Portugal was represented for the second time by

Simone de Oliveira Simone de Macedo e Oliveira, GCIH • GMC (born 11 February 1938) better known as Simone de Oliveira is a Portuguese singer and actress. She performed the Portuguese entries at the 1965 and 1969 editions of the Eurovision song contest. Ear ...

, with the song "Desfolhada portuguesa", at the

1969 Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Madrid, Spain, following the country's victory at the with the song "La, la, la" by Massiel. Organised by the European Broadcasting U ...

, which took place on 29 March in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

. "Desfolhada portuguesa" was chosen as the Portuguese entry at the Grande Prémio TV da Canção Portuguesa on 24 February. Actually,

was not the authors' first choice to defend the "Desfolhada portuguesa" at this festival, having even been invited to a week of the event.

Before Eurovision

Festival da Canção 1969

For the first time, the Grande Prémio TV da Canção Portuguesa was held with audience, at the

Teatro São Luiz The Teatro São Luiz is a theatre located in the Chiado district of the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. It opened on 22 May 1894. Early history ''Teatro Municipal de São Luiz'' was the idea of the Portuguese actor, Guilherme da Silveira, who be ...

in Lisbon, hosted by Lurdes Norberto. Ten songs took part in the final. Ferrer Trindade conducted all but two songs. The results were determined by a distrital jury, composed by three members, each had 5 votes to be distributed among the songs it intended to award, making a total of 15 votes per district.

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Oliveira performed 15th in the running order, following

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

and preceding

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. At the close of the voting the song had received 4 points, coming 15th in the field of 16 competing countries. The orchestra during the Portuguese entry was conducted by Ferrer Trindade. The Portuguese people followed the minute the presence of

in Eurovision, through the reports emitted by the radio and newspapers of that time. It was a great disappointment when it became known that Oliveira and the choristers were unwell on the eve of the event due to having eaten spoiled

apple pie An apple pie is a fruit pie in which the principal filling ingredient is apples. The earliest printed recipe is from England. Apple pie is often served with whipped cream, ice cream ("apple pie à la mode"), or cheddar cheese. It is gene ...

, which forced them to undergo medical intervention.NA EUROVISÃO
/ref> Fortunately, this episode did not prevent Simone, the two members of the choir (Maria Alexandre de Brito and Natália Rodrigues de Matos) and the guitarist (António Luís Gomes) from taking the stage of the

Teatro Real The Teatro Real (Royal Theatre) is an opera house in Madrid, Spain. Located at the Plaza de Oriente, opposite the Royal Palace, and known colloquially as ''El Real'', it is considered the top institution of the performing and musical arts in the ...

. Despite the poor placing, when Simone returned by train from

Santa Apolónia Station Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnight ...

, in Lisbon, she was received with the biggest demonstration ever given to a singer by the Portuguese people, even at a time when demonstrations were prohibited. The regime was unable to stop the strength of the people who made a point of paying homage to their representative at the Eurovision and sang " Desfolhada portuguesa" in unison.

was the target of the biggest demonstration ever made to a Portuguese singer.

Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1969

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1969 Eurovision