Portugal: RTP reveals Festival da Cançao 2020 composers and the shows’ dates

The Portuguese national broadcaster, RTP, has revealed the Festival da Cançao 2020 composers and officially announced the dates of the shows.

RTP, is going forward with organising the next edition of Festival da Cançao 2020 comfirming the dates of the live shows and the same time shed light on the composers’ names that will compete in the Portuguese national selection.

The Festival da Cançao competing composers

The Portuguese broadcaster announced the composers that will compete in the next edition of Festival da Cançao. The national selection will see a total of 16 composers compete, with 14 of them been invited directly by the broadcaster while the two were determined through Antena 1 after an open call for entries and Masterclass. The composers’ songs will be performed by the act that the composers themselves will decide to choose.

The list of the competing composers and their background has as following:

António Avelar Pinho

A founding member of the Fraude Philharmonic and Band Band groups, António Avelar Pinho wrote for several national music artists such as Lara Li, Gabriela Schaaf, Concha, Doce and Herman José. He was One of the authors of the character Grandfather Cantigas, as well as one of the producers of the program Top Mais. He participated in the 2006 Song Festival as a lyricist for the songs performed by Lara Afonso, Mariafolia and Natalie Insoandé, and repeated his participation in 2007 with the lyrics of “Give Me the Moon”. Returned to the competition in 2018 as a semifinal juror.

Blasted Mechanism

Formed in 1995 to be “a different band in the Portuguese music spectrum” , Blasted Mechanism is noted for its flamboyant image and the fusion of world music. Nominated for the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2017, Blasted were awarded a Golden Globe in 2006 as Best Portuguese Band. With several changes in composition, the band has nine albums released since 1999, the latest released in 2018, New Militia (Live at NOS Alive’18) .

Cláudio Frank ( selected via Master Class)

Claudio Francisco António, artistically named Claudio Flark, competed for the Antenna 1 Masterclass and was chosen to participate in the 2020 Song Festival.

Dino D’Santiago

Born in Quarteira but with Cape Verdean origin, Dino d’Santiago made himself known on Operation Triunfo in 2003 on RTP1. After the release of the album ‘Eva’ in 2013 and the EP ‘Unplugged’ in 2016, Dino d’Santiago becomes one of the current popular singers in Portugal. He took part in the Eurovision Festival 2018 interval-act and received three awards at the Play Awards: Best Solo Artist, Best Album (Mundo Nôbu) and Critic Award. He was one of the judges of the 2019 Song Festival Final.

Dúbio feat. +351 (selected via the Public submission)

The band + 351 was formed in December 2018, consisting of 3 members (Duarte, Hugo and Margarida) between 19 and 20 years. Hugo and Duarte, former companions of a sushi restaurant, were the first members to join in 2017, with Margarida joining after meeting Hugo at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Porto. With all songs sung in English, the trio had their first studio experience in March 2019 with Noise Kingdom.

The Dubio are formed by Rui and Pedro, a pair of DJ’s and producers. Together since 2013, when they met at Fafe High School, they created their first project, “Noise Kingdom”. Distinguished by RFM and Radio Nova Era, the duo created a new pseudonym to be able to express musically and try different styles from those produced in their other project.

Elisa Rodrigues

She began her musical studies in 1994, joining the Costa del Sol Music School as a member of the Estoril Little Singers choir, participating in numerous national and international concerts and festivals, some of which received excellent comments on the pages of Le Figaro. At the same time, she is part of the Salesian Manique choir. In 2003 she enters the Michel Giacometti School of Music where she attends guitar and combo classes. In 2007 she participated as a vocalist in a nouvelle jazz project, ELLE, while in 2011 she releases her first album Heart Mouth Dialogues. She was Noiserv’s choice for the 2017 Song Festival, and was replaced by Inês Sousa after a car accident.

Filipe Sambado

Born in Elvas, Filipe Sambado begins his musical career in 2012 with “This Is Not Something To Happen Again”, followed by “1,2,3,4” and “Ups … Did It Again”. His latest work, “Filipe Sambado & The Luxury Escorts”, was released in April 2018, being considered the best album of the year by Antena 3 and was nominated for the SPA 2019 Awards in the music category for Best Popular Music Work. .

