Introduction

Now comes the third and last national final for me to review this year: Festival da Canção 2025, a three-week competition to determine which song will represent Portugal in Eurovision 2025. Festival da Canção, FdC for short, is one of the oldest Eurovision national finals, having begun in 1964. It’s as big of a deal to the Portuguese as the Sanremo Festival is to the Italians, or Melodifestivalen to the Swedes. I won’t go into the full history of FdC here, but just know that even though it’s a long-running tradition in Portugal, after years of sending songs that no one really cared about, the contest was completely reinvented in 2017, and that’s how FdC as we know it today began.

This national selection consists of two semifinals (February 22, March 1) and a final on March 8. The semifinals consist of ten songs each, then six from each make it to the grand final. This means I have 20 songs in total to review: 19 fully in Portuguese, and just one in English.

I didn’t watch the semifinals live and instead watched them starting on March 2, right after I finished my review of the German national final. I wanted to start watch the final live, but I was so absolutely amazed at the song that won Melodifestivalen that I couldn’t watch FdC right afterwards, plus I had other shit to do. So instead, I started watching the final on a day I was sick, March 11, then finished it on another sick day three days later.

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Song #1: Ai senhor!

Artist: Xico Gaiato

Language: Portuguese

Key: E minor

This song reminds me of “Telemóveis”, the notoriously bizarre Portuguese entry of Eurovision 2019, in that the song is weird and dissonant as hell but the singer looks super serious about it. Except this song doesn’t have the weird appeal “Telemóveis” does, it’s just a straight up mess. The music is a weird mix of barebones strings and percussion and the melody is super weird and ugly. I feel like I don’t get this song and I dislike it the more I listen to it.

Song #2: Voltas

Artist: Rita Sampaio

Language: Portuguese

Key: D minor

Now we have a ballad of some kind, with that eccentric percussion that you see a lot in Portuguese music. This is more normal than the last song and I can see an intriguing song deep inside. But I’m find the choir noises in the background more creepy than trippy, and the song overall isn’t impactful enough to make up for the creepiness.

Song #3: Sobre nós

Artist: Du Nothin

Language: Portuguese

Key: A minor

Contrasting against the last two songs, this is too normal and radio pop-sounding for me. It gets a little better in the disco chorus, but he repeats the title (sobre nooooooooois) too much and overall this really isn’t for me. I don’t feel a need to hear this again.

(#4 Marco Rodrigues, #5 Margarida Campelo, #6 Josh qualified)

Song #7: Lisboa

Artist: Capital da Bulgária (Sofia Reis)

Language: Portuguese

Key: E major

This is a lo-fi piano ballad that I can’t see any country sending to Eurovision but Portugal. It starts out with no percussion, then gains a looped drum beat that strangely manages to fit the song. I don’t think I would stick this on a playlist, but it’s a nice enough moody song that I wouldn’t mind listening to if I somehow encounter it in the wild, which I probably won’t. Her singing is a bit breathy throughout, but not in an annoying way. I’d just like this song a bit more if the drum beat came in earlier.

(#8 Bluay, #9 Jéssica Pina, #10 Peculiar qualified)

Semifinal 1 thoughts:

I don’t know if it’s normal for Festival da Canção or not, but this semifinal had too many slow depressing songs. The song I like the most is number 9, “Calafrio”. It’s interesting and groovy but I need a few more listens to decide if I want to keep it. Most of the rest are gloomy, eccentric, or both. Now with all that said, I have tons of respect for Portugal for always doing their own thing in Eurovision, rather than trying to conform to everyone else’s pop standards. I just hope semifinal 2 will have more upbeat songs, perhaps something like “Ai coração” which went to Eurovision 2023. (Wow, can’t believe the first Eurovision I watched live was almost two years ago…)

After the songs came an hour or so of yapping, which I don’t need to watch because I don’t understand it anyway. I occasionally pick up on familiar words when I hear Portuguese, but nowhere near as much as in Spanish or Italian. Buried amidst the yapping is an interval act that I just had to check out, because I trust Portugal to deliver good interval acts. It’s a band named Fogo Fogo performing a song called “Umbadá” from FdC 1985 with some kind of Portuguese-Caribbean fusion beat, at least it sounds that way to me, then it speeds up and gets a different kind of Caribbean beat. I was right to trust Portugal because this interval act was a lovely watch.

