Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest

Balance sheet

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Broadcasting company

First participation

1964

Number of participations

51 (as of 2019)

Highest ranking

1 ( 2017 )

Highest Score

758 (2017)

Lowest Score

0 ( 1964 , 1997 )

Points average (since first post)

47.50 (as of 2018)

Average points per voting country in the 12-point system

1.97 (as of 2018)

This article looks at the history of Portugal as a participant in the Eurovision Song Contest .

Regularity of participation

Salvador Sobral (right) won for Portugal in 2017

Portugal has been participating in the competition regularly since 1964 . Only in the competitions 1970 , 2000 , 2002 , 2013 and 2016 there was no Portuguese entry. In 1970 the country did not take part in protest against the rating system, and in 2000 it was not allowed to submit an entry due to poor placements in the previous year. In 2002 Portugal voluntarily decided not to participate. In 2013 financial difficulties led to the voluntary waiver, in 2016 there were restructuring within the station RTP . In 2017 Portugal took part again and won.

Success in competition

Until 1970 Portugal always ended up in the lower half of the table. Among other things, the country took a - shared - last place in its ESC debut in 1964 and a - also shared - penultimate place in 1965. Portugal is the only country besides Lithuania that did not receive a single point on its debut. From 1970 to 1990 the results were average, the best results were two seventh places (1972 and 1980) and two ninth places (1971 and 1979). Up to and including 2004, Portugal's results fluctuated significantly. Although the country was placed in the top 10 four times (1991, 1993, 1994 and 1996), this contrasted with five places in the top five (1990, 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2003). Because of the poor placement in 1999, Portugal had to take a break in 2000.

After the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, Portugal failed to make it to the final for four years - in 2007 it was very close to eleventh place in the semi-finals. From 2008 Portugal qualified for the final three years in a row. The rankings 13, 15 and 18 achieved there remained within the Portuguese average. There were again four participations without reaching the finals; In 2014, Portugal was only just eliminated from the semi-finals with one point missing behind San Marino. Overall, only 7 of 51 entries landed in the front half of the table, i.e. among the top 13. This makes Portugal one of the rather unsuccessful countries at the ESC. The country was able to achieve its first victory through Salvador Sobral with his song Amar pelos dois 2017 with the 49th participation in the competition, with 758 points it was the most successful victory of all time and the highest number of points ever achieved. However, this seemed to remain an exceptional success for the time being, because the following year Portugal took last place as hosts and the following year they were eliminated third from last in the semi-finals.

List of posts

Color legend: - 1st place. - 2nd place. - 3rd place. - Equal points with last place. - Eliminated in the semifinals / in the qualification / in the Eastern European preliminary decision. - no participation / not qualified. - Cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest.      

