In ESC, Portugal is pretty much known for one thing only, for participating like a million times without winning the competition. In fact, they have not even come close! In 1996 Lúcia Moniz reached sixth place, with one of our all time favorite Portuguese entries. Ukulele can never be wrong in our opinion, especially when the instrument seems to be glued on to Lúcia’s frock! Kudos to the Portuguese for always singing in their own language, and of course for their stamina and for never giving up on us.
So will Europe finally understand Portugal and award them with a top 5 or podium finish? It didn’t start out very well this year when the jury overruled the public votes in the Festival da Canção and chose Filipa Azevedo and her buffed up power ballad over Catarina Pereira’s up beat latino number. Yeah, probably a mistake in terms of achieving a decent result in Oslo, but lets face it, Catarina can’t sing. At least she struggles with the singing while trying to cope with a rather intricate dance routine. Filipa on the other hand, can definitely sing, but we’re starting to overdose on little Miss Perfect 18 year old girls by now, and we miss some… substance. It’s amazing what a lived life and being born before 1990 can add to an otherwise plain number. Hey, from this perspective, we’re even starting to reconsider our views on Ireland’s entry this year!
We find it rather amusing that the piano guy vanishes into thin air half way trough Filipa’s performance, where he’s off to is something we need to investigate in Oslo. Is he too bored to finish the song, or is he simply underpaid and has agreed to take some time off? The misplaced wind machine is also a bit funny. Besides this we rate the entertainment value as quite low.
Portugal was really on to something with great entries both in 2008 and 2009. This is two steps forward, one step back.