At the website of the Portuguese broadcaster RTP, you can now find a link to the Operação Triunfo programme, the Portuguese selection method for the Eurovision Song Contest 2003. The site is available in Portuguese only.

RTP recently launched their Operacão Triunfo website. There it's possible to read a text with a short description of the programme. In addition to a promotional video, some photos from the casting procedure throughout the country are being exposed. Candidates in thousands showed up during the auditions. Out of this amount, the experts engaged by RTP picked 16 youngsters to participate in the show.

Further on, RTP states that the programme will last for a period of no less than four months! After the announcement that the programme will begin somewhere in February, it would be natural to expect the end to occur somewhere in June. In the end, it is said, one, two or three winners will represent Portugal in the next Eurovision Song Contest. A contradiction, isn't it?

A reference is made to the Spanish prototype, which informs that the original TVE version had the highest viewing rates of any programme on Spanish television during the last ten years, transforming TVE into the most popular Spanish TV channel at the moment.

As far as the starting date is concerned, nothing is mentioned yet. It keeps being a mystery how the EBU rules and this schedule are going to be coordinated. More details on this problematic aspect will most certainly follow in the near future.

In Riga, Portugal will perform its song as nation number seven.