Festival da Canção


Festival da Canção or Festival RTP da Canção is the name given to the national festival, produced and broadcast by Rádio e Televisão de Portugal to choose the Portuguese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. It was first held in 1964.

History

Like most pop festivals in isolated countries, it was a very important event for the still incipient music industry of the 1960s and 1970s. Left-wing composers and writers would try to squeeze subversive lyrics in the contest, with great effect. After the 1974 revolution, incidentally code-triggered by that year's winner being played on national radio, Portugal became increasingly open to foreign culture, thus deeming the Festival as a lesser musical event, dominated by below-standard pop songs with little or no impact in the industry, although remaining a popular TV show.
The 1990s saw a recovery of the contest's image, then considered a viable means for a new singer to start a career. Internationally acclaimed Portuguese singers Dulce Pontes and Sara Tavares made their debut in the 1991 and 1994 editions, respectively. Many other unknown performers like Lucia Moniz and Anabela leaped to national stardom after taking the RTP trophy.
After reaching an all-time high 6th place in the 1996 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, the festival steadily declined from then on. In 2000, the winner Liana did not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000, as Portugal had been banned from the 2000 contest after two consecutive poor showings in 1998 and 1999; this would be the second time in the festival's history that the winner did not participate in Eurovision. In 2002, the Festival da Canção was placed on hiatus, contradicting the tradition of staging a Festival da Canção even without participating in that year's Eurovision Song Contest, as happened in 2000 and 1970. Since 2001, the festival saw consecutive changes of format. 2005 saw RTP commissioning a song for Eurovision, rather than organizing some kind of competition.
Since 2006 RTP seemingly settled for a traditional multi-singer, multi-composer competitive format, claiming the memory of older contests and songs. Producers have since been invited to come up with songs, lyrics and singers, and the 2007 result with Sabrina almost making it to the Eurovision final, gave RTP the necessary confidence to maintain the current format. In 2009, an open call for songs was held by RTP, abolishing the invited producers method, with online voting deciding the qualifiers to the televised final from a list of 24 songs, with 12 competing in the live contest.
More changes to the format of the contest were made in 2010. Two semi-finals and a final are now held to select the winner. Foreign composers were once again allowed to compete. Since 2017 different languages are allowed to compete.
The 2020 edition of the festival marked the third time in its history where the winner was unable to participate in Eurovision, as the contest itself would be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hosts

Winners

YearSongArtistSongwriterResult in Eurovision
1964"Oração"António CalvárioJoão Nobre, Francisco Nicholson, Rogério Bracinha13th
1965"Sol de inverno"Simone de OliveiraCarlos Nóbrega e Sousa, Jerónimo Bragança13th
1966"Ele e ela"Madalena IglésiasCarlos Canelhas13th
1967"O vento mudou"Eduardo NascimentoNuno Nazareth Fernandes, João Magalhães Pereira12th
1968"Verão"Carlos MendesPedro Vaz Osório, José Alberto Diogo11th
1969"Desfolhada portuguesa"Simone de OliveiraNuno Nazareth Fernandes, José Carlos Ary dos Santos15th
1970"Onde vais rio que eu canto"Sérgio BorgesCarlos Nóbrega e Sousa, Joaquim Pedro Gonçalves
1971"Menina do alto da serra"TonichaNuno Nazareth Fernandes, José Carlos Ary dos Santos9th
1972"A festa da vida"Carlos MendesJosé Calvário, José Niza7th
1973"Tourada"Fernando TordoFernando Tordo, José Carlos Ary dos Santos10th
1974"E depois do adeus"Paulo de CarvalhoJosé Calvário, José Niza14th
1975"Madrugada"Duarte MendesJosé Luís Tinoco16th
1976"Uma flor de verde pinho"Carlos do CarmoJosé Niza, Manuel Alegre12th
1977"Portugal no coração"Os AmigosFernando Tordo, José Carlos Ary dos Santos14th
1978"Dai li dou"GeminiVítor Mamede, Carlos Quintas17th
1979"Sobe, sobe, balão sobe"Manuela BravoCarlos Nóbrega e Sousa9th
1980"Um grande, grande amor"José CidJosé Cid7th
1981"Playback"Carlos PaiãoCarlos Paião18th
1982"Bem bom"DocePedro Brito, Tozé Brito, António Pinho13th
1983"Esta balada que te dou"Armando GamaArmando Gama13th
1984"Silêncio e tanta gente"Maria GuinotMaria Guinot11th
1985"Penso em ti "AdelaideTozé Brito, Adelaide Ferreira, Luís Fernando18th
1986"Não sejas mau para mim"DoraGuilherme Inês, Zé Da Ponte, Luís Manuel de Oliveira Fernandes14th
1987"Neste barco à vela"NevadaAlfredo Azinheira, Jorge Mendes18th
1988"Voltarei"DoraJosé Niza, José Calvário18th
1989"Conquistador"Da VinciRicardo, Pedro Luís16th
1990"Sempre, há sempre alguém"NuchaLuís Filipe, Ian van Dijck, Frederico Pereira, Francisco Pereira20th
1991"Lusitana paixão"Dulce PontesJorge Quintela, José Da Ponte, Fred Micaelo8th
1992"Amor d'água fresca"DinaOndina Veloso, Rosa Lobato de Faria17th
1993"A cidade "AnabelaPaulo de Carvalho, Marco Quelhas, Pedro Abrantes10th
1994"Chamar a música"Sara TavaresJoão Mota Oliveira, Rosa Lobato de Faria8th
1995"Baunilha e chocolate"Tó CruzAntónio Vitorino d'Almeida, Rosa Lobato de Faria21st
1996"O meu coração não tem cor"Lúcia MonizPedro Osório, José Fanha6th
1997"Antes do adeus"Célia LawsonRosa Lobato de Faria, Thilo Krassman24th
1998"Se eu te pudesse abraçar"Alma LusaJosé Cid12th
1999"Como tudo começou"Rui BandeiraJorge do Carmo, Tó Andrade21st
2000"Sonhos mágicos"LianaGerardo Rodrigues, Maria da Conceição Norte
2001"Só sei ser feliz assim"MTMMarco Quelhas17th
2003"Deixa-me sonhar"Rita GuerraPaulo Martins22nd
2004"Foi magia"Sofia VitóriaPaulo Neves15th: SF
2006"Coisas de nada"NonstopJosé Manuel Afonso, Elvis Veiguinha19th: SF
2007"Dança comigo"SabrinaEmanuel, Tó Maria Vinhas11th: SF
2008"Senhora do mar"Vânia FernandesAndrej Babić, Carlos Coelho13th
2009"Todas as ruas do amor"Flor-de-LisPaulo Pereira, Pedro Marques15th
2010"Há dias assim"Filipa AzevedoAugusto Madureira18th
2011"A luta é alegria"Homens da LutaJel18th: SF
2012"Vida minha"Filipa SousaAndrej Babić, Carlos Coelho13th: SF
2014"Quero ser tua"Suzy:pt:Américo Monteiro|Emanuel11th: SF
2015"Há um mar que nos separa"Leonor AndradeMiguel Gameiro14th: SF
2017"Amar pelos dois"Salvador SobralLuísa Sobral1st
2018"O jardim"Cláudia PascoalIsaura26th
2019"Telemóveis"Conan OsírisConan Osíris14th: SF
2020"Medo de sentir"ElisaMarta Carvalho

Venues

Final

Venues (since 2017)

Key: SF = Semi-final; F = Final