Edit

You've been warned twice about posting the songs I will countdown later, so I respectfully and patiently ask what is it you're not understanding?

Odaisul, when you've TWICE had videos edited out of your posts because they're going to be posted in the countdown itself, what about that tells you to repost the same video?

You've been warned twice about posting the songs I will countdown later, so I respectfully and patiently ask what is it you're not understanding?

 

the reason of my posts being edited was due to spamming and not because it will be going to be posted in future at least is what is said on the edited posts.

 

but ok i will wait the countdown. ;)

Edited March 29, 201411 yr by Odaisul

On we start with the six songs that miss the Top 40. ^{2016 update: that sentence is no longer applicable}

 

48 | 2006 | http://fes06.no.sapo.pt/por06.jpg | "

" | NONSTOP

Starting off the bottom part of this countdown is Portugal's answer to Girls Aloud. Winners of the only series of Popstars in the country back in 2000, Nonstop built a steady career with

and

. Fresh off the forefront of girlband Pop and two hit albums they were invited by Elvis Veiguinha to sing his produced song at Festival da Canção 2006. The song in question is what it says on the tin: a "meaningless thing" and it was nothing like their sound. After a disastrous performance in Athens, from which they managed to win the coveted Barbara Dex award (for sharing one godawful dress between the four of them), they failed to put Portugal in the Final while simultaneously shooting their career dead in the head.

 

47 | 2001 | http://fes01.no.sapo.pt/por01.jpg | "Só Sei Ser Feliz Assim" | MTM

2001 brought us an ode to mutual respect and equality between the races. Well, two of them anyway. Staged like the literal version of 1995's entry ("Vanilla and Chocolate"), sung by what can best be described as two drunk uncles at a wedding and with a set of fiercely cringe lyrics, they managed to rank higher than Tó Cruz. The song remains to this day as one of the most obscure entries to date as it wasn't picked up by any radio or even sung by anyone else ever since.

 

46 | 2011 | http://www.eurovisioncovers.co.uk/tn/p11.jpg | "

" | HOMENS DA LUTA

"The Struggle is Joy" they claimed in a parody of pro-revolutionary songs of before 1974. It was the second time they competed in the Portuguese NF as their

failed to make it through the on-line vote. An ode for the current economic and political troubles that swarm the country, the public thought it was the ideal track to send to the European stage. Because Europe would love to know this is how Portugal is spending its bailout, I can only suppose. In a year where the jury couldn't decide which track to support with their scattered votes, the comedy duo grabbed the trophy and ridiculed the nation in Düsseldorf. Well done everyone!

 

45 | 2005 | http://fes05.no.sapo.pt/por05.jpg | "

" | 2B

After three years with no proper national selection show and disastrous results at Eurovision, RTP decides the way forward is to put every effort behind one song and one song only. Luciana Abreu, Idol contestant and future soap opera/

queen, and Rui Drumond (Operação Triunfo contestant and

^{2016 update:} and

- he's also from my hometown!) were chosen and put together to form 2B. I'm not sure if we should read that as "this was meant to be" or as "this was our plan 2, section B"). José Da Ponte, whoever he is, was asked to write a contemporary number with international appeal while still incorporating traditional elements. He gave us that doss, Luciana decided to oversing, Rui didn't quite know what to do and they ramped it all up with a mess of a performance that would only be surpassed one year later. Granted, the sound in Kiev was far from perfect but less so was everyone behind this Portuguese "all-in bet" for Eurovision.

 

44 | 1978 | http://fes78.no.sapo.pt/gemini.jpg | "Dai Li Dou" | GEMINI

Four years after we kicked the dictatorship goodbye, RTP is still trying to show Europe that Portugal is a country reborn. That the Portuguese do have fun living here, that we are joyous and just want to party. And so songs like "Dai Li Dou" were being produced. Hippie-like, party anthems that just wanted a smile on your face. Gemini were the Portuguese ABBA - or so they liked to think - and had a simple and effective choreography for the Eurovision stage. The song, besides sounding ridiculous (die lee doo.../The kite flies), was overly repetitive. They stormed out in 17th place out of 20 countries and were never graced with the "classic" status. Whoops.

