Madalena Iglésias (24 October 1939 – 16 January 2018) was a Portuguese actress and singer. She represented Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest 1966, with the song "

Ele e ela Portugal was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 with the song "", written by Carlos Canelhas, and performed by Madalena Iglésias. The Portuguese participating broadcaster, (RTP), selected its entry at the 1966. Before Eurovisio ...

Biography

Madalena Lucília Iglésias Doval was born in the Santa Catarina neighborhood of

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

on 24 October 1939. She studied at the Conservatory and the School of Singing, and at the age of 15, she joined the Rádio e Televisão de Portugal's Center for Radio Artist Training, under the direction of Motta Pereira. She died on January 16, 2018, in a clinic in Barcelona, Spain, at the age of 78.

Career

Iglésias made her public debut in 1954 on both television and the national radio. Her international career began in 1959 with an appearance on Spanish television. In 1960, she was named "Queen of Radio and Television" in Portugal. She participated in numerous national and international music festivals. In 1962, she represented Portugal at the Benidorm Festival. Two years later, she competed in the

Festival da Canção (; "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. It was first held in 1964. History Like most music festivals in isolated ...

with the songs "Balada das Palavras Perdidas" and "Na Tua Carta", placing fifth and tenth, respectively. That same year, she won the Spanish-Portuguese Festival of

Aranda de Duero Aranda de Duero is a city and municipality, capital of the Ribera del Duero comarca, in the south of the province of Burgos, in Castile and León, Spain. It has a population of roughly 33,000 people and lies on the River Duero. Description T ...

. In 1966, Iglésias won the Festival da Canção with the song "Ele e Ela", written by Carlos Canelhas. She subsequently represented Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 in Luxembourg, performing eighth in the running order and placing 13th with six points—the country's best result at the time. The song was later released in Spanish as "Él y Ella" and issued in Spain, France, and the Netherlands. In the same year, she placed second at the Mediterranean Song Festival with "September" and won the ''Prémio da Hispanidade'' (Hispanic Prize) for the song "Vuelo 502". She was awarded the 1966 ''Casa da Imprensa'' prize the following year. Iglésias was one of the most prominent voices of ''nacional-cançonetismo'', a musical style that emphasized Portuguese cultural identity and was widely popular during the 1960s. Her repertoire included recordings with the Tecla label (owned by Jorge Costa Pinto) and a retrospective compilation issued by Movieplay in the series ''O Melhor dos Melhores''.

Filmography

*''Uma hora de Amor'' (1964) *''Canção da Saudade'' (1964) *''Sarilho de fraldas'' (1966)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Iglesias, Madalena 1939 births 2018 deaths 20th-century Portuguese actresses 20th-century Portuguese women singers Portuguese film actresses Portuguese expatriates in Spain Actresses from Lisbon Singers from Lisbon Eurovision Song Contest entrants