The Campo Pequeno of Lisbon is regularly used for bull fighting. Next year, the Portuguese broadcaster RTP will put the venue to another use, as the place for the final of the Festival da Canção 2010. The capacity of 10.000 spectators makes for a grand final in Lisbon next spring.
Foreign composers allowed
The complete rules for the national selection in Portugal will be released this week, but the main features of the process are already known. Participating songs can be submitted to RTP until mid-January, and unlike in the contest of 2009, foreign composers can now participate. The criterion is that the song still has to be presented entirely in Portuguese.
A jury appointed by RTP will select between 30 and 35 songs to proceed to an online vote, which will last for a week. This is a shorter period than the time frame of in a similar online voting process used in 2009.
Decided in 5 days
The top 24 songs will qualify for 2 semi-finals, taking place in the same week as the grand final. The final will consist of 12 songs, and the festival will last between the 2nd and the 6th of March 2010. In the semi-finals the result will be decided entirely by televoting, but in the final on the 6th of March, the voting will be split into half televoting and half jury.
The Festival da Canção has provided songs for the Eurovision Song Contest for 45 years. To commemorate this, a gala named Noite das Estrelas (‘Night of Stars’) were held in Lisbon on the 23rd of November, featuring a large number of performances.
The group Flor-de-Lis represented Portugal in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Todas As Ruas Do Amor. The group qualified for the final, where they finished 15th with 57 points.
