This article forms part of the OnEurope archive and was originally published on oneurope.co.uk. It has been permanently migrated to oneurope.net, the official home of OnEurope.
Portugal’s route to Eurovision 2020 will begin with the familiar late-night marathon of Festival da Canção, hosted by broadcaster RTP.
Festival da Canção is an acquired taste, and it has a reputation for producing Portuguese entries that underperformed at Eurovision. That all changed in 2017, when Salvador Sobral ended six years out of the grand final and won the whole shebang with “Amar pelos dois”.
The 2020 competition will have two semi-finals, on 22 and 29 February, staged at the RTP studios, followed by the grand final on 7 March. This week, RTP named the sixteen composers or teams who will provide the songs.
Fourteen received direct invitations. The remaining two places went to the winner of the radio contest Master Class and the winner of an open competition.
The invited composers and teams are:
- António Avelar Pinho
- Blasted Mechanism
- Dino D’Santiago
- Elisa Rodrigues
- Filipe Sambado
- Hélio Morais
- Jimmy P
- João Cabrita
- Marta Carvalho
- Meera
- Pedro Jóia
- Rui Pregal da Cunha
- Throes + The Shine
- Tiago Nacarato
The two competition winners are:
- Cláudio Frank, winner of Master Class
- Dubio Feat., winner of the open competition
