(; "Song Festival") or Festival RTP da Canção is the name given to the national festival produced and broadcast by (RTP) to select for the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

. It was first held in 1964.

History

Like most music festivals in isolated countries, the was a very important event for the still-incipient Portuguese music industry of the 1960s and 1970s. Left-wing composers and writers would try to squeeze subversive lyrics in the contest, with great effect. After the 1974 revolution, incidentally code-triggered by that year's winner being played on national radio, Portugal became increasingly open to foreign culture, thus deeming the Festival as a lesser musical event, dominated by below-standard pop songs with little or no impact in the industry, although remaining a popular TV show. The 1990s saw a recovery of the contest's image, then considered a viable means for a new singer to start a career. Internationally acclaimed Portuguese singers

Dulce Pontes Dulce José Silva Pontes (; born 8 April 1969) is a Portuguese songwriter and singer who performs in many musical styles, including pop, folk, and classical music. She is usually defined as a world music artist. Her songs contributed to the 1990s ...

and Sara Tavares made their debut in the 1991 and 1994 editions, respectively. Many other unknown performers like Lucia Moniz and Anabela leaped to national stardom after taking the RTP trophy. After reaching an all-time high 6th place in the 1996 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, the festival steadily declined from then on. In 2000, the winner ''Liana'' did not participate in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2000 The Eurovision Song Contest 2000 was the 45th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 13 May 2000 at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden and presented by Kattis Ahlström and Anders Lundin. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union ( ...

, as Portugal had been relegated from the 2000 contest after two consecutive poor showings in 1998 and 1999; this would be the second time in the festival's history that the winner did not participate in Eurovision. In 2002, the was placed on hiatus, contradicting the tradition of staging a even without participating in that year's Eurovision Song Contest, as happened in 2000 and 1970. From 2001, the festival saw consecutive changes of format. 2005 saw RTP commissioning a song for Eurovision, rather than organizing some kind of competition for select a national entry. Since 2006, RTP has settled for a traditional multi-singer, multi-composer competitive format, claiming the memory of older contests and songs. Producers have since been invited to come up with songs, lyrics and singers, and the 2007 result with Sabrina almost making it to the Eurovision final, gave RTP the necessary confidence to maintain the current format. In 2009, an open call for songs was held by RTP, abolishing the invited producers method, with online voting deciding the qualifiers to the televised final from a list of 24 songs, with 12 competing in the live contest. More changes to the format of the contest were made in 2010. Two semi-finals and a final are now held to select the winner. Foreign composers were once again allowed to compete. Since 2017, different languages are allowed to compete. The 2020 edition of the festival marked the third time in its history where the winner was unable to participate in Eurovision, as the contest itself was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Hosts

;1960s *1964: Henrique Mendes and Maria Helena Fialho Gouveia *1965: Henrique Mendes *1966: Henrique Mendes and Maria Fernanda *1967: Henrique Mendes and Isabel Wolmar *1968: Henrique Mendes and Maria Fernanda *1969: ;1970s *1970: Maria Fernanda and Carlos Cruz *1971: Henrique Mendes and *1972: and Carlos Cruz *1973: Alice Cruz and Artur Agostinho *1974: and Artur Agostinho *1975: Maria Elisa and *1976: Eládio Clímaco and Ana Zanatti *1977:

Nicolau Breyner João Nicolau de Melo Breyner Moreira Lopes (30 July 1940 – 14 March 2016), known professionally as Nicolau Breyner, was a Portuguese actor, screenwriter, producer, director and television host. He was one of the most well-known figures in Por ...

and

Herman José Hermann José von Krippahl , known as Herman José (born 19 March 1954), is a Portuguese-born German comedian, television host, actor and musician. He is best known for his numerous TV shows and comedy sketches. Starting his career in the mid-1 ...

*1978: Eládio Clímaco and Maria José Azevedo *1979: José Fialho Gouveia and ;1980s *1980: Eládio Clímaco and Ana Zanatti *1981: Eládio Clímaco and *1982: Alice Cruz, José Fialho Gouveia, Ivone Silva and *1983: Eládio Clímaco and Valentina Torres *1984: and José Fialho Gouveia *1985: Eládio Clímaco, and José Fialho Gouveia *1986: Eládio Clímaco, Ana Zanatti, José Fialho Gouveia, Henrique Mendes and Maria Helena *1987: Ana Zanatti *1988: Ana Paula Reis, Valentina Torres and António Sequeira *1989: and António Vitorino de Almeida ;1990s *1990: Ana do Carmo and