Then came the qualifier reveals, which were done in two rounds and interspersed with more yapping. I don’t need to watch the reveals in full, but I took a quick look at them, and props to Portugal for doing the qualifier reveals in a way that viewers who don’t speak Portuguese can understand. The qualifiers in this semifinal make sense to me, unlike in the superfinal of Chefsache ESC 2025 when they almost felt random. The strongest efforts made it through and there’s none that I’m sad didn’t.

Now on to semifinal 2!

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Song #1: Responso à mulher

Artist: A Cantadeira (Joana Negrão)

Language: Portuguese

Key: B♭ minor

Already semifinal 2 is getting off to a strong start, because this is my first instant keeper of the show. It would’ve made a great choice to represent Portugal in Eurovision. I’m already wondering how the hell it didn’t qualify, but hm… maybe everything else is strong? Anyway, this song deserves a detailed review, so I’ll give it that.

When I heard this song for the first time, my first thought was this is like a Portuguese counterpart to “Water” from Eurovision 2007. I know I was harsh on that song when I reviewed 2007, but it’s grown on me a lot since then—the white voice is just an acquired taste.* Thankfully, Joana’s singing sounds smoother and more like the kind of vocals I’m used to, so it’s less of an acquired taste. Her singing does have a tinge of vibrato that you hear in white voice singing, and it has an even rhythm which is a surprise for songs in Portuguese. Since the language is heavily syllable-timed (at least in Portugal), most songs in Portuguese have more of a freeform rhythm. I love the way her voice harmonizes with the backing singers, and the way they accentuate her without overwhelming her.

Also, she has a very nice red dress with what looks to be folk elements. It’s a hard color to go wrong with, just like purple or black. What’s the use of pink dresses in Eurovision if there are so many nicer colors you can choose?

The instrumental of this song is a total percussion-fest, which is the main way it reminds me of “Water”. This also means it’s exactly the kind of music my friend Erica (who has a Eurovision blog but doesn’t follow national finals) would love. She told me the drum in this song is called an adufe, so you learn something new every day! Aside from the drums, the instrumental is pretty simple—it doesn’t have much else besides bass synths and a lovely bagpipe, an instrument we’ve seen in a few prior Portuguese entries to Eurovision.

Less than a minute into the song, I decided to add it to my Spotify playlist, which proves it does something right. It isn’t quite as amazing as “Saudade, saudade” or “Ai coração”, and maybe I’d love it more if the instrumental was less minimalist. Even then, it’s already one of my favorite Portuguese songs I’ve ever heard, and a refreshing change of pace after the disappointing first semifinal. Now that semifinal 2 opened with such an awesome song, I feel no shame in admitting semifinal 1 was a bag of shit.

* Speaking of Eurovision 2007, “Visionary Dream” has grown on me even more—I absolutely adore it now. It might be my second place of the year behind my favorite Eurovision song of all time, “Dancing Lasha Tumbai”.

Song #2: Á-tê-xis

Artist: Tota (Jónatas Pereira)

Language: Portuguese

Key: E♭ minor

Lyrically, this song is of similar spirit to “Telemóveis”: it tells some kind of story of computers taking over the world. Even if you don’t speak Portuguese (which I don’t), you can sort of tell this is a storytelling song, because of the way the music progresses. It goes in all sorts of interesting directions and has a trippy atmosphere over all, so I’d say I rather like this. The biggest issue with this is that it doesn’t have much of a memorable hook, so the whole song feels a bit too improvised.

(#3 Bombazine and #4 Emmy Curl qualified)

Song #5: Quantos queres?

Artist: Inês Marques Lucas

Language: Portuguese

Key: E minor

Dammit, here’s another song that I feel would make a great Portuguese entry for Eurovision but didn’t qualify. It has a really interesting 12/8 beat and starts off with some curious synths, then leads to a very satisfying drop once the chorus begins. I love the synth production here and it wasn’t an instant keeper, but after a few more listens I added this to my playlist.  Sometimes a song just needs good synth production to win me over, as this one proves. And it’s still a very Portuguese-feeling song. It has that moody production style that I strongly associate with the country.

(#6 Fernando Daniel qualified)

Song #7: Quem foi?

