About Portugal...

2006 Result
History (1956 to 2005)
This year's entry
What I predicted...
What you thought...
What actually happened...
What the bookies thought...

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2006 Result

Points in Semi Final: 26
Position in Semi Final: 19th

Points in Final: Failed to qualify
Position in Final: Failed to qualify
More about the 2006 result for Portugal

2007 Contest: Must compete in Semi Final

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History (1956 to 2005)

Portugal's previous appearances: 39 year(s) out of 50 [note]
Years participated: 1964-1969; 1971-1999; 2001; 2003- [note]
Best result: 6th (1996)

Portugal's record at Eurovision is spookily similar to that of Finland, with the same number of entries (39) and the same of lack of success (never finishing higher than 6th place). In Portugal's case, its high point came in 1996, when it achieved a strong 6th place thanks to Lucia Moniz - better known today as Colin Firth's Portuguese maid in the film 'Love Actually'. In fact, Portugal had a flurry of good results in the early 1990s (8th in 1991 and 1994, 10th in 1993), brought only to a grinding halt by scoring nothing at all in 1997. Since then, a series of mostly old-fashioned songs has resulted in Portugal doing no better than 12th, in 1998. The country missed 2000's contest through relegation, and after another poor result in 2001 (17th), declined to take part in 2002. Interestingly, Portugal's absence gave a reprieve to the Latvians, who had finished one place below the Portuguese in 2001 and would otherwise have missed the 2002 contest. Marie N went on to represent Latvia that year, winning the contest for her country in the process.

Portugal came back in 2003 with Rita Guerra's beautiful ballad, 'Deixa-me sonhar'. However, despite being sung partly in English, the song scraped a disappointing 22nd place, meaning that Portugal had to compete in the Semi Final in 2004. Many online polls had tipped Sofia and her song 'Foi Magia' to come last, so in the circumstances, 15th place with 38 points - including 12 from all the ex-pats in Andorra - was quite impressive. In 2005, the Andorran votes were nowhere to be seen, but that was not enough to prevent 2B securing a decent 51 points for 'Amar', even if its 17th place was slightly down on the year before. Of course, neither 15th nor 17th is anywhere near good enough to qualify for the Final, and the Portuguese need to produce something really good if they are to avoid languishing in the Semi Final on a permanent basis.
Get 'The Eurovision Song Contest: The Offical History' at Amazon.co.uk

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This year's entry

Position in Semi Final draw: 19
Position in Final draw: Failed to qualify

What I said prior to the Semi Final:
"After trying the 'Fame Academy' route in 2004 and an internal selection in 2005 - neither with much success - Portugal reverted to a traditional national final in 2006, the Festival RTP da Canção, held on 10 March. In an attempt to secure quality songs and performers, five producers were each invited to submit two songs, with the winning entry - 'Coisas de nada', performed by the girlband Nonstop - coming courtesy of Elvis Veiguinha.

Nonstop won the Portuguese Popstars show in 2001, so join previous TV talent show winners like Jonatan Cerrada (France 2004) and Omar (Slovenia 2005) in representing their country at Eurovision. However, given the phenomenal success of acts like the Spice Girls, Girls Aloud and, erm, B*Witched, it is surprising that Eurovision has never embraced the idea of girlbands very enthusiastically. Indeed, when girlbands have performed at Eurovision, they have more often than not been scuppered by their inability to sing live, in decipherable English, in tune, or at all (delete as applicable).

Looking at the last decade, girlbands are few and far between - we have Croatia's ENI in 1997 (17th), no girlbands in 1998, and the UK's Precious in 1999 (12th). Precious at least had the advantage of English as their native language, but made up for it by giving possibly the most tuneless girlband performance of all time, though Macedonia's XXL, finishing in 15th place in 2000 with '100% te ljubam', had a jolly good attempt at stealing that accolade. With no girlbands at all between 2001 and 2004 (unless you count Sweden's Afro-dite, but they were laydees rather than girls), 2005 saw something of a renaissance, with Estonia's Suntribe (20th in the Semi Final) and Bosnia's Feminnem (14th in the Final) trying their luck, along with Switzerland's Vanilla Ninja. However, only the Ninjas had any success to show for their efforts, and even that wasn't with what you might consider a traditional girlband pop song. With this record, sending a girlband with a throwaway pop song to Eurovision seems like a good move if you want to guarantee an embarrassingly bad performance and a position somewhere in the mid teens.