Hélio Morais

Linda Martini’s drummer since the beginning of the alternative rock band founded in 2003, Hélio Morais later joined the group Paus and was also a producer at Haus. Linda Martini’s most recent work was released in 2018, being their fifth album.

Jimmy P

Born in Lisbon but of Angolan descent, Jimmy P is the son of Jorge Plácido, former international legend of Portuguese football. He begins writing his lyrics at age 16, calling himself “Supreme G”, participating at age 19 on his first album, “BI”, by Expensive Soul. He joined the group Crewcial, with PEACE and DiggyKappa, releasing the album “Ombuto – The Seed”. After he launches his solo career, becoming one of the singers most accompanied by the new generations and making several successful partnerships with national singers.

João Cabrita

João Cabrita is a musician and currently is a member of The Legendary Tigerman and Cais Sodré Funk Connection as a saxophonist. Susana Felix, Camané, Dani Silva, Jorge Palma, Caetano Veloso, Virgin Suta, Dead Combo were some of the projects that also have the producer touch. In 2017, João Cabrita was invited by RTP to compose “Youtuber”, a song that Mariana Venâncio performed at Junior Eurovision 2017 in Tbilissi.

Marta Carvalho

Marta is a music student since the age of 12. Marta Carvalho performed at The Voice Portugal in 2016, where she reached the final stage of the talent show. Graduated in Classical Music at the Clarinet Area, after playing in orchestras for five years, she recently collaborated with artists such as Carolina Deslandes, David Carreira, Barbara Flag, Diogo Piçarra, Agir and Fernando Daniel.

Meera

MEERA were formed in Porto after Jonny Abbey (musician and producer who joined Mirror People as guitarist and vocalist), and Cecília (singer and drummer from Porto) worked in the same band. Goldmatique, the producer, later joined the formation, leading producer Rykord to work on the aesthetics of the songs.

Pedro Jóia

Guitarist, composer and music director, Pedro Jóia started playing the guitar at 7 years old and went on to play professionally at the age of 19 years old. A frequent composer for theater and cinema, he released six new CD’s, after having taught for 6 years at the University of Évora. He played with Ney Matogrosso, Yamandú Costa and Gilberto Gil during their stay in Brazil, and also accompanied Mariza, Ricardo Ribeiro and Raquel Tavares. He is part of the Resistência group, combining activities with her personal projects, such as Pedro Jóia Trio.

Rui Pregal da Cunha

Born in Macau in 1963, Rui Pregal da Cunha was the founder and lead singer of the band Heroes do Mar. After the group’s breakup, he founded the LX-90, which was renamed into Kick Out of The Jams afterwards. Further on he moved to England. Away from music for several years, Rui Pregal da Cunha sang, in 2010, the song “Go There Lady” of the band Os Golpes. He collaborated with Ala dos Namorados, Rogério Charraz and in honor of António Variações in 2014, with Deolinda, Linda Martini and Gisela João. In 2019, he was the voice of the song “Beach Boys”, the centennial anthem of the Football Club, The Belenenses “.

Throes + The Shine

In 2012, Throes + The Shine joined two projects: the Portuguese Throes, headed by guitarist Marco Castro and drummer Igor Lopes, and Angolan The Shine, alter ego of Diron Shine, who was in charge of the vocal part. The MC, Five years later, the project changed with Diron abandoning the project, which was teken over by Mob. The new album, “Enza”, showed the changes in the project.

Tiago Nacarato

Tiago Nacarato, of Brazilian origin, made himself known to the Portuguese public in Season 5 of The Voice Portugal , where he reached the semifinals. After several years with Bamba Social, a collective of Luso-Brazilian musicians, the singer released his debut album, “Lugar Common”, in October this year. In addition to his short career, the singer has collaborations with Salvador Sobral and Ana Bacalhau.

Festival da Cançao 2020 dates confirmed

According to RTP the 16th edition of Festival da Cançao will unfold as following :

22/02/2020- Festival da Cançao Semifinal 1
29/02/2020-Festival da Cançao Semifinal 2
07/03/2020-Festival da Cançao Grand Final

The two first semi final shows will take place at the RTP Studios in Lisbon. However the Grand final’s venue is yet to be revealed.

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 and has competed in total 51 times in the competition. 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 .