All songs for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 have been selected. During the weeks between the national final season and the actual Eurovision Song Contest, we will introduce all 39 entries in random order. Part nineteen of the series is dedicated to the Portuguese entry.

Basic information

Performer:	Filipa Azevedo
Song:	Há dias assim (There are days like these)
Language:	Portuguese
Music:	Augusto Madureira
Lyrics:	Augusto Madureira
Draw:	14th in the first semi final

The song

Há dias assim is a classic ballad. Through the dramatic lyrics of the song, the singer mourns the emotional separation from her lover:

Há dias assim Que nos deixam sós A alma vazia A mágoa na voz Já não há palavras Foi de tanto as calarmos

There are days like these That leave us alone With an empty soul With a voice full of sorrow There are no words We both shut up

The performer

Filipa Azevedo is from Porto, the second biggest town in Portugal. She attended a music school when she was a child and she later became famous, when she competed in the televised talent search Família superstar in 2007. The judges praised her performances throughout the live shows and she eventually took home the victory in the final.

After her victory, she moved to London, where she has been attending a music school since. In 2009, her debut album was released. The CD did not match the expected success and therefore, the singer turned to another record label. In 2010, she entered the Portuguese national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. With her song Há dias assim, she won the online qualification round, finished fourth in the first semi final and won the grand final.

The songwriter

The Portuguese entry was written by Augusto Madureira, who is actually a graduate in social communications and he is primarly working as a journalist. In 2009, he already competed as a songwriter in the Portuguese national final. His song O teu lugar was performed by Filipa Batista and it finished fourth overall.

The national selection

Festival da Canção 2010 was to select the Portuguese entry. This time, the show featured two semi finals held after the online qualification round. Twelve of the 24 semi finalists were chosen by televoting only to progress to the final, where the winner was chosen by a mixture of jury voting and televoting. Filipa Azevedo finished fourth in the televoting but won the jury voting and will therefore represent Portugal in Oslo. The winner of the televoting was Catarina Pereira, who was only seen in fifth place by the jury.

Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest

Portugal took part in the Eurovision Song Contest the first time in 1964 and immediately finished last with nil points. It later indeed turned out to be a bad omen as Portugal is one of the least successful countries to date never having finished in the top five of a Eurovision final. However, Vânia Fernandes managed to finish second in the second semi final in 2008 and brought the country for the first time to the final since 2003. Last year, Flor-de-Lies also made it to the final. The highest placing in a final came in 1996, when Lúcia Moniz finished sixth with O meu coração não tem cor.

Desejamos a Portugal e a Filipa Azevedo muita sorte e um bom resultado em Oslo!

Videos

Performance in the national final/Preview video:

Live performance of So eu sei:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6E-fiSBcPA

Performing Goldfinger in Família Superstar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtDTvMnavDE

Bridge over troubled water:

Tomorrow, we will take a look at the Moldovan entry.

Previous parts of this series:

1. Ireland
2. Belarus
3. Albania
4. Denmark
5. Russia
6. Bulgaria
7. Switzerland
8. FYR Macedonia
9. Armenia
10. Spain
11. Poland
12. Croatia
13. Finland
14. Greece
15. Ukraine
16. Lithuania
17. Belgium
18. Norway