*1991: Júlio Isidro and Ana Paula Reis *1992: Eládio Clímaco and Ana Zanatti (final); Júlio Isidro (semi-final) *1993: Margarida Mercês de Melo and António Sala (final); Júlio Isidro (semi-final) *1994: Ana Paula Reis and

(final); Ana do Carmo and Luís de Matos (semi-final) *1995: Carlos Mendes, Sofia Morais and

*1996: Isabel Angelino and Carlos Cruz *1997: and António Sala (final); Isabel Angelino (semi-final) *1998: Lúcia Moniz and *1999: Manuel Luís Goucha and Alexandra Lencastre ;2000s *2000: and Gaspar Borges *2001: Sónia Araújo and Cristina Möhler *2003:

Catarina Furtado Catarina Cardoso Garcia da Fonseca Furtado (born 25 August 1972) is a Portuguese television presenter, actress and UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador. She is a daughter of RTP journalist Joaquim Furtado. Career Throughout her career on television w ...

*2004: Catarina Furtado *2005: Eládio Clímaco and Tânia Ribas de Oliveira *2006: and Jorge Gabriel *2007: Isabel Angelino and Jorge Gabriel *2008:

Sílvia Alberto Sílvia Alberto (born 18 May 1981) is a Portuguese television presenter and actress, currently employed by Rádio e Televisão de Portugal. She began her career in 2000, presenting ''Clube Disney'' on RTP1. She was one of the hosts of the 2018 ...

*2009: Sílvia Alberto ;2010s *2010: Sílvia Alberto *2011: Sílvia Alberto *2012: Sílvia Alberto and *2014:

José Carlos Malato José Carlos Malato (born 7 March 1964) is a Portugal, Portuguese TV presenter, radio broadcaster, copywriter and college teacher. In 2018, Malato publicly came out as gay. In 2022, they came out as Non-binary gender, non-binary. Television prog ...

and Sílvia Alberto *2015: Júlio Isidro and Catarina Furtado *2017: **

and Sónia Araújo (1st semi-final) ** Jorge Gabriel and Tânia Ribas de Oliveira (2nd semi-final) **

, Sílvia Alberto and

Filomena Cautela Filomena José Dias Fernandes Cautela (born 16 December 1984) is a Portuguese television presenter and actress. Cautela started her acting career in the theatre in the year 2000. In 2004, she made her debut in cinema, and in 2005, she was cast as ...

(final) *2018: **Jorge Gabriel and José Carlos Malato (1st semi-final) **Sónia Araújo and Tânia Ribas de Oliveira (2nd semi-final) **Filomena Cautela and (final) *2019: **Sónia Araújo and Tânia Ribas de Oliveira (1st semi-final) **Jorge Gabriel and José Carlos Malato (2nd semi-final) **Filomena Cautela and Vasco Palmeirim (final) ;2020s *2020: **Jorge Gabriel and Tânia Ribas de Oliveira (1st semi-final) **José Carlos Malato and Sónia Araújo (2nd semi-final) **Filomena Cautela and Vasco Palmeirim (final) *2021: **Jorge Gabriel and Sónia Araújo (1st semi-final) **José Carlos Malato and Tânia Ribas de Oliveira (2nd semi-final) **Filomena Cautela and Vasco Palmeirim (final) *2022: **Jorge Gabriel and Sónia Araújo (1st semi-final) **José Carlos Malato and Tânia Ribas de Oliveira (2nd semi-final) **Filomena Cautela and Vasco Palmeirim (final) *2023: **José Carlos Malato and Tânia Ribas de Oliveira (1st semi-final) **Jorge Gabriel and Sónia Araújo (2nd semi-final) **Filomena Cautela and Vasco Palmeirim (final) *2024: **José Carlos Malato and Tânia Ribas de Oliveira (1st semi-final) **Jorge Gabriel and Sónia Araújo (2nd semi-final) **Filomena Cautela and Vasco Palmeirim (final) *2025: **Jorge Gabriel and José Carlos Malato (1st semi-final) **Tânia Ribas de Oliveira and Sónia Araújo (2nd semi-final) **Filomena Cautela and Vasco Palmeirim (final)

Green room presenters

Winners

Venues

Final

Venues (since 2017)

Key: SF = Semi-final; F = Final

References

External links

Festival da Canção Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Festival da Cancao Eurovision Song Contest selection events Music festivals in Portugal Rádio e Televisão de Portugal original programming Music festivals established in 1964 Pop music festivals 1964 establishments in Portugal Annual events in Portugal