Portugal: Cláudia Pascoal – O jardim

Martin: And now our line-up check turns to the host country, Portugal.

Let’s just dwell on those words for a moment. The host country, Portugal. The reigning champions of the Eurovision Song Contest. Unsuccessful, downtrodden Portugal, their authentic entries so often ignored by the international audience over the years. Defending their title.

It’s still bloody marvellous, isn’t it?

Anyway, the entire nation of Portugal will rightly continue to dine out on their ESC victory for years to come, so there’s no need for them to play for victory any time soon. Instead, they’ve done what many host nations in the past have done and selected a very local entry that fills a niche no one else is really addressing: quiet, personal, introverted, feminine, unassuming, uncompromising.

If “O jardim” had to qualify from a semi-final, I’d be very worried about its chances. And it’d be a real loss when it got squeezed out in favour of some committee-written Euro-trash notionally representing an Azerbaijan or an Austria.

Instead, thanks to Salvador Sobral, the Saturday night audience will get to experience this very un-Eurovision Eurovision entry – and even if some songs do benefit from fireworks and sometimes fast food is exactly what you want, we can be thankful for this particular oasis of musical calm.

Shi: It’s wonderful if extremely understated. And I think it might have a little unintended Salvador effect by having a very very quiet hall for three minutes, contrasted by a giant applause, which should work well for dramatic effect. How it will do? Only Mr. God knows, but I don’t think anyone cares.

Felix: I hate to repeat my word creation that I already used for the Czech Republic, but Portugal is just another “shrinker”. I liked it a lot when it won Festival da Cançaõ, but now… I find it a bit boring. However, good to have something like that in the final.

video and title image source: eurovision.tv