This year marks the sixth participation of Portugal at Junior Eurovision. Their best result at the contest is 14th place, however hoping to improve on that is this year’s representative, Simão Oliveira. He will perform the fado-style song, ‘O Rapaz’.
Anita:
Song + Vocals
This year’s Portuguese entry showed promise, with Simão well versed in the style of Fado. The songwriters also piqued my interest, with Diogo Clemente responsible for one of my favourite Festival da Canção entries, Só por ela. With all that in mind, I had hope that Portugal would create magic this year. Unfortunately, this does not reach my expectations.
While I am glad this song is more culturally authentic in comparison to the previous Portuguese entries, I don’t know that Simão has the right vocal tone to carry such a gentle song. What worked so well for Só por ela was the vocal control and emotion, and I don’t think O Rapaz has that same tender sound.
In terms of the composition, O Rapaz has beautiful instrumentation. In fact, it could be one of the best of the year. The guitars are stunning, and hearing a song that relies solely on the authentic instruments rather than electronic sounds is refreshing in the line-up.
Performance + Act
It’s likely Portugal will opt to feature Simão alone on stage, and hopefully they will create more of an intimate atmosphere. Backed by the beautiful stage design that Paris is providing, this song could look stunning. It is certainly possible that the staging could elevate the song.
Conclusions
I don’t think this will be the year that Portugal cracks the Top 10. Aspects of the song are great, but I think as a whole this won’t make a huge impact.
Rating
5/10
Dennis:
Song + Vocals
Respect for Portugal, coming up with a song true to their nature and culture. Fado-influences in the song ‘the boy’, well performed by Simão. It requires a certain taste to be liked and whilst that is a strength of this entry, it’s also a weakness. There are people who will wanna turn this off after the first minute already.
Performance + Act
Songs like these aren’t that hard to stage. Just focus on Simão himself and his small song. Add some Portuguese elements in the props and/or backdrop and you’ll get the job done. Once you go for such a song, you also need to go all the way for it in the staging as well.
Conclusions
This will be a love or hate entry for many and I suspect not many (kids) will pick up on this and give it a lot of votes. I admire Portugal and Simão for coming up with such a unique entry for Junior Eurovision, but within the competition I don’t have high hopes for a good result.
Rating
5/10
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