Artist: Luca Argel featuring Pri Azevedo

Language: Portuguese

Key: D minor

I love the lyrics of this song, because they teach me about an issue in Portugal’s society that I never knew about. The song is about the discrimination that Brazilian immigrants to Portugal face and reminds us of the huge impact Brazil has had on Portugal’s culture, since they both speak the same language. I love the types of lyrics that address societal problems not by just saying how sad the world is, but by asking questions to the listener; “Wars for Nothing” from Eurovision 2015 takes the same approach. The song asks questions about Brazil (who planted and harvested your food? who entertains your children on YouTube?) and questions about Portugal (who forgot their own past? who saw harm and turned the other way?). Then it ends with “who was it that said I can’t stay here?”, a critique to those who want immigrants to go back to Brazil.

Luca Argel himself is an immigrant from Brazil to Portugal, so it makes a lot of sense for him to sing about this topic. I actually managed to pick him saying he’s Brazilian, though I could’ve guessed from his accent, because Brazilian Portuguese sounds quite different from European Portuguese. But it doesn’t sound completely different, I can still tell they’re the same language.

Unfortunately, given what the song is like musically, I can see why it didn’t qualify. It’s an accordion waltz that at times sounds like “Amar pelos dois”, but that song needed to be a piano ballad in order to win Eurovision. It’s an interesting experience, especially if I read a translation while listening, and I’m sure it’s a powerful one for those who speak Portuguese, but it’s not the best for casual listening. Still, I have a lot of respect for this song due to its message.

(#8 Napa, #9 Diana Vilarinho, #10 Henka qualified)

Semifinal 2 thoughts:

Now that was more like it! Why all the good stuff was in semifinal 2, only Mr. God knows. This is why I wanted to check out this year’s Festival da Canção: it’s full of awesome songs that only Portugal would make. I found something to like about all four non-qualifiers and about most of the qualifiers. It also has an awesome song that I would’ve never expected Portugal to make (I Wanna Destroy U) and a song that I personally think is hideous, but definitely has its fans and still sounds Portuguese (Rapsódia da paz). Anyway, let’s skip through the yapping and find where the interval act is…

Found it! The interval act starts as a rearrangement of the Portuguese entry from Eurovision 1975 called “Madrugada”, sung by a woman, and oh my god, it sounds so much cooler than the original. It’s moody and heavy in guitars and really makes the minor key verses, major key chorus trope work. I love how much the Portuguese hold their old Eurovision entries in high regard. I’m told that every single one from the 1960’s to 1980’s is a famous song in Portugal, plus a few from the 1990’s. After some researching, I found out that the next two songs also came from Festival da Canção 1975, presumably to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The second is “A boca do lobo”, a groovy rock song which blends major and minor key really well. Now I kind of want Portugal to host Eurovision again so they can bring us more Portuguese interval acts. The third is “Alerta”, a song with enough words I recognize that I can tell it’s a revolution anthem of some kind. I looked up the phrase “alerta as armas” online, and that’s how I found out that it and the previous song were from FdC 1975.

Now the qualifiers, I don’t really agree with this time, especially because songs 1 and 5 didn’t make it through. “I Wanna Destroy U” didn’t qualify until the second round: the first five qualifiers were determined by a mix of jury and televote, and the sixth solely by televote. I think that was the right choice for the last qualifier, but I’m sad about some of the other non-qualifiers. Ah well, at least I’m glad to have discovered these wonderful songs. And I didn’t watch semifinal 2 live anyway, because I was busy watching my own country’s final that day.

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Finalist #1: Apago tudo

Artist: Bombazine

Language: Portuguese

Key: F♯ minor

The grand final opens up with some 1970’s style disco in Portuguese, which is quite an interesting genre/language combo. There are other retro-sounding Eurovision entries that wow me more immediately, but this could actually grow on me with time. Especially because the composition reminds me a little bit of “Plastic Love” by Mariya Takeuchi, a song that never fails to amaze me. It’s a little bluesy and has some interesting chords and string riffs. This is too restrained for me to love it, but I wouldn’t mind listening to it once in a while.

Finalist #2: Eu sei que o amor

Artist: Margarida Campelo

Language: Portuguese

Key: Tough to pin down. Let’s say… F minor in the verses, B major in the chorus, C major in the final chorus?

The key for this song was really tough to decide, and I’m not sure if my judgement is correct. I can quite happily say the verses are in F minor, because that seems to be the “home” key of those verses, if that makes sense. In the chorus, the root chord I’m inclined to say is B major because of the part where she sings the title, but the rest of the chorus uses a totally different scale. The song clearly changes key up a half step in the last chorus, so if the chorus is in B major, it follows that the final chorus is in C major. I’ll go with C major as the key of the final chorus, because that’s the chord that the song ends on. Therefore, I’ll say the rest of the choruses are in B major.

Anyway, let’s talk about this song! It’s a sentimental jazz waltz with a moody drum beat and the absolute craziest chords. Part of me feels like this song would fit well in a Charlie Brown cartoon. This sounds somewhat like something Vince Guaraldi would compose, except that it’s in Portuguese. It differs from his style a little bit because it’s more over the top jazzy than any Vince Guaraldi song I’ve heard.

I have an interesting relationship with jazz songs on the piano, because some of them are an absolute joy to play (e.g. Take Five, or the Charlie Brown version of O Tannenbaum), but there are others I’ve tried that are so ultra-jazzy they’re a complete nightmare for my brain and hands. This song feels like one of those jazz pieces where it would take ten minutes for me to learn to accurately play even one measure. That’s because most of the chords sound dissonant in themselves and only kind of make sense in the bigger picture. Like, I can imagine myself thinking, “ok, first I play the notes F A♭ B♭ E♭ G at the same time, easy enough, and then… oh god. G B♭ C E A♭? That is such a bizarre chord, but it probably makes sense in the bigger picture I guess… OK nice, a normal chord is next… oh god, what the hell is that chord?!” Some people are absolute naturals at playing this type of music, like Margarida Campelo I’d assume, but for me, a good jazz piano song should be jazzy but not too jazzy.

I can actually enjoy listening to this kind of ultra-jazzy music sometimes, but I need to be in the right mood for it. This song is a perfect example. It’s a good choice to listen to when I’m in a contemplative mood and don’t mind a bit of dissonance, but it’s not the kind of song I’d put on when I want something fun.

Finalist #3: I Wanna Destroy U

Artist: Henka (Catarina Pereira)

Language: English, the odd one out this year

Key: F minor

This song won the televote of FdC with a portion of 29.83%, which was converted to 12 points, but unfortunately it got the second fewest jury points: 18 (out of a max of 84), which was converted to 0 points. I don’t like these voting systems where the juries read out their votes in full, then the total points are simplified to 12 to 0. It almost always makes the results less fair. If FdC had proportional televoting, then according to this Reddit post, “I Wanna Destroy U” would’ve won.

This is easily my favorite song of FdC 2025 and the clear highlight of the show. It’s too bad the title of the song makes it very obvious what genre it is, because otherwise this song would’ve surprised the fuck out of me. I love that this song is in a style you’d never expect from Portugal. It’s sort of like “Doomsday Blue” in a way, because my mom told me once she loved how the song disproves the stereotype that the Irish are all conservative Catholics, but this song is a lot better than “Doomsday Blue”.

Henka’s song is exactly like a rollercoaster in musical form. I don’t just mean it’s a crazy journey for my ears, I mean that listening to this song feels the same as riding a rollercoaster. The first few lines of the song, starting with “how many times do you wanna destroy?”, are like the rollercoaster is slowly climbing to the peak of the hill. “This is a rebirth, watch me transform” is where the rollercoaster zooms downhill at lightning speed. I can practically feel my body being pushed to the back of my seat. Then the part with “tell me when the simulation is over”… let’s say it’s a section where the rollercoaster twists and turns sideways. I love songs that alternate between aggressive rapping/shouting and melodic singing—think “We Got the Moves” by Electric Callboy—and this song puts a twist on the formula but makes it a little different due to the uphill sections I mentioned earlier. It’s not quite my favorite aggressive song ever, but it’s still a totally awesome song and would’ve been a great fit for Eurovision. I’m genuinely impressed by Henka’s ability to rhythmically shout; I’m told it takes a lot of skill and training to do it without destroying your vocal cords.

I also like how the only song in English in this show has a good reason to be in English; I just don’t see this genre working quite as well in Portuguese. But I could be wrong, I’ve never heard a song this aggressive in Portuguese before.

Finalist #4: Ninguém

Artist: Bluay (José Tavares)

Language: Portuguese

Key: B♭ major

Oh right, this was one of the overly depressing ballads from semifinal 1 that gradually started testing my patience. It’s one of those ballads with a gloomy piano and slow drum beat that I just find too depressing, so it’s the same flavor of Portugueseness as “O jardim” and “Medo de sentir”, which both aren’t really for me. I’m not saying I automatically hate all sad songs—a sad song just needs to wow me enough to make up for how depressing it is, and this song, while a pretty interesting composition, doesn’t reach that threshold.

Finalist #5: Calafrio

Artist: Jéssica Pina

Language: Portuguese

Key: A minor

Now this, on the other hand, is the flavor of Portugueseness that I eat right up. It’s a totally groovy bossa nova song with electric pianos and interesting percussion and jazzy chords, as well as properly expressive singing. Unlike “Eu sei que o amor”, this song is the right degree of jazziness that it would be a total joy to play on the piano. The notes and chords all come together, so playing it on the piano would be well worth the effort my fingers have to go through.

I don’t have much to say about why this is great, I can just happily jam to it any day. For me it’s a gradual grower, since it took a few listens to add this to my Spotify playlist. Every time I listen to it, I notice something new to like about it.

Finalist #6: A minha casa

Artist: Marco Rodrigues

Language: Portuguese

Key: B♭ major

This song is kind of the opposite of the last one, because it left a positive first impression on me, which is unusual because I normally hate ballads. I wrote in my notebook: “It starts off like some kind of Disney music ballad. It’s actually pretty classy. It doesn’t seem like my kind of song, but for a ballad it isn’t half bad. And the buildup isn’t too bad. Yes, I do like it.”

But the next time I heard it, my opinion became more like what you’d expect it to be, which is that it’s way too slow and ballady. He sings it really well and I like that the song has a tinge of hopeful sound, but I guess I was only meant to experience it once. It turns out the lyrics are really sweet: the title means “my home” so I thought he was just singing about his house, but in reality he’s singing about how he loves his girlfriend so much, it feels as if he found his home in her.

Finalist #7: Deslocado (the winner)

Artist: Napa

Language: Portuguese

Key: F♯ major

I’m rather surprised this won Festival da Canção 2025, because it’s really not as good as the last few Portuguese entries to Eurovision. Portugal’s last three efforts for the contest were all very strong. “Saudade, saudade” is absolutely perfect and always makes me want to cry, “Ai coração” is a Latin-flavor dancey bop that always amazes me, and “Grito” is a rare Eurovision ballad that I properly love. I think this song unfortunately falls short of their last three entries. It’s a soft rock ballad which starts off pretty nice due to the vocal harmonies, but then it gains the exact annoyingly generic drum beat that you’d expect from a ballad. I’ve tried to like it more by giving it a few more listens, but I just find it more and more dull. I don’t dislike this song, I just find it underwhelming.

This got fourth place in the jury and second place in the televote, which adds up to 17 points in total—same number of points that “Cotovia” scored which I find a way better song. “Cotovia” got first place in the juries and sixth place in the televote. Now here’s the annoying part: Festival da Canção has seven jury groups that are divided by regions of Portugal, and the Madeira jury gave twelve points to Napa who so happen to be from that archipelago. Those twelve points pushed Napa just over the edge and allowed them to win FdC.

Now to be fair, if I absolutely loved this song, I would find this to be a miraculous victory. That’s how I feel about “Bur man laimi” from Latvia, which won with the same type of scoring system. But still, I think this song’s result proves that simplifying the jury votes to 12 to 0 isn’t a good system.

Finalist #8: Adamastor

Artist: Peculiar (João Nicolau Quintela)

Language: Portuguese

Key: F♯ minor

Another song that gives off a similar bizarro energy to “Telemóveis”. It’s some kind of dark techno song that I’m not really sure how to describe. My notes in the semifinals said I feel outside the target audience for this, and I agree with that.

Finalist #9: Medo

Artist: Fernando Daniel

Language: Portuguese

Key: B minor

Dammit, now we have another ballad. His style of singing reminds me of those Italian male ballads that do so well in Eurovision for some reason. It does at least have a guitar to spice it up, but it isn’t being used to its full potential, and it disappears for most of the second half. Overall this is too shouty and ballady for me.

