Portugal: Composers to remain the focus point of Festival da Canção

The 2017 Eurovision winner Salvador Sobral will have a role to play in the Portuguese national final. RTP announced in the regulations for the 2018 edition of Festival da Canção that the composers will remain the focus point of the search for the new Portuguese entry. 

The Portuguese national broadcaster, RTP, will decide on 17 of the composers. However, there will be 3 slots open. These will be selected by the following people:

  • The 2017 Eurovision Song Contest winner Salvador Sobral
  • The winner of a competition held by Portuguese radio station Antenna 1
  • An Open Call for submissions. RTP will select the jury deciding the open call winner.

Voting System

As before, Festival da Canção will have a 50/50 voting system in the semi final. This will be a combination of a single jury and the televote to determine which of the semi finalists will progress to the finals. In the grand final, it will be a televote with a combination of 7 regional juries. Should a tiebreaker situation occur, the act with the most televotes will fly the Portuguese flag on home soil.

Dates for the semi finals are February 18th and 25th and the Grand Final on March 4th will take place in Guimarães.