year	Interpreter	Title Music (M) and Text (T)	language	translation	final		Semi-final / qualification		National preliminary decision
					space	Points	space	Points
1964	António Calvário	Oração M: João Nobre; T: Francisco Nicholson, Rogério Braçinha	Portuguese	prayer	13/16	0	Direct participation		Festival da Canção 1964
1965	Simone de Oliveira	Sol de inverno M: Carlos Nobrega e Sousa; T: Jeronimo Bragança	Portuguese	Winter sun	13/18	1			Festival da Canção 1965
1966	Madalena Iglésias	Ele e ela M / T: Carlos Canelhas	Portuguese	He and she	13/18	6th			Festival da Canção 1966
1967	Eduardo Nascimento	O vento mudou M: Nuño Nazareth Fernandes; T: João Magalhães Pereira	Portuguese	The wind has turned	12/17	3			Festival da Canção 1967
1968	Carlos Mendes	Verão M: Pedro Osório; T: José Alberto Diogo	Portuguese	summer	11/17	5			Festival da Canção 1968
1969	Simone de Oliveira	Desfolhada portuguesa M: Nuño Nazareth Fernandes; T: José Carlos Ary dos Santos	Portuguese	Heavy loss	15/16	4th			Festival da Canção 1969
1970	No participation
1971	Tonicha	Menina do alto da serra M: Nuño Nazareth Fernandes; T: José Carlos Ary dos Santos	Portuguese	The girl from the highlands	9/18	83	Direct participation		Festival da Canção 1971
1972	Carlos Mendes	A festa da vida M: José Calvário ; T: José Niza	Portuguese	The festival of life	7/18	90			Festival da Canção 1972
1973	Fernando Tordo	Tourada M: Fernando Tordo; T: José Carlos Ary dos Santos	Portuguese	Bullfight	10/17	80			Festival da Canção 1973
1974	Paulo de Carvalho	E depois do Adeus M: José Calvário; T: José Niza	Portuguese	And after saying goodbye	14/17	3			Festival da Canção 1974
1975	Duarte Mendes	Madrugada M / T: José Luis Tinoco	Portuguese	Morning hour	16/19	16			Festival da Canção 1975
1976	Carlos do Carmo	Uma flor de verde pinho M: José Niza; T: Manuel Alegre	Portuguese	A pine green flower	12/18	24			Festival da Canção 1976
1977	Os amigos	Portugal no coração M: Fernando Tordo; T: José Carlos Ary dos Santos	Portuguese	Portugal in the heart	14/18	18th			Festival da Canção 1977
1978	Gemini	Dai li dou M: Victor Maméde; T: Carlos Quintas	Portuguese	-	17/20	5			Festival da Canção 1978
1979	Manuela Bravo	Sobe, sobe, balão sobe M / T: Carlos Nobrega e Sousa	Portuguese	Rise, balloon, rise	9/19	64			Festival da Canção 1979
1980	José Cid	Um grande, grande amor M / T: José Cid	Portuguese	A great, great love	7/19	71			Festival da Canção 1980
1981	Carlos Paião	Play-back M / T: Carlos Paião	Portuguese	-	18/20	9			Festival da Canção 1981
1982	Doce	Bem bom M / T: António A. Pinho, Tózé Brito, Pedro Brito	Portuguese	Well	13/18	32			Festival da Canção 1982
1983	Armando Gama	Esta balada que te dou M / T: Armando Gama	Portuguese	I'll give you this ballad	13/20	33			Festival da Canção 1983
1984	Maria Guinot	Silêncio e tanta gente M / T: Maria Guinot	Portuguese	Silence and so many people	11/19	38			Festival da Canção 1984
1985	Adelaide	Penso em ti, eu be M: Tózé Brito; T: Adelaïde Ferreira, Luis Fernando	Portuguese	I think about you i know	18/19	9			Festival da Canção 1985
1986	Dora	Não sejas mau para mim M / T: Guilherme Inês, Zé da Ponte & Luis Oliveira	Portuguese	Do not be mad at me	14/20	28			Festival da Canção 1986
1987	Nevada	Neste barco à vela M: Alfredo Azinheira, Jorge Mendes; T: Alfredo Azinheira	Portuguese	In this sailboat	18/22	15th			Festival da Canção 1987
1988	Dora	Voltarei M / T: José Calvário, José Niza	Portuguese	I will turn back	18/21	5			Festival da Canção 1988
1989	Da Vinci	Conquistador M: Ricardo; T: Pedro Luis	Portuguese	conqueror	16/22	39			Festival da Canção 1989
1990	Nucha	Há semper alguém M: Jan van Dijck, Luis Filipe; T: Fancisco Teotonio Pereira, Frederico Teotonio Pereira	Portuguese	There is always someone there	20/22	9			Festival da Canção 1990
1991	Dulce Pontes	Lusitana paixão M: Jorge Quintela, Zé da Ponte; T: Fred Micael, Zé da Ponte	Portuguese	Lusitanian passion	8/22	62			Festival da Canção 1991
