The road to Kyiv: in the shadow of Italy
The Italian favourite
The Sobrals earned their Eurovision ticket on a Sunday, a few hours after Romania, and a day after Estonia. The week that followed, from March 6 to 12, saw the release or selection of thirteen other entries, almost completing the line-up of the 2017 edition in seven days. The week after that saw the release of the last two songs, from Bulgaria and Armenia. In that wild flow of new entries, how did Portugal fare?
Surprisingly well, considering what people may remember from the time. Portugal jumped from the 27th to the 8th position in betting odds with Salvador’s victory, and once all the entries had been revealed, it entered the Top 5 and remained there until the Grand Final.
Yet, at the time, most people did not believe in Portugal’s chances, and a single favourite was well ahead of the rest of the pack in the Eurovision community: Italy.
You can realise this easily when checking the top 5 of Eurovision odds at four points in time: right after Salvador’s victory in Portugal (March 6), the day after the last entry was released (March 19), the day after Eurovision in Concert, in the middle of the promotion season (April 9), and right before the week of Eurovision rehearsals in Kyiv (April 29).
| Position | March 6 | March 19 | April 9 | April 29 |
| 1st | 🇮🇹 Italy | 🇮🇹 Italy | 🇮🇹 Italy | 🇮🇹 Italy |
| 2nd | 🇸🇪 Sweden | 🇸🇪 Sweden | 🇧🇬 Bulgaria | 🇧🇬 Bulgaria |
| 3rd | 🇦🇺 Australia | 🇧🇪 Belgium | 🇸🇪 Sweden | 🇸🇪 Sweden |
| 4th | 🇷🇺 Russia | 🇧🇬 Bulgaria | 🇧🇪 Belgium | 🇵🇹 Portugal |
| 5th | 🇬🇷 Greece | 🇵🇹 Portugal | 🇵🇹 Portugal | 🇧🇪 Belgium |
| 🇵🇹 Portugal | 8th | 5th | 5th | 4th |
“Occidentali’s Karma”, the Italian entry, had been selected through the Sanremo Festival, and had been first with the bookmakers almost continuously since that moment, with its odds generally shortening throughout the season. Italy was the major fan favourite, even more than Russia had been the previous year, because it also had a strong, impactful live performance to back it up (something Sergey Lazarev lacked until the Stockholm rehearsals).
Francesco Gabbani’s Sanremo performance, with large LED screens, a dancing gorilla, a cultural message, and the complicity of the orchestra for his “Namaste, allez!” moment, seemed ready for Eurovision. His performances during the promotion season, at the London Eurovision Party or at Eurovision in Concert in Amsterdam strengthened his position as a good live performer and made his odds shorten even more.
Yet a challenger arose during this season, but it was not Portugal. It was Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian challenger and the Russian withdrawal
Bulgaria was the second to last country to release its entry, after the EBU deadline for submitting songs. “Beautiful Mess”, by 17-year-old Kristian Kostov, was immediately well-received and jumped to the top 5 in the odds. It quickly jumped to the 2nd position, and although it drifted for most of the season, it was seen as a more and more credible threat to Italy’s domination.
This growing credibility was fuelled by Russia’s situation during the 2017 season. Russian broadcaster Channel One selected Julia Samoylova to represent the country in Kyiv. Samoylova, however, had performed in Crimea in 2015, after its illegal annexation by Russia. Such acts were deemed illegal by Ukrainian legislation, which meant that Samoylova was forbidden to enter Ukraine for three years by the security services SBU, on March 22.
Despite negotiations between the EBU, Ukraine’s government and broadcaster, and Russia’s broadcaster, the situation could not be resolved easily. A remote performance was proposed by the EBU but rejected by everybody else. The EBU threatened Ukraine with a potential exclusion in future years, and informed the Ukrainian government that several other broadcasters were considering withdrawals. In the end though, Channel One withdrew from the contest on April 13, and everyone else stayed.
But with Russia gone, an interesting question arose: where would the structural “Eastern bloc” televote go, when it usually flowed towards Russia? The logical answer was Bulgaria: Kristian Kostov had taken part in The Voice: Kids in Russia and as such, already had a small reputation among Russian-speaking communities abroad. This alone was not enough to be a real challenger, of course, but added to the strength of the song and the quality of Kristian’s performances, it made the challenge more credible.
Being internally selected, “Beautiful Mess” had its first live performances during the promotion season, in pre-parties such as the London Eurovision Party or Israel Calling. Kostov’s LEP performance, in an environment that was more a bar than a concert hall, not the best-suited to ballads, showed how good he was on stage and helped strengthening his position as the main challenger to Italy.
Simplicity, feelings, and stories of the heart
Under these two contenders, Portugal gently sat at the 4th or 5th position in the odds for most of the season, being considered a dark horse but not a likely winner.
