Portugal was represented by

Carlos do Carmo Carlos Manuel de Ascenção do Carmo de Almeida ComIH (21 December 1939 – 1 January 2021), better known as Carlos do Carmo, was a Portuguese fado singer. The son of Lucília do Carmo, a well-known ''fadista'', do Carmo began his career in fad ...

, with the song "Uma flor de verde pinho", at the

1976 Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest 1976 was the 21st edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in The Hague, Netherlands, following the country's victory at the with the song "Ding-a-dong" by Teach-In (band), Teach-In. Organised by t ...

, which took place on 3 April in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

. "Uma flor de verde pinho" was chosen as the Portuguese entry at the Grande Prémio TV da Canção Portuguesa on 7 March.

Before Eurovision

Festival da Canção 1976

The Festival da Canção 1976 was held at the

Lumiar Lumiar () is a ''freguesia'' (civil parish) and district of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. Located in northern Lisbon, Lumiar is east of Carnide, north of Alvalade, west of Olivais, and south of Santa Clara and partially of Lisbon's border wit ...

studios of the

Radio and Television of Portugal Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

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 ...

, hosted by

António Vitorino de Almeida Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...

Ana Zanatti Ana Zanatti (born 1949) is a Portuguese theatre, film and television actor, television presenter, novelist, children's book writer, poet and a women's- and LGBT-rights campaigner. Early life Ana Maria Zanatti Olival was born in the Portuguese ca ...

and

Eládio Clímaco Eládio Taboas Clímaco (born 27 October 1941, in Lisbon) is a Portuguese television presenter best known for hosting ''Festival da Canção'', ''Jeux Sans Frontières'', commentating on the Eurovision Song Contest for RTP viewers, and providing ...

. Eight songs took part in the final. Thilo Krasmann conducted all the songs. For the first time, only one singer was chosen to perform all the songs:

, a highly respected

fado Fado (; "destiny, fate") is a music genre that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of fado was ...

singer, was invited to perform the eight songs, chosen by public contest. The voting system was once again changed: for the first time, the public was invited to participate on the choice, casting votes on postcards via post until 3 March. On 22 February, the eight compositions were presented to the general public, 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 on the 23 on

RTP2 RTP2 (''RTP dois'') 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 second television channel, and is known for broadcasting cultural, ...

, although the respective authors and composers were not yet known. On 7 March and after the votes of the Portuguese people were scrutinized, the eight songs are again presented from 8th to 1st place, where the authors of each theme and the percentage of votes obtained for each song were revealed.

At Eurovision

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

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and preceding

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

. At the close of the voting the song had received 24 points, coming 12th in the field of 18 competing countries. The orchestra during the Portuguese entry was conducted by Thilo Krasmann.

Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1976

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976

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 ...