 

43 | 1997 | http://fes097.no.sapo.pt/por97.jpg | "Antes do Adeus" | CÉLIA LAWSON

Célia Lawson was a regular of musical theatre when she decided to give Festival da Canção a go. Written by two of the best lyricists around and a quite good composer, the track was mirroring the sound that was in vogue back in the mid 90s: the spoken-word minimal piano ballad. The put her on stage with four backvocalists dressed like the

, mumbling throughout her ballad and Europe scratched its head in bemusement. Right after Portugal's best result ever in the contest, Célia came from Dublin with a big fat nil points and what is now the most infamous last place for the Portuguese.

Edited March 9, 20169 yr by Vülker

46. "Gonna Make You Dance" sounds like something from Scooch because Girls Aloud had much better songs and their pop was always fantastic. Respect..:)..I noticed that our stage wasn't so good and we had better economy those years.. :P

45. This was the kind of song that i referred above with my posts. It's not the typical music of Portugal but it's a combination of portuguese language with modern sound. Of course, it could be better this combination.. :lol:

44. I remember that song and i noticed that the girl with the pink skirt holds a yellow sign with greek words. It says "ο αγώνας είναι χαρά" and it means that "The game is pleasure/joy". I really appreciated that. The "Che Guevara" guy is so iconic..:) The song has something rebellious and it reminds me the film "No" with Gael Garcia Bernal..I can feel this entry because my country has/had the same economic problems with Portugal..

43. Their live performance was quite bad. They were out of tune. The song is not so bad but their live perfromance didn't help them. The last minute was like pain in my ears..

42. I didn't know about the dictatorship in Portugal. I knew only the dictatorship in Spain in which they suffered a lot.. "Dai Li Dou" was very funny. I laughed when i watched their moves with the rhythm of "Dai Li Dou"..

41. The girl is very likeable. I can't believe that her song didn't receive 1 point. It's shame when it happens this. They all give points to specific countries every time and the rest of them end up with very low or zero score..It's good to give (at least) one point to every country. Zero score is very bad and "Antes do adeus" didn't deserve that treatment..

Very nice work and it's very informative. Go on..

Edited March 31, 201411 yr by Insomnio

Coisas De Nada is one of the best Portuguese entries. :kink:

 

It's a harmless piece of cheery light fluff, that's all.

"Gonna Make You Dance" is my favourite Portuguese entry. :)

It's adorable happy pop. Worse than Estonian "Let's Get Loud", but still good.

Such painful thing to see this song on the last place and something awful ("Senhora do mar") or those deservedly forgotten 60s-70s entries on the top. :cry:

Edited April 1, 201411 yr by AlexRus

"Gonna Make You Dance" is my favourite Portuguese entry. :)

It's adorable happy pop. Worse than Estonian "Let's Get Loud", but still good.

Such painful thing to see this song on the last place and something awful ("Senhora do mar") or those deservedly forgotten 60s-70s entries on the top. :cry:

 

http://i45.tinypic.com/2l2ihw.jpg

2016 update: To celebrate RTP's participation in a year we're not graced by a Portuguese entry I shall pick this thread back up and update it with Suzy and Leonor Andrade. It completely passed me by last year that we've reached 50 Festival da Canção winners/Eurovision entries Portuguese songs and so this should be celebrated. Please re-read the newly updated 42-48 section only a couple of posts earlier. ^

two more songs out of the Top 40:

 

42 | 1995 | http://fes095.no.sapo.pt/por95.jpg | "Baunilha e Chocolate" | TÓ CRUZ

I can't make up a better text for this than its Wikipedia description so here it goes: "The song is inspired by urban music and features Cruz singing to his "sweetheart with white skin" while musing on their interracial relationship (Cruz is black). He suggests that this could only have been made possible via the intrepid maritime history of their country, and sings about the spices and cultural knowledge that were brought back to Portugal as a result of this history." Probably thanks to that last note, he still managed to get three studio albums out with the last one being produced in the United States, grabbing no one's attention except the Ballot Nominations for the 46th Grammys for this song, as well as a

of songs for the soundtracks of popular soap operas. He was also

for the Portuguese version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Good for him! The song however, no one remembers. At all.

