All songs for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 have been selected. During the weeks between the national final season and the actual Eurovision Song Contest, we will introduce all 43 entries in random order. Part fourteen of the series is dedicated to the Portuguese entry.

Basic information

Performers:	Homens da Luta
Song:	A luta é alegria (The struggle is joy)
Language:	Portuguese
Music:	Vasco Duarte
Lyrics:	Jel
Draw:	16th in the first semi final

The song

A luta é alegria is a mid-tempo sing-along hymn. Through the lyrics, the listeners are told to come together in the streets in order to make their voices be heard:

Por vezes dás contigo sobressaltado Por vezes dás contigo a desesperar De noite ou de dia A Luta é alegria E o povo avança É na rua a gritar

Once in a while you are frightened Once in a while you feel depressed Night or day The struggle is joy And the people go on And they are shouting in the streets

The performers and songwriters

Brothers Vasco and Nuno "Jel" Duarte first appeared as comedy duo Homens da Luta on Portuguese television five years ago. Their songs are parodies of the hyms people sang in the streets after the 1974 Carnation Revolution in Portugal. Their first album was called A canção é uma arma and it included popular songs such as E o povo, pá?.

In 2010, they wanted to represent Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest. With their song Luta assim não dá they were leading the online semi final when it was discovered that their entry was already published in May 2009. In 2011, they competed again this time making it to the final, where they won despite being only seen in sixth place by the juries. However, 12 points from the televoting brought them the ticket to Düsseldorf.

The national selection

Festival da Canção returned as the Portuguese national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. Twelve acts qualified through an online semi final. In the final, the winner was chosen by a mixture of regional jury voting and televoting.

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. The last two years, the country also made it to the Saturday night. The highest placing in a final came in 1996, when Lúcia Moniz finished sixth with O meu coração não tem cor.

Statistics

This will be Portugal's 45th participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. It will only be the 10th time that the country is represented by a dou or group. Furthermore, Portugal will remain one of the countries that had all of their entries at least partly performed in a national language. It will be the fourth Portuguese entry in a row to be performed entirely in Portuguese.

A luta é alegria is the 16th song to be performed in the first semi final. It is preceeded by the up-tempo pop song from Hungary and it is followed by the operatic pop ballad from Lithuania. In 2009, Portugal qualified from 16th place in the semi final and last year they did so from number 14. So far, Portugal has only managed to qualify from positions late in the line-up.

Desejamos a Portugal e a Homens da Luta muita sorte e um bom resultado em Düsseldorf!

Videos

Performance in the national final/preview video:

E o povo, pá?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZonZntFU7Y

In the streets:

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

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

Previous parts of the series:

1. Estonia
2. Italy
3. Croatia
4. Slovakia
5. Lithuania
6. Finland
7. Switzerland
   
8. Ukraine
9. Norway
10. Moldova
11. Belgium
12. Azerbaijan
13. Ireland