winner.
Wow Josh !!! Nice staging concep
Even if it was nice to see I don’t think Josh’s staging was the best idea to sell this nice song.
I think my six qualifiers would be:
1. Peculiar
2. Josh
3. Xico Giata
4. Rita Sampaio
5. Du Nothin
6. Jessica Pina
With an honorable mention for Marco Rodrigues
Might be an unpopular opinion but my favorites were Xico and Capital da Bulgaria.
Josh and Peculiar disappointed me a little bit.
same! best two of the night xx
Adamastor was great
Peculiar had an interesting performance.
A peculiar performance, you could say
i think the pole levitation thing in josh’s was cool for a moment but it kinda kept him static for the whole song
amazing voice and song tho!
Peculiar is my winner for the semi
Mine aswell.
But Xico was a good surprise too. Josh was good but its performance distracted from the song itself.
Ok. Songs #1, 4, 6, 7, 10 and wildcard from 2, 3, or 8.
I like the vintage feel of Calafrio, but it kind of feels like it goes on a bit long without a lot of change…
Calafrio is soooo good!
5. Margarida Campelo
6. Josh
Both different, well built, amazing voices.
One of them to win.
Why do these dancers kind of look like they learned this choreo yesterday and haven’t quite perfected it? I don’t speak Portuguese, so I can’t tell if this is thematic or what.
In a way, yes. The song talks about overcoming life’s obstacles. Bluay himself is progressively going blind.
Are you serious??? Are you speaking about the dancers of Ninguém?
I am a dancer, so I picked up on a few little moments of hesitation that might not have been overly obvious to a general audience. It happened enough times that I was wondering how long they had to learn the choreo.
Still: are you speaking about the two dancers with Down syndrome???????????
Yes. While down syndrom does come with some muscular and cognitive development delays (mostly in childhood. Many downs adults are perfectly capable), these are clearly capable dancers who were given choreo well within their abilities. With enough time and rehearsals I would still expect a smoother performance. My concern stands.
This feels exploitative. Some things you shouldn’t do for votes.
The singer himself is almost blind…
I do not agree. It fits the theme of the song, which is about overcoming obstacles. Bluay is progressively going blind and so is the pianist who accompanied him.
Lisboa is a cute song and the model house set was cute, but I think it needed a little more to be competative this year.
Lisboa another fine song. Love the tone of the vocals.
Hum, I don’t know how to feel about Josh, it felt like it lacked the vulnarability that the song is about.
I agree… and the cameraman’s shots were badly done
They’re allowed to change the staging for the final in 2 weeks.
I think he should add a lot more lighting effects like the one of the bright white light and less of the camera circling him and nail shots.
Honestly Josh deserves a spot in the final for that hover trick alone. Tack on the spectacular vocals and I am starting to understand why he is such a favorite.
Josh my favourite. Josh to win!
Nearly Josh time
Eu sei que o amor’s chorus really sounds familiar, but I can’t put my finger on it…. In any case, it’s a pretty jazzy number, but I don’t have much else to say about it.
A Minha Casa is a lovely song, but it is a bit sleepy. Marco has a beautiful voice but the staging is pretty static and we have the perennial problem of singer dressed in all black against a black background
Xico was good, although I expected a little bit more of the staging
Voltas is a great song to listen with headphones at the beach
I really like Du Nothin’s voice and the song is funky. I do think the staging needs a bit of work. He’s just pacing the stage half the time and the way he moves is very intentional, but im watching it like a ling-pong match and I feel like that wasn’t the desired effect.
It felt a bit overly coreograpehed.
Voltas is pretty and classic and I appreciate the percussion giving it some intrest similar ballads from other countries wouldn’t have
The staging was simple but effective.
Great opening by Xico!
I don’t understand the story Ai Senhor’s staging was telling, but it was absolutely captivating. I hope running order doesn’t hurt it
Rooting for Xico and Peculiar!
Do I need to register on the RTP player? This is new…
There is a second link for international, and I didnt have to sign up – just accept cookies
Obrigada!