 

41 | 1987 | http://fes87.no.sapo.pt/por87.jpg | "Neste Barco à Vela" | NEVADA

Little is known about this duo. After Eurovision one of the members left and the other one recruited their two Eurovision backing vocalists to release an album which no one has ever heard of. The inability to turn this entry into a classic may be RTP's fault: after being alerted by the expert panel about the poor quality of the songs submitted for the National Final, they've decided to go ahead anyway but shortening the contest to showcase only six of those songs. Still, they've managed 15 points at Eurovision which is more than a lot of the Portuguese classics can say.

Edited March 9, 20169 yr by Vülker

RECAP

 

Let's look what we've spoken about thus far:

 

XX | 1970 | "Onde Vais Rio Que Eu Canto" | SÉRGIO BORGES

 

XX | 2000 | "

" | LIANA

 

48 | 2006 | "

" | NONSTOP

 

47 | 2001 | "Só Sei Ser Feliz Assim" | MTM

 

46 | 2011 | "

" | HOMENS DA LUTA

 

45 | 2005 | "

" | 2B

 

44 | 1978 | "Dai Li Dou" | GEMINI

 

43 | 1997 | "Antes do Adeus" | CÉLIA LAWSON

 

42 | 1995 | "Baunilha e Chocolate" | TÓ CRUZ

 

41 | 1987 | "Neste Barco à Vela" | NEVADA

 

And that's ^{some of} the bad crop. Let's crunch some numbers:

 

Still to go:

60s: 6 out of 6 entries

70s: 7 out of 9 entries

80s: 9 out of 10 entries

90s: 8 out of 10 entries

00s: 4 out of 8 entries

10s: 4 out of 5 entries

 

We lose half of the 2000s entries in the lower section, decidedly a grim period for the Portuguese participation.

All the other decades lose only their black sheep, while the 60s remain intact.

 

Which entries will be out next? :teresa:

 

PORTUGAL in the EUROVISION YOUNG DANCERS

 

http://www.youngdancers.tv/save-files/resizes/f1/ff/6d/fb/50/19/3c/85/12/bb/2b/fe/32/ed/ed/81/logo-cropped.png

 

And it's not only in the Song Contest that the Portuguese embarrass themselves showcase their talents. After failing to reach the finals of Eurovision's dancing competition for the youngsters on their first two participations in 1989 (don't turn your nose up at Australia, Canada also took part in this!) and 1991, the Portuguese gave up until their fabulous comeback with Ricardo Macedo in the 2011 competition.

He was only 16 when he finally put Portugal in the Young Dancers final for the first time ever... well, there wasn't a Semifinal to go through anymore but still, first time in the Final!

, he regrettably failed to be picked by the jury to be one of the two superfinalists and so we don't even get a glimpse of him in the official

.

Needless to say RTP didn't bother with this competition since but one would hope another Young Dancer will take the country's name further but it's no bother: no one knows about this contest in the whole of Portugal.

Don't ask me about the 1989 and 1991 participations, all that is known is that both girls failed to put their nation in the Final!

40 | 2004 | http://fes04.no.sapo.pt/por04.jpg | "Foi Magia" | SOFIA VITÓRIA

After failing with a national superstar the year prior, RTP decides to give the finalists of their version of Star Academy a chance with three specially composed songs. But with a twist: the talent show final would simultaneously select the artist and the song for the 2004 Portuguese representation. After escaping elimination thrice, Sofia went into the final as the outsider. Her song however was the only upbeat number and so she easily walked her way to victory. Worry not, the consolation prize for both runners-up was to sing at Eurovision too... as Sofia's backing vocalists.

