Live: Festival da Canção 2015 Final

Portuguese national broadcaster RTP will tonight decide their representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 through the televised show Festival da Canção 2015. After two semifinals during the week, this evening the six finalists will perform and the Portuguese audience will decide the winner.

0015 – Results time! All three artists are called to the stage to announce the winner! And the winner is:Leonor Andrade. She will represent Portugal in Vienna this May with the song “Há um mar que nos separa”. Thanks for sticking with our liveblog tonight at ESCDaily we’ll be back tomorrow with the Romanian selection.

0002 – Time for the second interval act and it’s a poor old man singing a Portuguese ballad. I’m sure he’s relevant somehow? But I’m really not so sure. A punk style singer comes on next, I’m sure these people are famous in Portugal but I just don’t get it?

2356 – The lines have now reopened for the viewers to vote. Remember it’s the viewers votes alone from now on that will decide the winner.

2346 – Time for the results, the top 3 are:Leonor Andrade, Teresa Radamanto and Gonçalo Tavares

2341 – Whilst the results are being calculated, the six potential candidates perform an interval act together. They’re performing a medley of previous Portuguese Eurovision songs.

2334 – After an ad break, we’ve now got a ballroom dance from our presenters, does this happen a lot in Portugal?

2315 – That’s it! All six artists have performed and we await the results of which three will progress to the superfinal! Whilst we wait, another sing song? And we have a recap of the artists!

2306 –Teresa Radamanto is next with “Um fado em Viena”. This performance is very traditionally Portuguese, it’s heavy on the guitar and there’s even some accordion. She is wearing a black dress to perform this song. It’s another theatrical ballad, almost gypsy-esque in it’s styling. It feels like she’s reciting a story through the medium of song. This is one that really builds throughout.2312 –José Freitas is last on stage with “Mal menor (Ninguém me guia à razão)” wow, that’s a nightmare to spell in Portuguese! He’s also wearing a jacket with an unnecessary amount of zippers on it. This is arguably the most uptempo entry tonight. He sits playing piano on stage. It’s a jolly song, again it’s very middle of the road pop music, which we’ve seen a lot of tonight. Towards the end of the performance he is joined by four female dancers, giving the performance a little bit of a burlesque feel.

2255 – The fourth entry is “À espera das canções” by Simone de Oliveira. The song is classic, timeless and theatrical. She brings an element of drama to the ballad. Wearing a floor length blue dress she effortlessly brings class and professionalism to the stage.

2248 – The third artist on stage is Leonor Andrade with “Há um mar que nos separa”. This is quite quirky and angry sounding. The song has a rock edge and Leonor has a deep voice. As the song progresses it becomes more upbeat and uplifting. The whole thing sounds very American.

2240 – Next up is Yola Dinis with “Outra vez primavera”. In a black and silver dress, she stands alone to perform this ballad. There is four chairs surrounding her each with a musician on it. The song features prominently on traditionally Portuguese guitar music. The song is a sad song and the audience is still and quiet.

2235 – It’s now time for the performances, first up is Gonçalo Tavares with “Tu tens uma mágica”. This is pretty smooth and jazzy. He wears a black fitted suit whilst two interpretive dancers perform behind him. The song is pretty good! It’s got blues vibes and is a little bit gritty. The singer has strong vocals however he does appear to be slightly nervous. There’s a lot of soul in this performance.

2233 – Before anyone has sung yet, the televoting lines are now open!

2227 – The show begins! It opens with a peculiar sing song, there are six presenters this evening! SIX?! Who needs that many?

The show this year featured 12 competing artists; 6 took part in each semifinal with three progressing from each semifinal to give us six finalists tonight. The show will be broadcast live on RTP1 as well as on the official Eurovision website. You can watch the live stream at 2225CET by clicking here. The line up for tonight’s final is:

1 Gonçalo Tavares “Tu tens uma mágica”
2 Yola Dinis “Outra vez primavera”
3 Leonor Andrade “Há um mar que nos separa”
4 Simone de Oliveira “À espera das canções”
5 Teresa Radamanto “Um fado em Viena”
6 José Freitas “Mal menor (Ninguém me guia à razão)”

All of this evening’s entries will be performed in Portuguese and among the artists tonight is previous Portuguese Eurovision representative Simone de Oliveira, who represented Portugal in 1965 and again in 1967. Tonight the viewers votes plus one jury selection will make up the top 3 artists who will take place in the “Superfinal” and the winner of the second round of voting will be declared the victor. You can catch the stream on the Eurovision website, but don’t forget to check  back at ESCDaily as the show starts to read our commentary and hear all the news as it happens.

1 Comment

  1. The “poor old man” is Paulo de Carvalho, who represented Portugal in 1974. His song, “E Depois do Adeus”, was used as a signal to start the coup that began the Carnation Revolution later that same year. The younger singer is his son, Agir, a popular performer today.

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