Eurovision 2012 Entrants: Portugal

Ah, Portugal.
Being my favorite country in Eurovision, I await your entrant each year.

I love the fact that you refuse to send songs in English.

I love the fact that you maintain true to local musical traditions.

I'm always disappointed when your songs don't do as well as I feel they should.

But, Portugal, why did you send this?

Philipa Sousa "Vida Minha"  2012

 

I know why.  It's a reaction to this.

Homens da Luta "A luta é alegria"  2011

Last year, the Portuguese entrant was really the joke entrant of the contest.  Although the song is a comment on the current Portuguese economic crisis and the costumes are supposed to represent Portugal at the time of the Carnation Revolution, when the Portuguese Army overthrew the dictatorship of António Salazar with the peaceful support of the Portuguese citizenship.

The problem is that the song didn't translate well to the rest of Europe.  If you don't know the background of the song, it seems like a shouty song sung by a bunch of refugees from a tacky costume party.  It came in at the 18th in the first semifinal last year, nowhere near qualifying for the final.

So this year, the Portuguese have sent a song that's the polar opposite, a slight fado-tinged number--a song that just has "juries vote for me" written all over it.  The problem is that it's so weak it's not likely to do much better than last year's entrant.

Portugal, next year send something fantastic again.  I need another brilliant song.

But until then, I'll just replay this over and over again.

Magdelena Iglésias  "Ele e ela"  1966