The song itself is inoffensive sonic fluff. Quickly put together, a piece of lift music turned into nu disco via a night out in Lisbon for over 40 year-olds. No wonder it didn't wow the Europeans, and I swear you can almost see Sofia cringing everytime she sings it. Vocally she did a fantastic job, which is no wonder: she is now

having released a critically acclaimed jazz album.

 

39 | 1977 | http://fes77.no.sapo.pt/por77.jpg | "Portugal no Coração" | OS AMIGOS

Scandal, scandal, scandal! That is the only thing everyone remembers from this Portuguese entry. Firstly in the National Final: a contest drawn up for newcomers, it counted in its lineup not only a group in the height of its nationwide success but also this one, which was especially created for this occasion, whose members were famous singers and

. They end up winning it but the national press didn't give them even one mention choosing to only write about the poor quality of the songs.

At Eurovision it went even worse, Bill Cotton of the BBC accused both the Portuguese and Austrian entries of containing a communist message.

They were once more whitewashed by the press who chose to focus on Eurovision winner. Marie Myriam, herself of

, became Portugal's pride and joy instead.

 

38 | 2012 | http://www.eurovisioncovers.co.uk/tn/p12.jpg | "

" | FILIPA SOUSA

If "Senhora do Mar" was one year too late for the

, then "Vida Minha" had absolutely no chance.

A perennial talent show reject, Filipa found herself being invited to sing the song presumably after the originally RTP-invited composer (which was then not yet Andrej Babić) heard her singing with her

. The National Final was unmemorable and so no one paid attention when this Balkan-produced pseudo-Fado number tried to ride 2008's wave. Her command of the stage was not even comparable to Vânia's and so Portugal crashed out of the Semis once more.

Poor Filipa hasn't had much luck since: after featuring on a

she's gone back to performing with her aforementioned Fado ensemble, which is probably for the best.

 

37 | 2007 | http://festivalcancao07.no.sapo.pt/por07.jpg | "

" | SABRINA

A victory for schlager under the guise of a small national upset, that's how Sabrina's National Final victory will go down in history. In an

competition where the big favourite was a

, the simple pimba production won over the public with almost double the televotes of its nearest rival, which was a very big surprise, and several former Eurovision stars declared the result to be "a joke and an insult for the Portuguese rich musical history".

It all turned out quite alright in the end much thanks to the song's producer: he issued CD singles, he revamped the song, he gave it three different languages in the last chorus, he gave it his all when RTP wouldn't move a finger. And it paid off! With a reworked track and staging, smiley Sabrina missed qualification in a very competitive sole semifinal by only three points! She even did better than the

, her nemesis according to the press.

After Eurovision Sabrina was very busy for a while, she released her debut album, she went on a talk show

, she

and later in 2012 she overhauled her image and released a much lauded country album under her actual real name - Maria Teresa - of which

turned out to be a big hit. Who'd have thought?

 

36 | 1999 | http://fes99.no.sapo.pt/Ruiba.jpg | "Como Tudo Começou" | RUI BANDEIRA

The end of the 90s weren't much of note. An MoR National Final produced an MoR winner than flopped at Eurovision. What is of note, however, is the longevity of Rui's career after the contest. In Summer 1999, with MoR Pop being the new trend in Portuguese radio - Denmark only caught on

- it's not really a surprise to hear "Como Tudo Começou" constantly played by radio DJs. Proving to be a smart cookie, Rui rode that wave a churned out a grand total of 11 studio albums to this day, never really becoming a household name but successful enough to pay the bills, even if he's

(meanwhile Denmark

to cause

with their MoR).

He's now

to take over the family business, I only ask that is less MoR and more little pink dress.