Like most music festivals in isolated countries, theFestival da Canção was a very important event for the still-incipient Portuguese music industry of the 1960s and 1970s. Left-wing composers and writers would try to squeeze subversive lyrics in the contest, with great effect. After the 1974 revolution, incidentally code-triggered bythat year's winner being played on national radio, Portugal became increasingly open to foreign culture, thus deeming the festival as a lesser musical event, dominated by below-standard pop songs with little or no impact in the industry, although remaining a popular TV show.
The 1990s saw a recovery of the contest's image, then considered a viable means for a new singer to start a career. Internationally acclaimed Portuguese singersDulce Pontes andSara Tavares made their debut in the 1991 and 1994 editions, respectively. Many other unknown performers likeLucia Moniz andAnabela leaped to national stardom after taking the RTP trophy.
After reaching an all-time high sixth place in theEurovision Song Contest 1996, the festival steadily declined from then on. In 2000, the winner, "Sonhos mágicos" performed by Liana, did not participate inthat year's Eurovision, as Portugal had been relegated from the contest after two consecutive poor showings in 1998 and 1999; this would be the second time in the festival's history that the winner did not participate in Eurovision. In 2002, theFestival da Canção was placed on hiatus, contradicting the tradition of staging a festival even without participating in that year's Eurovision Song Contest, as happened in 2000 and 1970. From 2001, the festival saw consecutive changes of format. 2005 saw RTP commissioning a song for Eurovision, rather than organizing some kind of competition for select a national entry.
Since 2006, RTP has settled for a traditional multi-singer, multi-composer competitive format, claiming the memory of older contests and songs. Producers have since been invited to come up with songs, lyrics and singers, and the 2007 result with Sabrina almost making it to the Eurovision final, gave RTP the necessary confidence to maintain the current format. In 2009, an open call for songs was held by RTP, abolishing the invited producers method, with online voting deciding the qualifiers to the televised final from a list of 24 songs, with 12 competing in the live contest.
More changes to the format of the contest were made in 2010. Two semi-finals and a final are now held to select the winner. Foreign composers were once again permitted to compete. Since 2017, different languages are allowed to compete.[2]
The 2020 edition of the festival marked the third time in its history where the winner was unable to participate in Eurovision, as thecontest itself was cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.
For the 2026 edition, the rule obliging the winner to represent Portugal at Eurovision was replaced with a provision stating that the winner is merely "eligible" to participate, effectively separatingFestival da Canção from the Eurovision entry selection process. Additionally, it was decided that the winner of the previous edition would have the ability to select one artist to participate in the festival.[1]
Media related toFestival RTP da Canção at Wikimedia Commons
