Portugal: 'Festival da Canção' nears its conclusion! 🇵🇹

📺 TUNE IN: Festival da Canção will begin at 22:00 CET on RTP1 on Saturday 12 March. A stream for international viewers can be watched on the broadcaster’s streaming platform.

For Festival da Canção 2022, Portuguese broadcaster RTP have hosted 2 semi-finals over the past 7 days, to get an initial field of 20 songs down to a competitive 10. On Saturday night, the people of Portugal will be tuning in to the final, and voting on these contenders, with the winner getting to represent the country at the Eurovision Song Contest in May.

Let’s take a look at the songs in the running, and the artists who will be singing them, in the order that they’ll be perfomed on the night:

Pongo & Tristany – Dé.grá.dê

A collaboration between 2 artists, Pongo mixes afro-beats and afro-funk to create club anthems, while Tristany uses his music to challenge binary conceptions around Black identity in the western landscape.

SYRO – Ainda Nos Temos

SYRO best describes his work as being about introspective thoughts, how he sees the world we live in and how he fits into it, refuting the perceived plasticity of modern-day lyricism and always looking for the perfect synergy between contemporary musical influences, innovation and an organic production.

Milhanas – Corpo de Mulher

She’s been in a gospel choir, acted in musical theatre and been a part of a jazz combo, but nowadays Milhanas composes music in the fado genre, for herself and for other artists.

Inês Homem de Melo – Fome De Viagem

When she’s not performing concerts and recording albums, Inês, from Porto, works as a psychiatrist, and loves to use music as a therepeutic tool.

Aurea – Why?

This multi-platinum selling artist has had a career filled with achievments as diverse as winning an MTV Music Award, becoming a mentor on The Voice of Portugal, and voicing a character in the Portuguese dub of Happy Feet 2!

Os Quatro E Meia – Amanhã

A band who managed to top the Portuguese album charts with their first 2 LPs, the line-up is comprised of João Cristóvão Rodrigues (violin and mandolin), Mário Ferreira (accordion and vocals), Pedro Figueiredo (percussion), Ricardo Liz Almeida (guitar and vocals), Rui Marques (bass) and Tiago Nogueira (guitar and vocals).

FF – Como É Bom Esperar Alguém

An all-round entertainer, FF has worked as a TV actor, a successful recording artist and has treaded the boards in both musicals and theatre plays. After taking a 5-year break from releasing music, he returned in 2019, and has a busy release schedule planned for 2022.

Diana Castro – Ginger Ale

Diana released her debut EP last year, the culmination of years of studying and performing jazz music. Festival da Canção isn’t her first experience of singing in a music competition. In 2018 she finished in 2nd place on The Voice of Portugal.

MARO – saudade, saudade

This singer and songwriter can play both the guitar and the electric bass, and is also a trained classical pianist. She wrote her first song at the age of 11, and currently resides in LA, where she’s honing her craft even further.

Pepperoni Passion – Código 30

Three friends who formed a music act to produce tunes based on whatever they’re feeling on that day. A creative bunch, they pride themselves on adhering to no fixed style or genre, landing on anything that is exciting them in the there and then.

The Voting 🇵🇹

The results on Saturday night will be determined by a 50/50 combination of 2 votes: 1 from public televoting, and 1 from a jury comprised of representatives from the 7 statistical regions of Portugal (Lisbon, North, Central, Alentejo, Algarve, Madeira and the Azores). In the event of a tie, the public televote winner will be declared the ultimate victor and head to Turin with their song.

Filomena Cautela and Vasco Palmeirim will be our hosts for the night, taking us through the performances and the voting.

Tell us what you think of the Portuguese pre-selection via the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook channels.