Following the announcement of the confirmed list of participants for the Eurovision Song Contest 2027, RTP the national broadcaster of Portugal has revealed its national final, Festival da Canção 2027 is set for March 6 with major format changes.
🇵🇹 16 acts for Festival da Canção 2027 as Semi-Finals removed
Today, RTP the national broadcaster of Portugal has confirmed the details for the latest edition of its annual music festival. Festival da Canção 2027 will take place on March 6 2026. However, this coming edition will feature just 16 acts in a one-off show. This is a reduction on the usual total of 20 acts. The last time the festival did not include Semi-Finals was in 2012.
Along with the removal of the Semi-Final stages, the broadcaster has also announced that it will no longer invite a pre-selected list of composers to write entries for the competition. Instead, it will use a fully open submission process for artists and songwriters across the nation. The song submission window will open on November 1 and close on November 30. All citizens of Portuguese nationality or resident in Portugal can submit, including Portuguese living outside of Portugal, as well as citizens of other nationalities residing in Portugal.
These changes come in the aftermath of controversy in last years’ festival where 13 of the 16 acts revealed they would boycott participation in the Vienna contest.
During the Grand Final, the combined votes of the public voting (50%) and the seven regional juries (50%) will decide the winner of Festival da Canção 2027.
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