The Scoop🇵🇹 Portugal

🇵🇹 Junior Eurovision star Rita Laranjeira wows on The Voice Portugal

Over the past few weeks, the latest series of The Voice Portugal has been underway on Portuguese television broadcaster RTP. Amongst the contestants taking part in the blind auditions phase of the show was the nation’s 2018 Junior Eurovision representative Rita Laranjeira.

A four-judge turn for Rita

Rita, now 15-years-old, took to the stage of The Voice with a cover version of Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love”, made famous by singer-songwriter Birdy in 2011. Rita’s emotional and technically excellent vocal delivery impressed all four judges, most notably Diogo Piçarra who turned his chair within seconds of hearing Rita’s voice.

By the end of Rita’s audition, all four judges – Diogo Piçarra, Aurea, Marisa Liz and António Zambujo – wanted the 2018 Junior Eurovision star on their team. Under encouragement from Marisa, Aurea chose to “block” Diogo from being chosen by Rita as her mentor. In the end, the decision paid off for Aurea as Rita chose to join her team.

Following her impressive audition, Sintra-born Rita will now progress to the battles round as part of Team Aurea which is expected to air next month on RTP.

Rita at Junior Eurovision 2018

In 2018, RTP internally selected Laranjeira as Portugal’s representative at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest held in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk. She performed the pop-rock track “Gosto de Tudo (Já Não Gosto de Nada)” which was accompanied by an innovative stage production involving various graphic effects depicting well-known social media applications. Why not relive her performance below?

Portugal gets ready for Eurovision 2021

Despite withdrawing from the Junior Eurovision Song Contest this year due to concerns and restrictions regarding COVID-19, a few days ago, RTP confirmed that Portugal will take part at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 due to be held in the Dutch city of Rotterdam next May. The broadcaster will once again use Festival da Canção to determine the nation’s representative for the contest.

Maybe Rita, who will be 16-years-old at the time of next year’s contest, could be the next winner of Festival da Cançao as well as the next winner of The Voice Portugal?

Let us know what you think in the comments section below and via our social media channels @ESCXTRA!

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