A winner has been crowned this evening in Portugal as Salvador Sobral has won the 51st edition of Festival da Canção and will therefore represent his nation at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in the host city of Kyiv!

Starting last month, Festival da Canção 2017 has seen a total of 16 acts competing for the right to be crowned the winner of the country’s long-running festival.

From 16 to 8 acts, a total of 4 acts from each semi-final were shortlisted to compete in tonight’s grand final of the festival. Each act performed for the votes of both the public and jury, the same process used as with the first 2 semi-finals.

History was made in tonight’s festival following the appearance of the first ever English language entry of the competition, the first of which following the abolition of the language restriction rule.

The results are in!

Both the public televote as well as the jury each had a 50% say in the final result of the competition, the result of which was as follows:

1. Salvador Sobral – Amar pelos dois (Jury: 12 points / Televote: 10 points / Combined: 22 points)
2. Viva La Diva – Nova glória (Jury: 6 points / Televote: 12 points / Combined: 18 points)
3. Celina da Piedade – Primavera (Jury: 10 points / Televote: 6 points / Combined: 16 points)
4. Jorge Benvinda – Gente bestial (Jury: 10 points / Televote: 5 points / Combined: 15 points)
5. Fernando Daniel – Poema a dois (Jury: 7 points / Televote: 7 points / Combined: 14 points)
6. Pedro Gonçalves – Don’t walk away (Jury: 5 points / Televote: 8 points / Combined: 13 points)
7. Lena d’Água – Nunca me fui embora (Jury: 5 points / Televote: 3 points / Combined: 8 points)
8. Deolinda Kinzimba – O que eu vi nos meus sonhos (Jury: 3 points / Televote: 4 points / Combined: 7 points)

With Salvador Sobral initially leading in the jury vote followed by Celina da Piedade and Jorge Benvinda in close second and third, it was down to the televote to deliver the rest of the results and determine the winner of the festival.

The public vote was revealed shortly after; Viva La Diva ranked the highest in the televote, with Salvador Sobral and Pedro Gonçalves finishing in a respectable second and third place.

Once combined and receiving the highest percentage of the combined votes was Salvador Sobral, who was therefore crowned the winner of the competition and will therefore fly to Kyiv this coming May to represent Portugal at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Amar pelos dois.

Portugal in Eurovision 2017

Portugal will compete in the first half of the first semi-final on the 9 May, performing for a place in the final of Eurovision 2017 on the 13 May.

Portugal last qualified to the final of the competition in 2010. Can Sobral bring the returning nation their first qualification in 7 years?