As announced in December, this year Portugal chooses their song for the Eurovision Song Contest earlier than previous years. Festival da cancao will take place on the 27th February. The 24 songs pre-selected by RTP will be available online on 19th January.

The names of some of the singers that will take part on the online selection are already reported in the Portuguese media: Lara Afonso who took part in Festival da cancao 2006, Nuno Norte (winner of Portuguese Pop Idols),Emanuel, Filipa Sousa, Claudia (Operacao Triunfo), Fàbia and Nuno Cardoso (Família Super Star, a portuguese talent show).

This year sees also the return of two Eurostarswho have submitted songs for this year's Portuguese preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest,Eveline Filipe, one of the backing vocalists of Vania Fernandes in Begrade, with an R & B song and Nucha who represented Portugal in 1990 with the song Sempre há sempre alguem. Nucha's song was submitted today to RTP,it iscomposed by IIvam Prim, and the lyrics were written by the singer herself.

Stay tuned to esctoday.com for more news on the Portuguese selection soon!