Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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 ...

And today the final individual rehearsals as the Big5+host have their second 20 minutes rehearsal before tonight's Blue carpet and Welcome Party. As of tomorrow the full show dress rehearsals start. PORTUGAL - CLÁUDIA PASCOAL - O JARDIM Agora que não estás Rego eu o teu jardim Vocals **** Staging *** Song **** Overall **** Right side of the scoreboard *Portugal sing at number 8 in the final UNITED KINGDOM - SURIE - STORM I still have faith I still believe in chasing rainbows Vocals *** Staging *** Song *** Overall *** Right side of the scoreboard SPAIN - AMAIA Y ALFRED - TU CANCIÓN Todo es perfecto si estás A mi lado creando una nueva ciudad Vocals **** Staging **** Song ***** Overall ***** Left side of the scoreboard

While 24/37 semi-finalist have already rehearsed twice (30 minutes technical and 20 minutes fine tuning) today it's time have the Big5+host on stage for the first rehearsal . Their second rehearsal will take place on Sunday before the Blue Carpet and the Welcome Party. Portugal - Cláudia Pascoal feat. Isaura - O jardim It seems Isaura is no longer in shadows but wants her spotlight in the Eurovision stage, too, and Cláudia lets her have it, even if not sharing her podium. For once not the same staging as in the national final but a bit new one. Cláudia alone on rather dark lit stage at first, the light comes with Isaura and the beat for a moment. Cláudia seems to be avoiding direct camera contact that makes the performance a bit unusual. She's in a close up most of the song in her pink nightgown and pink hair while Isaura, for now, goes all lesbian chic in Nirvana t-shirt. "Simple", "Emotional", "Stunning", "Intimate", ...

  Last year's host nation Ukraine and this year's Portugal both finally release their music videos for their entries this year today. Cláudia Pascoal & Isaura's O jardim is very green and simple with faces in close ups mainly. Mélovin's Under the ladder is the opposite: dark and dramatic, a bit gothic and a bit disturbing. No wonder he looks so worried most of it! Wednesday we will know how much of this he brings to the staging in Lisbon....

  Estonia - Elina Nechayeva - La forza Elina (26) was hosting Eesti laul semifinal last year and returned this year as a singer and won. This classically trained soprano has been to several talent shows before but only now finally won something. She sings La forza in Italian as opera singers do. The problem is the lyrics don't make any sense, they are mainly just phrases stolen from various operas glued together. If they had thrown in words like pizza, spaghetti and pasta no one hardly would notice nor would it make any difference to the sense of it all. This is this year's fan wank and I find it just rather annoying. Any interest I had vanished in 2-3 listenings. But then again most televoters will hear this for the first time and be fooled. This should be this year's shock non qualifier.... When people are more interested in the dress than the rest, we have a problem. The song actually works better as dance mix , because it gives you an illusion there might have...

  Cláudia Pascoal in absense of Diogo Piçarra has won the Portuguese Festival da Canção final late last night. But it was a close call as Catarina Miranda - as I expected - scored well, too. They both ended with 22 points but as Cláudia got the televotes 12 she was declared the winner. Peu Madureira came third and Janeiro 4th, so I got all my favorites in top-4 :-) Cláudia's performance is very simple and featured composer Isaura sitting next to her and just sings a few lines with her. It's veery intense 3 minutes but let's see how European wide audiences will have patience and concentration come May.... 1. Cláudia Pascoal - O jardim (jury 10 + televote 12) 22 2. Catarina Miranda - Para sorrir não preciso de nada (12 + 10) 22 3. Peu Madureira - Só por ela (8 + 8) 16 4. Janeiro - (sem título) (6 + 6) 12 5. Rui David - Sem medo (4 + 4) 8 6. Anabela - Para te dar abrigo (0 + 7) 7 7. Joana Barra Vaz - Anda estragar-me os planos (7 + 0) 7 8. Lili - ...

  Portugal is choosing tonight for Lisbon 2018 Eurovision song contest and instead of  RTP's tv-studios like in the semifinals the show moves to an arena, the Pavilhão Multiusos in Guimarães.  Now that the superfavorite Diogo Piçarra is sadly out of the picture (he got top marks from both televoters and jury in the second semifinal (being the only one doing so) before he was accused of plagiarism, read more here ) the contest is wide open.  Cláudia Pascoal scored 10 with both jury and televotes in the second semifinal while Susana Travassos got 8 from the jury but zero from televotes. This however was enough to make her Diogo's replacement in the final. Peter Serrado got 8 from televoters but only 1 from the jury - will they change their mind? Peu Madueira was the clear winner in the first semifinal with 12 from the televoters and 10 from the jury. The jury preferred Janeiro but the televoters gave him only 4, maybe they will award him more now? On...

  Portugal's Festival da Canção had its second semifinal last night and as expected Diogo Piçarra took an easy win, and also the highest score in both semis when getting full marks. Maria Inês Paris - Bandeira azul (jury 7 + televote 5) 12 Dora Fidalgo - Arco-íris (0 + 0) 0 Sequin - All Over Again (0 + 0) 0 Diogo Piçarra - Canção do fim (12+ 12) 24 David Pessoa - Amor veloz (5 + 4) 9 Tamin - Sobre nós (6 + 2) 8 Cláudia Pascoal - O jardim (10 + 10) 20 Minnie & Rhayra - Patati patata  (4 + 6) 10 Rita Ruivo - Anda daí (0 + 1) 1 Susana Travassos - A mensageira (8 + 0) 8 Lili - O vôo das cegonhas (3 + 7) 10 Daniela Onis - Para lá do rio (2 + 3) 5 Peter Serrado - Sunset (1 + 8) 9 And here's the full line up for the final. It's inteeresting to see how al top marks went basicly to same acts, with the expceptions on Anabela's  and Peter Serrado's televoting success, and Janeiro's jury success... Diogo Piçarra - Canção ...