There are two semi-finals and a final show to choose the participant of Portugal in this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. They all take place this week.
Tonight it was time for the last six songs in the second semi-final:
The line-up
Hosted by Sílvia Alberto and José Carlos Malato. Qualifiers in bold:
Rubi Machado - Quando a Lua Voltar a Passar (Sebastião Antunes)
José Freitas - Mal Menor (Ninguém me Guia à Razão) (Churky)
Teresa Radamanto - Um Fado em Viena (Fernando Abrantes / Jorge Mangorrinha)
Simone de Oliveira - À Espera das Canções (Renato Jr./ Tiago Torres da Silva)
Filipe Gonçalves - Dança Joana (Héber Marques)
Diana - Maldito Tempo (Carlos Massa)
Songs number 3 and number 4 were chosen by televote while song number 2 was a jury choice. The jury is made up of the composers participating tonight.
Sebastião Antunes is a composer and leader of a traditional band called “Quadrilha”. It was his first time in Festival da Canção, as well as for the singer he chose: Rubi Machado.
Churky is a very young composer that writes for several names of Portuguese music and came to the Festival for the first time. He invited José Freitas, one of the finalists of X Factor.
Renato Jr. is a very well know composer and music producer and is bringing one of the biggest surprises of this Festival da Canção: he invited Simone de Oliveira, one of the greatest singers from Portugal, aged 77, and that has won this contest twice; the 1st time was 50 years ago, in 1965, with Sol de Inverno. The second time in 1969 with Desfolhada Portuguesa.
Fernando Abrantes is a musical producer and composer and invited Jorge Mangorrinha, a University Teacher and expert on the Festival, to write the song with him. Their singer, Teresa Radamanto, was second on Festival da Canção 1998 and in 2007.
Héber Marques is the leader of the band HMB, one of the most successful in the last couple of years. It’s his first time in Festival and he chose Filipe Gonçalves, former participant of Operação Triunfo and currently the presenter of a cable TV show, to perform his song.
Carlos Massa is a composer and the last time he came to Festival da Canção was in 2011, when he had a 2nd place. This time, he invited Diana Piedade to sing – she won Portuguese Idol a few years ago.
Portugal was represented last year by Suzy and the song Quero Ser Tua and this year they participate in the Second Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna on Thursday the 21st of May.
