Portugal: Conan Osíris wins Festival da Canção 2019!

After two epic semi-finals and an even longer final, Portugal have selected their entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019! Conan Osíris will be representing Portugal with the song Telemóveis! In one of the tightest nationals of the season, he beat off competition from the likes of Surma, Matay and NBC to win the golden ticket to Tel Aviv!

Over the past two weeks, sixteen acts competed for eight slots in tonight’s final. These finalists were selected by a 50/50 jury/televote split (take note, TVR!). However, interestingly, the jury score was given priority over the televote when breaking ties. Although an expert jury was used to select the semi finalists, the jury format for the final was split into seven Portuguese regions:

• Alentejo
• Algarve
• Azores
• Centro
• Lisbon & Vale do Tejo
• Madeira
• Norte

The running order for tonight was as follows:

1. Calema – A Dois
2. Mariana Bragada – Mar Doce
3. Matay – Perfeito
4. Surma – Pugna
5. NBC – Igual A Ti
6. Madrepaz – Mundo a Mudar
7. Conan Osíris – Telemóveis
8. Ana Cláudia – Inercia

A tense voting sequence

Portuguese selections rarely see consensus between the jury and the televoters…hell, even Eurovision winner Salvador Sobral didn’t get 12 points from the televote in Festival da Canção 2017! Conan was seen as the runaway favourite among the people, soaring above the others in terms of YouTube views and winning the televote in semi final 1. However, he only received 7 points from the jury the first time round.

Though, neither semi-final produced an outright winner; Matay won the jury vote in semi 1, while Surma won the jury vote and NBC won the televote in semi 2, respectively. Add in the unknown components over an extended public voting period and regional juries…no one knew what was gonna happen. This made for a thrilling, and nerve-shattering, results sequence.

However, once the 12 points from the regional juries came rolling in as the other results were more mixed…it all became clear. Despite not winning his semi final, Conan got a perfect score in tonight’s final, with 12 points from both the public and the juries! Only the Algarve jury didn’t give him 12 points, opting instead for NBC.

Find the full results breakdown in the table below:

Third Grand final appearance in a row for Portugal?

Portugal was once seen as one of the most unlucky Eurovision countries, holding the record for the longest period of participation without a win (49 attempts). Of course, this ‘curse’ was broken in 2017 when Salvador Sobral won the contest with “Amar Pelos Dois”. Not only was this their first win, but it was also their first and only top 5 placing in the contest to date.

Unfortunately, as the host nation last year, Portugal got its fourth last place finish with Cláudia Pascoal’s “O Jardim”. Will Conan be able to bring them back to their 2017 glory? Only time will tell…

In the meantime, you can watch his winning performance from tonight’s final below:

Are you happy with the result? Do you think Conan will bring Portugal to the final for the third year running? Be sure to stay updated by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter, @escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates!