It’s almost surreal to think about the fact that a couple of days from now we will jet off to Lisbon for the very first Eurovision hosted by Portugal.
Salvador Sobral’s win was not only highly deserved, but also a much needed injection of energy into the competition as people started to grow tired of the Nordic and Eastern European reign. If Portugal can bag a win, so can Malta or Iceland or even Ireland or the UK! Ok, perhaps not all entirely realistic, but we assume you get our drift. Moreover we expect a different take on Eurovision by the Portuguese and it’s just so refreshing.
And last but not least for lunatics like us travelling around Europe to experience the competition on the ground, Lisbon is a dream destination. It’s a beautiful city with an amazing vibe and atmosphere, it’s affordable, you can feast on delicious food and it has a pleasant climate. What’s not to like?
It’s almost too much, what will Portugal do with all this newfound confidence, have we created a monster? Will megalomania get the better of them; will they mess it up with a production in shambles, incompetent hosts with bad scripts and top it off by boring us to death with sinister fados during the interval acts? Hopefully not, and with the rehearsals well underway it seems like everything is running smoothly so far. We are not worried.
The Portuguese have even managed to select the perfect entry to defend their honor on home turf. O Jardim is a beautiful, classy ballad. Timeless, yet contemporary. Competently performed by an artist with a district style and voice. Sufficiently good enough to do really well, yet not entirely being up there for a second win.
“The mayor ought to cultivate his own garden before he starts telling the governor what to do.” This is the moral of Candide, by Voltaire. Yet Cláudia Pascoal sings about tending to the garden of a late grandmother. As an act of love, compassion and remembrance. We believe we need a little bit of both to keep the balance in our lives.
