Portugal: RTP releases Festival da Canção 2020 rules and regulations
Just a few days since the Portuguese broadcaster confirmed to ESCToday, the country’s participation in the 65th Eurovision Song Contest , RTP released the terms of the next edition of Festival da Canção 2020, the music event through which Portugal determines its Eurovision acts and entry.
The Festival da Canção 2020 format
Festival da Canção 2020 will take place next February and March with the exact dates to be announced in the future. The show will consist of two semi finals and one grand final. Like last year, a total of 16 entries will compete in the competition, 8 in each semi final round.
The first 4 songs from each semi final will qualify to the grand final, that will see a total of 8 entries battle for the golden ticket to the next Eurovision Song Contest in The Netherlands.
Invitation to 14 composers
The Portuguese broadcaster has sent to 14 composers an invitation to submit their music proposals for the competition. Each composer can select the artist that will perform his song in the festival. The other two spots left in the national selection will be determined through two ways :
- Antena 1 Radio will be holding the Master Class competition , open to all composers with no released work. The submission deadline for this process ends on October 31, 2019.
- An open submission for all composers. Interested Portuguese composers can send their proposals to RTP’s e-mail address festivaldacancao@rtp.pt until October 15.
The Eurovision Story so far
Portugal joined the Eurovision family in 1964 when it was represented by António Calvário, who finished last without any points. Since their debut in 1964 Portugal has missed five times the contest, the latest was in 2016. Before 2016, the best result of Portugal in the contest was a 6th placing in 1996 with Lúcia Moniz performing “O meu coração não tem cor” in Oslo.
In 2017 the country got its name on the list with the winning countries, as Salvador Sorbal was crowned winner in Kyiv with his song Amar Pelos Dois . Following Salvador’s win the country hosted the 63rd edition of the contest in Lisbon.
In 2019 Conan Osiris ,winner of the Portuguese national final Festival da Cançao represented the country in Tel Aviv with his entry Telemoveis. Despite the outstanding alternative performance in the first semi final, Conan failed to qualify to the Grand final .
