By: eurovisionunion
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Meet the Portuguese national finalists for 2018!

With hosting duties a top priority, we can often forget that the host nation still needs to select an act! This year Portugal is the host of the contest, and although they’re busy planning all the important things, like the semi-final allocation draw and where Eurovision village and Euroclub will be, we’ve also got news from the broadcaster about their upcoming selection!

Portuguese broadcaster RTP announced fairly early on that they would be using the same format to choose their 2018 as they did for their winning 2017 song, Amar Pelos Dois by Salvador Sobral. Festival da Canção 2018 will feature a total of 26 songs which will be performed over two semi-finals, on the 18th and the 25th of February. The Grand Final will be held in Guimarães Multiusos on Sunday the 4th of March.

Like the format of last year’s competition, RTP invited 22 composers to present an original song, plus there was an extra composer invited by last year’s winner Salvador Sobral. The other three entries in the competition were chosen through a preselection held through public radio station Antena 1. Like last year, the composers taking part chose which artists would be bringing their compositions to life.

Here are the competing artists with their composers (in brackets):

Semi-Final 1

  • Peu Madueira (Diogo Clemente)

  • Anabela (Fernando Tordo)

  • Joana Barra Vaz (Francisca Cortesão)

  • Janeiro (Self-composition)

  • Rui David (Jorge Palma

  • José Cid & Gonçalo Tavares (José Cid)

  • JP Simões (Self-composition)

  • Emmy Curl (Júlio Resende)

  • Joana Espadinha (Luís Nunes/Benjamin)

  • Beatriz Pessoa (Mallu Magalhães)

  • Bruno Vasconcelos (Nuno Rafael)

  • Maria Amaral (Paulo Praça)

  • Rita Dias (Self-composition)

Semi-final 2

  • Susana Travassos (Aline Frazão)

  • Lili (Armando Teixeira)

  • Sequin (Bruno Cardoso/Xinobi)

  • TAMIN (Capicua)

  • Caniela Onís (Self-composition)

  • Diogo Piçarra (Self-composition)

  • David Pessoa (Francisco Rebelo)

  • Cláudia Pascoal (Isaura)

  • Rita Marques (João Afonso)

  • Dora Fidalgo (Miguel Ângelo)

  • Paulo Flores (Self-composition)

  • Peter Serrado (Self-composition)

  • Maria Inês Paris (Tito Paris)

The first semi-final will be hosted by Jorge Gabriel, José Carlos Malato and Inês Lopes Gonçalves, while the second semi-final will be hosted by Sónia Araújo, Tânia Ribas de Oliveira and Inês Lopes Gonçalves.

Stay tuned for more news from Portugal, but for now enjoy the 2017 winning song!