The best arguments in favour of “Amar Pelos Dois” were its simplicity and authenticity. Faced with some criticisms from fans considering the song was not in tune with the atmosphere of Eurovision, the Sobrals had their answers:
What worked in this song – apart from my brother’s interpretation – was its simplicity. […] The song took on a life of its own.
Luísa Sobral
I want to make people feel the song in the same way that I myself felt when I first heard it. […] I’m going to give people feelings, that’s what I’m going to do.
Salvador Sobral
At this point already, to Salvador, music meant “feelings”, something which would become the most memorable part of his victory speech.
Diving a bit more into the composition and lyrics of the song, “Amar Pelos Dois” was indeed very authentic, and authentically Portuguese. The story of a love that is lost, the hope that one heart “can love for two” (the title of the song), the very light instrumentation, the major key for a sad story…etc. As singer and composer Fernando Lameirinhas said, “these are universal emotions, but in Portugal they have a particular way of expressing them. Very subtle and a little fatalistic. Such lyrics are simple, yet simultaneously very complex. […] You could even call it ‘under-expressive’, but that is exactly what makes it so strong.“
But the story of “Amar Pelos Dois” was not just one of authenticity in its lyrics and simplicity in its composition. It was also the story of Salvador’s heart, in a very literal sense. During the season, rumours about health issues started to surface, fuelled by his hernia operation during Festival da Canção. As the promotion season continued, RTP confirmed that he would need to undergo heart surgery, and would miss the Eurovision rehearsals.
The finish line: the journey to a landslide
The Luisa stand-in
RTP and the EBU had been discussing the health issues faced by Salvador, and had agreed on allowing Luísa to stand in for him during the first and second rehearsals. Salvador himself was only able to join the contest two days before the first semi-final, just in time for the full dress rehearsals. His absence would have a limited impact on his eventual performance, since he would not be moving on stage.
Rehearsals started on Sunday, April 30, and Portugal closed that first day. By the end of the following week, everyone had rehearsed twice. As a result, Portugal was growing as a clear challenger (2nd in the odds), Bulgaria was slowly drifting in the odds, and Italy remained the favourite, although within the Eurovision community, it was already losing its shine.
Standing out in the semi-final
When the semi-final began, on May 9, Portugal was still second in the odds to win the contest.
“Amar Pelos Dois” was in a perfect position to do well and to stand out. Not only was it the only song not to be performed in English, it was also slotted in ninth position. This was at the very end of the first half, between Azerbaijan — a dark pop song, and Greece — an uptempo entry. Both with bigger stagings, both with shakier vocals. Long story short, “Amar Pelos Dois” and its feelings were surrounded by fireworks entries.
The staging was simple, as explained before, and did not diverge much from Festival da Canção’s, except in scale. It opened with a wide shot of the arena, with Salvador standing on the satellite stage, in the middle of the crowd and its lights, immediately putting viewers into a clear atmosphere: that of an ethereal forest, at dawn or dusk. Alternating between close shots of his face, and wider shots of the arena, often centered on him, it gave Salvador the space to sing, improvise a little bit (with a little melodic deviation from the album version in the second verse), and to let his mannerisms show.
Qualification was easy, and it was later revealed that Portugal had won the semifinal. During the night itself, it was the fifth qualifier to be announced, after Sweden.
It was not revealed at the time, of course, but detailed results showed that “Amar Pelos Dois” had earned 370 points during that semi-final, which was more than the winners of both of 2016’s semi-final. Bulgaria, however, scored even more in the second semi-final, with 403 points, and with the same number of countries allowed to vote. This would remain the largest score ever in a semi-final with this system, with Portugal second until the semi victory of “Hold me closer” in 2022 (with 396 points, also with 18 countries taking part).
The clearest victory
With this performance, Portugal’s odds shortened even more in the following days, from circa 5-4/1 to 8-7/5, and was on trend to overcome Italy. The performance of “Occidentali’s Karma” recorded during the first semi-final, and published on Youtube, confirmed that the Sanremo staging did not translate well on the Eurovision stage: it was too big, too wide, too complex or even sophisticated for a more international audience. Italy remained the odds’ favourites until the Grand Final rehearsals, when it fell to second place, drifting.
Bulgaria’s performance in the second semi-final made its odds shorten, from 12/1 to 4-3/1, but it remained in third place at the beginning of May 13th, the day of the final.
Still, the dynamics were both in Portugal and Bulgaria’s favour, and so was the running order of the final.
- Bulgaria was drawn in second half, and was put in the 25th spot, right after two other strong entries, Belgium and Sweden, offering a strong finish while letting another, lighter and more uptempo song (France), close the show for a good contrast
- Portugal was 11th, towards the end of the first half, around these 9-to-12 slots that are usually very good for ballads and slower entries
- Italy was set to perform two spots earlier, 9th, with Denmark slotted in-between them, sacrificed on the altar of the necessity to separate favourites ; this was a bit early for Italy, which was also handicapped by being an uptempo song drawn to perform in the first half
With Salvador’s performance, everything came together. The music, the melody, the authenticity, the staging, the mannerisms, the story… His heart issues were no stranger to his victory, they did fuel press speculations and discourse around Portugal, and there was a poetic echo between them and a song about a heart strong enough to love for two. He had also enraptured the press with his many improvisations and deviations during rehearsals, including a famous one in which he imitated the sound of a trumpet while performing.
The jury vote came, and “Amar Pelos Dois” won it handsomely, with 382 points, 104 ahead of Bulgaria’s 278. Victory was almost assured, with only a televote catastrophe able to topple Portugal. Kristian Kostov needed to earn 105 more points than Salvador, and he ended up being 39 points behind, with Portugal also winning the televote, with 376 points, making it a total of 758. This was and still remain the largest score ever in Eurovision, the clearest victory. Translated to the previous, pre-2016 systems, it would have cleared the 400 points frontier with ease.
Portugal received full sets of 24 points from seven countries, and 12 points from either the jury or the televote in sixteen other countries. Its lowest scores in the televote were 5 points from Italy and Denmark, while only two juries gave it no points: Montenegro, and Bulgaria, its bigger challenger.
“Portugal! Portugal!” – a victory for the Sobrals
During the broadcast, the televote points were once again announced in the order of the televote, with the televote winner announced last. After 24 countries, Moldova had jumped in second place but was still a few points behind the Portugal: it was, as predicted, a fight between Bulgaria and Portugal.
The split screen that followed was one of the most memorable of these last few years. The Sobrals, focused on their screens on the left, with Salvador not being completely comfortable with this position of favourite ; Kristian Kostov on the right, only 17, likely realising he was not going to win, surrounded by his team, thanking the camera. And on top of that, the crowd chanting “Portugal! Portugal!”, the arena having chosen its winner.
Bulgaria was announced first, and received its points. The crowd knew that Portugal had won, but the Sobrals did not. The system was a bit complex for them, and the split screens could lead them to believe that the announced name would be the winner’s. It was not. They had won the televote, and the contest, and needed the delegations to explain it to them before finally realising it.
Salvador walked to the main stage, surrounded by bodyguards, and received the trophy from the hands of Jamala. Asked for a reaction by the hosts, he had these now famous words:
I want to say that we live in a world of disposable music, fast-food music without any content. And I think this could be a victory for music, with people that make music that actually means something.
Salvador Sobral’s victory speech
Music is not fireworks. Music is feeling.
So let’s try to do change this, and bring music back, which is really what matters.
Some saw it as an insult to his fellow competitors, or to previous winners. They were a bit clumsy and insensitive, but they were the reflection of what this entry was: a song written by a sister for her brother, never meant to win anything. And just as they did when they won Festival da Canção, they sang together again.
My memories of this victory
2017 was the second edition I followed, and for the first time I watched some national finals. In all honesty, Festival da Canção was not on my radar at the time, and like many fans, I discarded “Amar Pelos Dois” as a very traditional, laid-back, almost boring, although beautiful, ballad.
I had other favourites (Hungary, Italy, Finland too, with UMK being the first selection I had watched), but as the rehearsals approached, I started to get on the Portuguese bandwagon. However, even though I knew it was becoming a more likely winner, I could never imagine the landslide that brought its victory.
On a final note, when only two countries were left to receive their points, the chants of “Portugal! Portugal!” rose from the crowd, and we could clearly hear them on television. There was something of a cheeky poetic justice in Jamala’s victory the previous year, which tickled my political senses ; but in 2017, the way I felt at this moment was much more visceral: enthusiasm, strong happiness for the artist, for the country. No poetry, no cheekiness, but justice indeed, and raw joy. Sorry Kristian, but of course it’s Portugal. To feel what the crowd felt, from the other side of Europe, was truly the feeling of belonging to the Eurovision fan community.
And that was the road to victory for “Amar Pelos Dois”: a dark horse that became a clear favourite in the final days, to get the biggest score ever in the contest’s history — even overcoming Alexander Rybak’s when translating from one system to another. But not the largest margin, which would come a few years later. This was also, more importantly, the first ever victory for Portugal, and the last winner to date to have won both the jury and the public vote.
Eurovision went to Lisbon, where the contest would see one of the most famous “duel” of a favourite and a challenger: the year when the flames of “Fuego” threatened to burn a certain “Toy”. And the first year of many where jury and televote would differ.
Did you follow the contest back in 2017? What are your memories of this experience, and of Portugal’s path to Eurovision victory? Tell us more in the comments below or on social media, at @escxtra! And be sure to check us again next week, to read about the victory of “Toy” in Lisbon, and how the road to this victory has shaped the fandom ever since.
