Portugal: RTP will not participate in Eurovision 2016

by Sanjay (Sergio) Jiandani 6,153 views

RTP, the Portuguese national broadcaster has confirmed that Portugal will not participate at the forthcoming 2016 Eurovision Song Contest scheduled to be held Stockholm on 10, 12 and 14 May.

This is the 2nd time in 4 years that Portugal will be out of the competition, having withdrawn from the event back in 2013. The broadcaster promises to be back in the contest in 2017. RTP has made this decision after an intensive and long evaluation of the country’s participation in the upcoming event and thus deliberated not to include the Eurovision Song Contest in its programming grid.

The deadline for countries to submit their respective applications in order to participate at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest concluded on Tuesday 15 September, herefater all applicant countries have a grace period until 10 October to decide if they are to stay in the competition or not without facing a financial penalty.

Thus Portugal joins Andorra, Luxembourg, Monaco and Slovakia all of whom have  confirmed their absence at next year’s Eurovision edition.

So far a total of 37 countries have confirmed their intention to compete at the forthcoming 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.

In 2015 Portugal selected its Eurovision entry and act for Vienna via its traditional Eurovision national selection Festival da Cançao. Leonor Andrade represented Portugal at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest with her Há um Mar que nos Separa. Despite an extraordinary performance she failed to qualify to the grand final.

Portugal debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1964 and is yet to win the event. The country’s best result in the competition was achieved in 1996 when  Lucia Muniz placed 6th with her entry O meu coraçao na tem cor.

Stay tuned to ESCToday for the latest news on Portugal and the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.