Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest 1998 The Eurovision Song Contest 1998 was the 43rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, held on 9 May 1998 at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster ...

with the song "Se eu te pudesse abraçar" written by

José Cid José Albano Cid de Ferreira Tavares (born 4 February 1942) is a Portuguese singer, composer and record producer. Internationally, Cid is best known for his 1978 progressive rock album'' 10,000 Anos Depois Entre Vénus e Marte'' and for represe ...

. The song was performed by the group

Alma Lusa Alma or ALMA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Alma'' (film), a 2009 Spanish short animated film * ''Alma'' (Oswald de Andrade novel), 1922 * ''Alma'' (Le Clézio novel), 2017 * ''Alma'' (play), a 1996 drama by Joshua Sobol about Alma ...

. Songwriter José Cid represented

Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 1980 Portugal has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 53 times since its debut at the Eurovision Song Contest 1964, 1964 contest. Since then it has missed five contests (, , , and ). The contest is broadcast in Portugal by Rádio e Televisão ...

with the song "

Um grande, grande amor UM or um may refer to: Universities * U of M (disambiguation) or UM, abbreviation for various universities Businesses * Universal McCann, a global advertising and media agency * United Motors Company, a former name of American automotive parts s ...

" which placed seventh in the competition. The Portuguese broadcaster

Rádio e Televisão de Portugal Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) is the public service broadcasting organisation of Portugal. It operates four national television channels and three national radio stations, as well as several satellite and cable offerings. The current co ...

(RTP) organised the national final ''

Festival da Canção Festival da Canção (; "Song Festival") or Festival RTP da Canção is the name given to the national festival, produced and broadcast by Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) to choose the for the Eurovision Song Contest. It was first held in ...

1998'' in order to select the Portuguese entry for the 1998 contest in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, United Kingdom. The competition took place on 7 March 1998 where "Se eu te pudesse abraçar" performed by Alma Lusa emerged as the winner following the votes from a five-member jury panel. Portugal competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 1998. Performing during the show in position 14, Portugal placed twelfth out of the 25 participating countries, scoring 36 points.

Background

Prior to the 1998 contest, Portugal had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirty-three times since its first entry in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...

. The nation's highest placing in the contest was sixth, which they achieved in

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

with the song "O meu coração não tem cor" performed by

Lúcia Moniz Ana Lúcia Pereira Moniz (born 9 September 1976) is a Portuguese singer and actress. Moniz represented her country in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996 and has released five music albums She has also acted in several television shows, in theat ...

. Portugal's least successful result has been last place, which they have achieved on three occasions, most recently in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

with the song "Antes do adeus" performed by Célia Lawson. Portugal has also received ''

nul points The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is selected by a positional voting system. The most recent system was implemented in the , and sees each participating country award two sets of 12, 10, 8–1 points to their ten favourite songs: one set fr ...

'' on two occasions; in 1964 and 1997. The Portuguese national broadcaster,

(RTP), broadcasts the event within Portugal and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. The broadcaster has traditionally selected the Portuguese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest via the music competition ''

'', with an exception in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

when the Portuguese entry was internally selected. The broadcaster organized ''Festival da Canção 1998'' in order to select the 1998 Portuguese entry.

Before Eurovision

Festival da Canção 1998

''Festival da Canção 1998'' was the 35th edition of ''

'' that selected Portugal's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1998. Eight entries, selected from 29 submissions received through the Portuguese Phonographic Association, the Independent Phonographic Association and individual composers invited by RTP, competed in the competition which took place 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 ...

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

on 7 March 1998, hosted by Carlos Ribeiro and former Eurovision Song Contest entrant

, who represented Portugal in the 1996 contest, and broadcast on

RTP1 RTP1 (''RTP um'') is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's flagship television channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstr ...

and

RTP Internacional RTP Internacional (RTPi) is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's international television service, and is known for broadcasti ...

. The winner, "Se eu te pudesse abraçar" performed by

, was selected based on the votes of a jury panel. The jury that voted consisted of Maria do Rosário Domingues, João Filipe Barbosa, Nuno Galopim,

Paulo de Carvalho Paulo de Carvalho (born Manuel Paulo de Carvalho Costa, in Lisbon, on 15 May 1947) is a Portuguese singer. Career Carvalho co-founded the band The Sheiks in 1965. He sang and played the drums. He also played an instrumental role, either as a fou ...

and

Sara Tavares Sara Alexandra Lima Tavares (born 1 February 1978) is a Portugal, Portuguese singer, composer, guitarist and percussionist. She was born and brought up in Lisbon, Portugal, where she still lives. Second-generation Portuguese of Cape Verdean d ...

. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, among the artists which performed as the interval act included Portuguese Eurovision 1985 entrant

Adelaide Ferreira Maria Adelaide Mengas Matafome Ferreira (born 23 September 1959) is a Portuguese singer.

and Portuguese Eurovision 1993 entrant Anabela. Alma Lusa were a short-lived Portuguese musical group, set up specifically to participate in ''Festival da Canção 1998''. The group consisted of vocalist Inês Santos and musicians

, Carlos Jesus, Henrique Lopes, Carlos Ferreirinha and Pedro Soares; Cid represented

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the eight countries which had obtained the lowest average number of points over the last five contests competed in the final on 9 May 1998. On 13 November 1997, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Portugal was set to perform in position 14, following the entry from

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and before the entry from

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. The day before the contest, Portugal was considered by

bookmakers A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. History The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795. Range of events Bookma ...

to be the twelfth most likely country to win the competition. The Portuguese conductor at the contest was

Mike Sergeant Michael Sergeant is an English author, communications consultant and former journalist who worked for the BBC, Sky News, Reuters and CNN as a political correspondent, business correspondent and general news reporter. He worked as a foreign corres ...

, and Portugal finished in twelfth place with 36 points. In Portugal, the show was broadcast on

and

with commentary by Rui Unas. The Portuguese spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Portuguese televote, was 1996 contest entrant

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Portugal and awarded by Portugal in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Israel in the contest.

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1998

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...