The 47th edition of the Festival da Canção takes place tonight at 22:00 CET at the Teatro Camões in Lisbon. In the final, the winner is selected by an expert-regional jury and by televote on a 50/50 basis. The final will have a live webcast through RTP's site tonight from 22:00 CET
The participants
After the one-week internet voting, the following twelve songs got the biggest amount of points and thus will fight to represent Portugal in Düsseldorf:
7 Saias - Embalo Do Coração (Ana Rita Rebello / Páquito C. Braziel)
Carla Moreno - Sobrevivo (Carlos Coelho / Andrej Bábic)
Nuno Norte - São Os Barcos De Lisboa (Carlos Massa)
Rui Andrade - Em Nome Do Amor (Carlos Meireles / Artur Guimarães)
Henrique Feist - Quase A Voar (José Fanha / Nuno Feist)
Wanda Stuart - Chegar À Tua Voz (Paul Teixeira de Sousa)
Tânia Tavares - Se Esse Dia Chegar (Tânia Tavares & Nuno Valério / Gorgi)
Inês Bernardo - Deixa O Meu Lugar (Joana Ferraz / Leonel Monteiro)
Filipa Ruas - Tensão (Filipa Ruas, Pedro Sá, Daniel Nilsson, Henrik Szabo, Johnny Sanchez, Jonas Gladnikoff & Michael Eriksson)
Homens da Luta - Luta É Alegria (Jel / Vasco Duarte)
Axel - Boom Boom Yeah (Axel / José Félix)
Ricardo Sousa - O Mar, O Vento E As Estrelas (Fernando Guerreiro / Carlos Freitas)
Among the composers we recognize Andrej Babic and Carlos Coelho who both wrote Portugal's entry in 2008, Senhora Do Mar which returned the country to the Final of the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in five years. Jonas Gladnikoff wrote the last two Irish entries and José Fanha wrote the lyrics of the best placed Portuguese song in the history of Eurovision O Meu Coração Não Tem Cor, 6th in 1996.
The internet semi-final
During the last week of January, RTP site users could vote for their favourite songs by listening to 1:30 excerpts of the 24 participant songs. Three of them were disqualified, so in the end only 21 could be judged. Homens da Luta led the voting since the very beginning; second was Wanda Stuart and Inês Bernardo placed third.
In Oslo, Ha Dias Assim performed by Filipa Azevedo reached the Final for Portugal where it placed 18th. In Düsseldorf they will take part in the first semifinal, on Tuesday the 10th of May.
