The Portuguese National Final (Festival da Canção) will take place Saturday 7 March at 9pm WIM, and it will be available to watch here.

Sixteen acts competed over two semifinals of eight songs each. The original sixteen were selected as follows: fourteen directly invited by RTP, one selected by Antena 1's radio show MasterClass, and one selected from an open call of 320 submissions received by RTP. Four acts qualified from each of the semifinals, as decided by a combination of 50% jury vote (present in the studio) and 50% televote.

These are the 8 finalists, in running order, are (links from the semifinal performances):
1. Filipe Sambado – Gerbera Amarela Do Sul
2. Jimmy P – Abensonhado
3. Tomás Luzia – Mais Real Que O Amor
4. Elisa Rodrigues – Não Voltes Mais
5. Throes + The Shine – Movimento
6. Kady – Diz Só
7. Elisa – Medo De Sentir
8. Bárbara Tinoco – Passe-Partout

The winner will be decided again by a combination of 50% jury and 50% televote, but the jury scores will be given this time by regional juries. Filomena Cautela will host the show (together with Vasco Palmeirim).

I think Passe-Partout is absolutely Portugal's best bet, it would bring something different, fresh, and pleasant to the mix. I personally also very much like Medo De Sentir, and I enjoy Movimento and (a bit to a lesser extent) Abensonhado - but neither of them is quite right for Eurovision, I think.

Here is a recap from the final. My favourites are passe partout and Tomaz Luzia.

The winner of the Portuguese National Final, and hence the act to represent Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam, is Elisa, with her song Medo De Sentir [Afraid to Feel].

She came second in both televote and jury. Watch the live performance here:

so she didnt even win either vote this will go nowhere in May unlike song 8 which at least was different and bouncy, we almost got liberace though

Love it

Wow! So, last night really was the night of unexpected results!

The night of boring winners