RTP, the Portuguese national broadcaster, has confirmed to ESCToday that Portugal will compete at the forthcoming 2023 Eurovision Song Contest in in the United Kingdom.
Thus Portugal joins the list of countries who have so far confirmed their participation at the upcoming 2023 Eurovision edition in the UK.
Portugal will be selecting its Eurovision act and entry via its traditional national selection Festival da Cançao. The winner of Festival da Cançao 2023 will represent Portugal at Eurovision 2023.
About Festival da Cançao 2023
A total of 20 songs will compete in the 2023 Portuguese national selection (16 via RTP’s invitiations to composers/ 4 via open public selection). The Festival da Cançao 2023 song submission window is open as of today with the deadline set on 21 October.
RTP has published the rules and regulations for Festival da Cançao 2023. Festival da Cançao 2023 will consist of three live televised shows ( 2 semi-finals and 1 Grand Final). RTP will be broadcasting the shows next February and March.
A total of 20 songs will compete in the competition, 10 songs in each of the two semi-finals. Six songs from each semi-final will proceed to the Grand Final. A total of 12 songs will compete in the Grand Final of Festival da Cançao 2023.
RTP is yet to confirm the dates, venues and host cities for the forthcoming edition of Festival da Cançao.
Portugal in Eurovision
Portugal debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961 and has won the competition once in 2017 with Salvador Sobral. The following year the country successfully hosted the event in Lisbon.
The Portuguese have competed 53 times in our beloved contest.
In 2022 Maro represented Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest in Turin with her entry ‘Saudade‘ achieving a place 9th in the Grand Final.
Source: RTP/ESCToday
Photo credit: Corinne Cummings/ EBU
