More names for the 2008 Festival da Canção have been known. Only two producers are stll to annouce their selected artists.
The producer Carlos Coelho chose a complete line-up of former contestants of the Pop Idol like show Oeraçao Triunfo 2007 to be on stage. Besides the winner, Vania, who will be the front singer, five other singers and colleagues on the program will join her on stage. There will be three girls and two boys: Joana, Evelyne, Jessica, Luis and Jonas. Vania will sing as annouced "a mediterranean power ballad".
The producer Elvis Veiguinha selected a fado singer called Marco Rodrigues to perfrom his song. The singer and the composer of the song have already worked with the world renowned fado-sensation Mariza. Marco was on stage with her at the Royall Festival Hall and has also performed in other major Portuguese and international venues. You can visit his myspace here.
The group Bla Bla Bla created specially for the national final Gimba has already confirmed the name of Francisco Andrade to take part. He was one of the backing singers for Sofia Vitória in Istanbul 2004. Gimba is now looking for two female voices since the two previous names have stepped down from the project.
Nuno Feist has chosen once again the singer Vanessa to be at Festival da Canção to perform the song he is producing. In 2007, Vanessain a duet with Henrique Feist reached third place withthe song Além do sonho .
Theband Donna Maria, whose producers Miguel Majer and Ricardo Santos will be authors of the song, have announced that a group by the name of"Lisboa não sejasfrancesa" fronted by Joana Melo will be the contestants at the nationalfinal.
The line-up so far of producers and artistsis as follwos:
- Carluz Belo will sing his ownsong
- CarlosCoelho – Vânia
- Donna Maria (Miguel Majer, Ricardo Santos) – Lisboa não sejas francesa
- Elvis Veiguinha – Marco Rodrigues
- Fernando Martins – Big Hit
- Gimba – Bla Bla Bla
- Jan van Dijck – ?
- Ménito Ramos – ?
- Nuno Feist – Vanessa
- Renato Junior – Ricardo
A few details on the show have also been announced. The presenter will be Silvia Alberto, she was the host of Operação Triunfo 2007, and the postcards and interval act will pay tribute to past winning Eurovision Songcotest entries. Sabrina willmake an appearanceat the show to present the trophy to the winner. The show is scheduled for 9 March in Lisbon's Camões Theatre.
