RTP Release The Rules For Festival Da Canção

The national broadcaster for Portugal RTP have today published a list of rules and dates for their up coming national final that is due to take place next year to decide Portugal's entry for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. The representative who will come from "Festival da Canção 2018' will sing in front of a home crowd, and showcase Portugal's best to Europe. Will Portugal pick a good one?

It has been announced that 'Festival da Canção 2018' will consist of three shows. They will be broadcast on the 18th, 25th February, which will be their semi finals, culminating in a grand final on the 4th March 2018. It has also been revealed that the two shows will be shown live from RTP studios in Lisbon, with the grand final being in Guimarães. This will shine the Eurovision spot light on a different Portuguese city.

The national final will consist of 20 songs. Both national finals will have ten songs perform with the top 5 from each going through to the grand final in March 2018.

17 of the songs will have been chosen by RTP who will invite established composers , who will in turn be allowed to chose their preference of singer. The remaining three songs will be chosen differently. The first will be selected via an open call all composers who have a Portuguese heritage, and nationality. The second entry will be selected via the Mater Class radio show on Antena 1 focussing on composers and authors who have not published any material (submission deadline 15th September 2017). The final place will be submitted by a composer who will be invited by the 2017 winner Salvador Sobral.

2017 saw Portugal break the dubious record of participating in the contest the longest without a win. They debuted in 1964, and took 53 years to win, where Salvador Sobral broke this record scoring a record breaking 758 points. The previous best result for them was 6th in 1996 where Lúcia Moniz sang "O meu coração não tem cor".

Boa sorte Portugal!!!

Don't forget if you liked the interviews and articles, subscribe to our YouTube channel, like us on Facebook, tweet @ on Twitter, # on Instagram, and continue to check our website out. Stay tuned for more Eurovision news, gossip and interviews. Please do not forget to like and comment on our articles below.