FESTIVAL DA CANÇÃO 2015 Semi Final 1

PORTUGAL : LIVE ROLLING BLOG of Festival da Canção Semi Final – #JoinUs at 22:00 CET

6 acts battle it out in Lisbon where 3 places are up for grabs for the Grand Final.

The show starts at 22:00 CET and you can watch it HERE On the Live Webcast

You can follow our LIVE BLOG HERE – You know the drill by now. Just refresh the page for our live updates. You are in my (Garrett’s) hands tonight. I promise to be gentle and to have some fun with the commentary

Six acts will be competing in the first semi-final and three of them will advance to Saturday Grand Final final. There will be a second Semi Final on Thursday.

Tonight 2 of the of the qualifying acts will be selected by tele-voting and the third will be selected by the jury.

We have a LIVE ORCHESTRA! YAY!

Your hosts will be Joana Teles and Jorge Gabriel.

LIVE BLOG – 22:00 CET

Ok – I am excited and nervous at the start of the Portuguese selection and the institution that is the Festival da Canção. Portugal is one of my favourite countries at Eurovision and have been underrated at the contest for far too long. I will hold my hands up and say that I was not a fan of last year’s song but I am hopeful that we have a Eurovision winner this week in Lisbon.

Ok – Portuguese TV are a little late but here we go! Oh Ohh Oooooh Oh a Ohhhhhhh- Suzy is back.

So we had 2 pre-hosts introducing the hosts ;-) It’s JJ Joana and Jorge

Love it – we start in the Green room for the show talking to scared contestants before they have performed!

The all important voting numbers!

 HERE WE GO – THE FIRST SONG #EXCITED

Rita Seidi – Lisboa, Lisboa

Garrett’s Comments

Wearing Joseph’s Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat could not put me off this song. I LOVED IT! This is exactly why I love Portugal at Eurovision. A traditional flavoured song with an amazing and soulful young singer. She popped out of the tv screen like her coat. This was catchy as it was instant while at the same time being totally credible. As a start to the show I could not be happier!

Leonor Andrade – Há Um Mar Que Nos Separa

Garrett’s Comments

Best way to describe this is a modern pop/rock song with hints of Fado to it. For me the song was stronger in the verses than the Chorus but that can easily be changed with arrangement. Slightly weak at times on some of the higher registers but overall a song with potential that might not have been realised fully on that performance. Second best at the moment.

Filipa Baptista – A Noite Inteira

Garrett’s Comments

Filipa wins the award for the best prop on stage – #RatherFine! This was a strange song for me but the loved audience loved it. It was a disco song that changed tempo and key several times during the song. Overall it felt a little dated and struggling to find what it actually was. It left me thinking of an 80’s Saturday night discotheque and I would fear if it went to Eurovision. Filipa sang it well and looks stunning but the song didn’t do her justice.

Yola Dinis – Outra Vez Primavera

Garrett’s Comments

#GameOn – Yola scored a home run with that song. That was everything that I love about Portuguese Eurovision Songs. This was wonderful. An excellently crafted song that was performed to perfection. The all important key change from Yola with an amazing build of orchestration in the song. I was entranced on Yola and drifted off to a dimly lit cafe in Lisbon. My only criticism is that Yola didn’t open her eyes once in the song. She needs to make sure she has some moments of contact with the camera and the audience at home. Overall #AMAZING ;-)

See I told you the Portuguese selection is always great – I just skip over 2014

Gonçalo Tavares – Tu Tens Uma Mágica

Garrett’s Comments

Less is more! This was like an episode out of that 80’s classic tv show ‘Fame’ complete with a dancing cast of thousands that frankly the song/performance didn’t need. It has a great piano middle of the road feel to it but the staging was all wrong as was the styling of Goncalo. Him beside a real piano would have given this song a lot more gravitas but the glitz overshadowed a good song.

Adelaide Ferreira – Paz

Garrett’s Comments

Time for some Portuguese Eurovision Royalty. Can you remember the year that Adelaide represented Portugal at Eurovision? If you can’t then shame on you! Adelaide still sounds wonderful and she has grown into her voice with maturity. The song though was not befitting of such an icon. It was all very nicey nicey and would get lost at Eurovision where I think the contest has moved on from such a composition. However it was wonderful to see and hear Adelaide again.

INTERVAL ACT TIME

Wrapped in tinfoil and minus the sexy drummers the Portuguese still can’t get enough of Suzy :-/

Still one of the world’s modern mysteries

Garrett’s Predictions

Yola Dinis – Outra Vez Primavera

Rita Seidi – Lisboa, Lisboa

Leonor Andrade – Há Um Mar Que Nos Separa

Actual Results

Here we go – results time

2 songs get selected by the public and 1 by the jury!

VOTING LINES ARE CLOSED

All 6 singers are back to sing perform some of Porthugal’s classic Eurovision songs. #FAB

Green room and the lovely Sara Tavaras who represented Portugal in Dublin in 1994 and brought them to the Top 10. She is one  of the composers tonight.

Your first 3 finalists are 

Leonor Andrade – Há Um Mar Que Nos Separa – Public Vote

Yola Dinis – Outra Vez Primavera – Public Vote

Gonçalo Tavares – Tu Tens Uma Mágica – Jury Vote

Did Portugal pick the correct 3 songs?

Make sure to #JoinUs on Thursday for the second Semi Final where another 3 singers will make the final.

Author/Editor in Chief Garrett Mulhall

Source : Eurovision Ireland