1992	Dina	Amor d'água fresca M: Ondina Veloso; T: Rosa Lobato de Faria	Portuguese	Freshwater love	17/23	26th			Festival da Canção 1992
1993	Anabela	A cidade (até ser dia) M / T: Paulo de Carvalho , Marco Quelhas, Pedro Abrantes	Portuguese	The city (until dawn)	10/25	60			Festival da Canção 1993
1994	Sara Tavares	Chamar a música M: João Carlos Campos de Sousa Mota Oliveira; T: Rosa Lobato de Faria	Portuguese	Call the music	8/25	73	Qualified directly for the final		Festival da Canção 1994
1995	To Cruz	Baunilha e chocolate M: António Vitorino d'Almeida ; T: António Vitorino d'Almeida, Rosa Lobato de Faria	Portuguese	Vanilla and chocolate	21/23	5			Festival da Canção 1995
1996	Lúcia Moniz	O meu coração not temp cor M: Pedro Osório; T: José Fanha	Portuguese	My heart has no color	6/23	92	18/29	32	Festival da Canção 1996
1997	Celia Lawson	Antes do adeus M: Rodrigues Lobato de Faria, Thilo Krassman; T: Rosa Maria de Bettencourt, Rosa Lobato de Faria	Portuguese	Before parting	24/25	0	Qualified directly for the final		Festival da Canção 1997
1998	Alma Lusa	Se eu te pudesse abraçar M / T: José Cid	Portuguese	If i could hug you	12/25	36			Festival da Canção 1998
1999	Rui Bandeira	Como tudo começou M: Jorge do Carmo; T: Tó Andrade	Portuguese	How it all started	21/23	12			Festival da Canção 1999
2000	Not qualified
2001	MTM	So be ser feliz assim M / T: Marco Quelhas	Portuguese	I can only be so happy	17/23	18th	Qualified directly for the final		Festival da Canção 2001
2002	No participation
2003	Rita Guerra	Deixa-me sonhar (só mais uma vez) M / T: Paulo Martins	Portuguese, English	Let me dream (just one more time)	22/26	13	Qualified directly for the final		Festival da Canção 2003
2004	Sofia Vitória	Foi magia M / T: Paulo Neves	Portuguese	It was magic	Eliminated		15/22	38	Festival da Canção 2004
2005	2 B	Amar M / T: Jose da Ponte, Alexandre Honrado, Ernesto Leite	Portuguese, English	Love	Eliminated		17/25	51	internal selection
2006	Nonstop	Coisas de nada M / T: José Manuel Afonso & Elvis Veiguinha	Portuguese, English	Inconsequential	Eliminated		19/23	26th	Festival da Canção 2006
2007	Sabrina	Dança comigo (vem ser feliz) M: Emanuel ; T: Emanuel, Tó Maria Vinhas	Portuguese, English, Spanish , French	Dance with me (come be happy)	Eliminated |		11/28	88	Festival da Canção 2007
2008	Vânia Fernandes	Senhora do mar M: Andrej Babić ; T: Carlos Coelho	Portuguese	Mistress of the sea	13/25	69	2/19	120	Festival da Canção 2008
2009	Flor-de-Lis	Todas as ruas do amor M: Pedro Marques; T: Paulo Pereira, Pedro Marques	Portuguese	All the streets of love	15/25	57	8/18	70	Festival da Canção 2009
2010	Filipa Azevedo	Há dias assim M / T: Augusto Madureira	Portuguese	It's one of those days again	18/25	43	4/17	89	Festival da Canção 2010
2011	Homens da Luta	Luta é alegria M: Vasco Duarte; T: Nuno Duarte Jel	Portuguese	Fighting is fun	Eliminated		18/19	22nd	Festival da Canção 2011
2012	Filipa Sousa	Vida minha M: Andrej Babić; T: Carlos Coelho	Portuguese	My life	Eliminated		13/19	39	Festival da Canção 2012
2013	No participation
2014	Suzy	Quero ser tua M / T: Emanuel	Portuguese	I want to belong to you	Eliminated		11/16	39	Festival da Canção 2014
2015	Leonor Andrade	Há um mar que nos separa M / T: Miguel Gameiro	Portuguese	There is a sea that divides us	Eliminated		14/17	19th	Festival da Canção 2015
2016	No participation
2017	Salvador Sobral	Amar pelos dois M / T: Luísa Sobral	Portuguese	Love for two	1 / 26th	758	1/18	370	Festival da Canção 2017
2018	Cláudia Pascoal	O jardim M / T: Isaura	Portuguese	The garden	26/26	39	Qualified directly for the final		Festival da Canção 2018
2019	Conan Osíris	Telemóveis M / T: Conan Osíris	Portuguese	Mobile phones	Eliminated		15/17	51	Festival da Canção 2019
2020	Elisa	Medo de Sentir M / T: Marta Carvalho	Portuguese	Fear of feeling	Cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic by the EBU				Festival da Canção 2020