Of course, given that the mid teens usually represents a very good performance for Portugal, sending Nonstop to Eurovision with a throwaway pop song perhaps isn't such a bad idea after all. On the other hand, 'Coisas de nada' seems to have learnt nothing from its girlband predecessors - it really isn't very good, a terrifying melange of ABBA's 'Waterloo', S Club 7's 'Reach', the Spice Girls' 'Stop' and Feminnem's 'Call me', performed rather tunelessly in a clunky mix of English and Portuguese. More scarily, I can't help comparing it to the Sheila's Wheels insurance advert on UK television, now that John (see 'Comments' below) has put the idea in my head! He's *so* right though... all sing along now, "For bonzer car insurance dealllllllllls!!!!"

As you can probably tell from my comments, much as I would love Portugal to win Eurovision one day, I don't see a Portuguese victory on the cards in 2006. Rather, given the competition, I fear it will take a miracle - more than a miracle - for 'Coisas de nada' to even make the Final."

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What I predicted...

My prediction for Semi Final: 22nd to 23rd
My prediction for Final: Will not qualify
See all my predictions for the 2006 Semi Final
See all my predictions for the 2006 Final

What I predicted prior to the Semi Final:
"What can I say? This song and performance is so dismal it defies belief. If Portugal couldn't make it out of the Semi Final with the really rather good 'Amar' in 2005, the only question is whether S Club Sevennem will avoid finishing last. I suspect not, and if it wasn't for the votes of Andorra we could surely have a Piero-equalling 'nul points' situation on our hands. It's as terrible as the Lithuanian entry, but without the defence of being ironic. Do Sheila's Wheels provide insurance against performances as well as cars?"
Want an alternative prediction? See Simon Hylands' 'Je t'adore, Eurovision!' site

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What you thought...

View the final leader board

In the run up to the Contest, 1,721 visitors to this site awarded points to their favourite songs in the Soult.com Eurovision Jury Vote 2006, voting as a representative of their own country's 'jury'. The votes awarded by representatives of each country were totalled, with each of the 38 participating countries (plus the 'Rest of the World') then awarding points - 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - based on the overall voting preference of its representatives. The points awarded to the entry from Portugal are shown in the tables below:

Points awarded to Portugal overall:
AL	0	HR	0	GR	0	MK	0	PL	0	ES	0
AD	5	CY	0	IS	0	MT	0	PT	X	SE	0
AM	0	DK	0	IE	0	MD	0	RO	0	CH	0
BY	0	EE	0	IL	0	MC	0	RU	0	TR	0
BE	0	FI	0	LV	0	NL	0	CS	0	UA	0
BA	0	FR	0	LT	0	NO	0	SI	0	UK	0
BG	0	DE	0	WO	0	Last updated: 18 May 2006 Next scheduled update: None
Total points: 5, from 1/39 juries
Position: 33 out of 37

Points awarded to Portugal in the Semi Final:
AL	0	HR	0	GR	0	MK	0	PL	0	ES	0
AD	6	CY	0	IS	0	MT	0	PT	X	SE	0
AM	0	DK	0	IE	0	MD	0	RO	0	CH	0
BY	0	EE	0	IL	0	MC	0	RU	0	TR	0
BE	0	FI	0	LV	0	NL	0	CS	0	UA	2
BA	0	FR	0	LT	0	NO	0	SI	0	UK	0
BG	0	DE	0	WO	0	Last updated: 18 May 2006 Next scheduled update: None
Total points: 8, from 2/39 juries
Position: 22 out of 23

Points awarded to Portugal in the Final:
AL	0	HR	0	GR	0	MK	0	PL	0	ES	0
AD	0	CY	0	IS	0	MT	0	PT	X	SE	0
AM	0	DK	0	IE	0	MD	0	RO	0	CH	0
BY	0	EE	0	IL	0	MC	0	RU	0	TR	0
BE	0	FI	0	LV	0	NL	0	CS	0	UA	0
BA	0	FR	0