Jonathan Currinn
Salvador Sobral is the guy who has won the Portugal national selection show Festival Da Canção 2017. This means he will be jetting off to Kyiv, Ukraine to represent his country at Eurovision; with his Portuguese song “Amar Pelos Dois”.
The song, and his performance, has had an emotional reaction from the fans, who claimed that they cried during the first listen of this song. Translated, the song’s title means “Love Enough”. He won the right to represent the country, after scoring a total of 22 points, 12 from the regional juries and 10 from the televote. Beating televote-favourite Viva La Diva who got 18 points with their song “Nova glória”.
Salvador Sobral has had experience in a contest format show before. He came seventh during the third season of Ídolos, the Portuguese version of Pop Idol.
Watch Eurovision 2017’s Salvador Sobral Perform “Amar Pelos Dois” Here:
Portugal has never won the Eurovision Song Contest, despite entering a total of 48 times. Their best placement is 6th in 1996 with Lúcia Moniz, who sang “O meu coração não tem cor”. In recent years, the last four representatives have not made it through to the Grand Final. Salvador Sobral is hoping to change their unlucky streak. Last year, the country didn’t compete.
For Portugal to finally win the Eurovision Song Contest; Salvador Sobral will have to beat plenty of strong acts; most of whom have already been announced. Confirmed to be performing on the Eurovision stage are: Cyprus’ Hovig, The Netherlands’ O’G3NE, Belgium’s Blanche, Macedonia’s Jana Burceska, Azerbaijan’s DiHaj, Ireland’s Brendan Murray, Austria’s Nathan Trent, Albania’s Lindita, Armenia’s Artsvik, Montenegro’s Slavko Kalezic, Greece’s Demy, Georgia’s Tako Gachechiladze, Belarus’ Navi, The United Kingdom’s Lucie Jones, Finland’s Norma John, Switzerland’s Timebelle, Germany’s Levina, France’s Alma, Spain’s Manel Navarro, Italy’s Francesco Gabbani, Israel’s Imri Ziv, Czech Republic’s Martina Barta, Croatia’s Jacques Houdek, Malta’s Claudia Faniello, Poland’s Kasia Mos, Hungary’s Joci Pápai, Slovenia’s Omar Naber, Denmark’s Anja Nissen, Moldova’s SunStroke Project, Ukraine’s O.Torvald, Latvia’s Triana Park, Serbia’s Tijana Bogicevic, Estonia’s Koit Toome & Laura and Romania’s Ilinca feat. Alex Florea.
There will be 43 countries competing in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017; which is being held at the International Exhibition Centre, Kyiv, Ukraine; after Jamala won the contest last year with her song “1944”. The two semi-finals will take place on 9 May and 11 May; whilst the Grand Final is set for 13 May 2017.
