Portugal and its Festival da Canção , one of my favorite national finals for doing their own thing and their own music is back again this year and with its already winning familiar formula: RTP invited a number of song writers (15) with free hands to create an entry for an artist of their choice added with entries (5) from the open submissions. Among them Eurovision veteran Cláudia Pascoal from home soil 2018 contest.
Two semi-finals with ten songs each, six of them qualifying for the final: first five with 50/50 jury/televote, and one more from the rest with 100% televote.
Moyah - Too much sauce **
From open call. The verses are quite nice rap but the chorus is just nonsense. This is a prime example of streaming/tik tok era songs: just tad over 2 minutes. And in this case it's enough if not too much.
Bolha - Sonhos de liberdade **
Beautiful intro but then ... meh. Orchestration is better than singing or melodies.
April Ivy - Modo voo ****
As up tempo pop that Portugal ever goes. Fashionable 80's sound. Very cute and catchy the way Nochentera was in Spain. But sadly this wouldn't go anywhere in Eurovision either. But I like this.
Churky - Encruzilhada **
Enjoyable little tune but not much else. Gets better towards the end. Very clear pronunciation to follow with the lyrics videos for someone who has studied Portuguese a bit. That is me.
Cláudia Pascoal - Nasci Maria ***
At least there's no doubt what's the song's name. Original and interesting. I wish I liked this more at first hearing, now I'm left a bit confused.
SAL - Viver **
My am I thinking this could be a theme song for some tv-series during opening credits and dramatic views and such? Very Portuguese somehow. But that's it.
Mimicat - Ai coração ****
Another one from open call. I know this has already quite fanatic fan base and indeed this is quite crazy. Original and fun. A bit like Fome de viagem last year. Could be a very welcome addition to the Liverpool line up.
You can't win, Charlie Brown - Contraste mudo ****
I'm intrgued from the first notes. Very beautiful, relaxing, atmospheric. Less is more. This grows and builds up nicely, and those violins are nice addition to get it all together.
Neon Soho - Endless world **
This is straight from some Baltic nation's selection, isn't it? Promises more than it delivers. Nothing Portuguese in this.
Esse Povo - Sapatos de cimento **
Sounds like a fancy remake of an old song from Eurovision 70's/80's. Another prove how seeing these live on stage and live might change the whole idea. Now, it's hard to say anything.
Update: Results:
Qualified:
Neon Soho - Endless world (2nd round televote qualifier)
Esse Povo - Sapatos de cemento (Added due telephone line malfunction)
Out:
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