National preliminary decisions

So far, almost all Portuguese contributions have been determined through the annual Festival da Canção . Only in 2002, 2013 and 2016 when Portugal voluntarily decided not to participate and in 2005 when the contribution was selected internally, the festival did not take place. In 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019, in addition to the finals, semi-finals were also broadcast.

languages

Most of the contributions were sung in Portuguese, the national language, even in times of free choice of language. Portuguese-English mixed versions were only created in 2003, 2005 and 2006. In 2007 the chorus contained lines in French, Spanish and English.

Competitions held

year	city	venue	Moderation
2018	Lisbon	Altice Arena	Daniela Ruah , Sílvia Alberto , Catarina Furtado and Filomena Cautela

Scoring

The following countries received the most points from or awarded the most points to Portugal (as of 2018):

Most of the points awarded in the final space country Points 1  Spain 209 2  Italy 205 3  Germany 185 4th  United Kingdom 176 5  France 142

Most in the final received points space country Points 1  France 188 2  Spain 178 3  Switzerland 122 4th  Netherlands 093 5  Germany 078

Most of the points awarded space country Points 1  Spain 209 2  Italy 205 3  Sweden 203 4th  Germany 185 5  United Kingdom 176

Most total obtained points space country Points 1  France 250 2  Spain 249 3  Switzerland 188 4th  Belgium 120 5  Germany 118

Award of the highest rating

Since 1975, Portugal has awarded the maximum number of points to 19 different countries, seven of which to Spain.

Sustaining land
year	country	space
1975	France	4th
1976	United Kingdom	1
1977	United Kingdom	2
1978	Luxembourg	7th
1979	Israel	1
1980	Italy	6th
1981	Germany	2
1982	Germany	1
1983	Luxembourg	1
1984	Spain	3
1985	Italy	7th
1986	Belgium	1
1987	Italy	3
1988	Switzerland	1
1989	United Kingdom	2
1990	Iceland	4th
1991	Italy	7th
1992	Malta	3
1993	France	4th
1994	Ireland	1
1995	Norway	1
1996	United Kingdom	8th
1997	Italy	4th
1998	Israel	1
1999	Germany	3
2000	Not qualified
2001	France	4th
2002	No participation
2003	Spain	8th
2004	Spain	10
2005	Romania	3
2006	Ukraine	7th
2007	Ukraine	2
2008	Ukraine	2
2009	Moldova	14th
2010	Spain	15th
2011	Spain	23
2012	Spain	10
2013	No participation
2014	Austria	1
2015	Italy	3
2016	No participation
2017	Azerbaijan (J)	14th
	Moldova (T)	3
2018	Estonia (J)	8th
	Spain (T)	23
2019	Netherlands (J)	1
	Spain (T)	22nd

various

• Portugal has been taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest since 1964 , but only won its first victory in 2017. No other participating country had to wait so long for the great success. The best placement of a Portuguese entry had previously been a 6th place in 1996 .
• After the break in 2013, Portugal returned to the ESC in 2014, 50 years after the first participation. In 1964 and 2014, the ESC took place in Copenhagen .
• Besides Lithuania, Portugal is the only country that did not receive a single point on their debut.
• Portugal did not participate in the ESC in 2000, 2013 and 2016. The competition was held in Sweden every three years.
• Since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, Portugal has qualified for the final only five times (2008, 2009, 2010, 2017 and 2018 as the host country) out of a total of 12 participations. In 2018, Portugal was pre-qualified for the final thanks to the 2017 win.
• Portugal holds the record for the highest score: 758.
  • Even under the old points system, Portugal would have broken Norway's record (387) with 417 points.
• After Serbia and North Macedonia, Portugal is the third country to win the Barbara Dex Award several times ( 2006 and 2019 ). The award "honors" the worst outfit at the Eurovision Song Contest .

Impressions

• 

  Simone de Oliveira 1965

• 

  José Cid 1980

• 

  Sofia Vitória 2004

• 

  Sabrina 2007

• 

  Vânia Fernandes 2008

• 

  Flor-de-Lis 2009

• 

  Filipa Azevedo 2010

• 

  Suzy 2014

• 

  Leonor Andrade 2015

• 

  Salvador Sobral 2017

• 

  Cláudia Pascoal 2018