Finalist #10: Rapsódia da paz

Artist: Emmy Curl (Catarina Miranda), returning from FdC 2018

Language: Portuguese

Key: D♭ major

It looks like all the songs I don’t like are near the end this time. This song in particular… I’m sorry to anyone who likes this, but I think this song is horrendous. It’s a totally dissonant and pretentious mess as far as I’m concerned. It’s one of those songs that does everything it can to avoid sounding normal, and it’s just too much for me. I don’t get the opera singing, the weird melodies, the backing choir, and especially the talk-singing parts.

Finalist #11: Tristeza

Artist: Josh (João Duarte)

Language: Portuguese

Key: C♯ minor

This was the winner of the Eurovisionworld poll for who should win FdC 2025, narrowly beating “I Wanna Destroy U”, but in the end it only scored fifth place. I can see why this was popular among fans, because for a depressing ballad it isn’t too bad. I like the 6/8 time signature and the strong focus on piano early on, even if I lose interest a bit when the ballad beat drops in. I also appreciate the way the song sticks to a recognizable piano riff and builds upon it. But I can also see why this did worse in the contest itself, because the pole dancing staging, while visually impressive, doesn’t suit the song. It’s a ballad so I wouldn’t have wanted it to win, but I would’ve preferred this going to Eurovision over “Deslocado”.

Finalist #12: Cotovia

Artist: Diana Vilarinho

Language: Portuguese

Key: E minor

And finally, we have a song that sounds like a modernized version of “Senhora do mar (negras águas)” from Eurovision 2008, which is one of few entries from that year I actually like. Just like “Senhora do mar”, this has a 6/8 time signature, strong focus on guitar, and dramatic female singer. I wouldn’t keep this because it feels a bit restrained, but it makes for a nice listen and watch.

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My full ranking

I think I’m pretty happy with this ranking:

The songs ranked 8 and above, I’ve added to my playlist. The 7’s and occasionally the 6’s, I wouldn’t mind listening to now and then. 5 and below, I feel no need to come back to. But I’ll definitely be spending more time with “Deslocado” in May, now that it’s going to Eurovision.

General thoughts:

Out of my three national final posts this year, this was easily the most fun to write. I think FdC 2025 was a pretty good national final overall—it has exactly the musical diversity I would have expected from Portugal. It has some reflective moody songs, some reflective jazzy songs, one badass aggressive rock song out of left field, and they all felt quirky in a Portuguese way. But the selection also has too many gloomy piano ballads, and I’m not sure if that’s the case for Portugal every year. I’m not very happy with the song that won, but the plus side is, that makes it interesting to dive into the other songs from this final. It’s a shame I didn’t see any of the FdC shows live, I bet I would’ve had fun watching them. Yes, the show had lots of yapping segments, but those would’ve been great for a bathroom break or to grab a snack.

Now for what came after the songs. Jeez, there’s so much yapping! Compare this against Melodifestivalen, whose final I watched live. Sweden always hosts their national final efficently and keeps the yapping to a minimum. Whenever the Melfest hosts announce how much money the voters raised for charity (I can understand enough Swedish to catch that part), that’s when I know we’ll find out very soon who won.

Speaking of Melodifestivalen… one of the interval skits reminds me of the musical numbers the Swedes would put in their national final. The hosts and contestants sang parodies of “Bem bom” from Eurovision 1982 and “Sobe sobe, balão, sobe” from Eurovision 1979 (one of my niche favorites!) with lyrics encouraging people to vote. It’s too bad they don’t manage to sing along wth the key change of the latter. Still, I love how much affection the Portuguese give to their old Eurovision songs.

What other interval acts do we have? First an instrumental medley of songs by Carlos Paredes, a Portuguese guitarist who would’ve turned 100 years old this year, arranged with what must be a Portuguese guitar plus modern electric guitars and drums. It’s a pretty good medley but I think it went on too long. Second is Iolanda, who represented Portugal in last year’s Eurovision, performing a new arrangement of her song called “Grito 2.0”. I think the song was rearranged to just the right degree to be suited to an interval act; it sounds darker and is heavier in bass synths now. Most rearrangements of prior Eurovision or national finals either change the song too much or not enough, but this arrangement hit the right balance.

Third is a skit recapping the three Swiss winners of Eurovision, followed by a rock band performing a gritty cover of “The Code”. It’s a pretty good cover, but I feel like they tried too hard to distinguish it from the original. Then comes a rearrangement of “Ne partez pas sans moi”, sung by a male singer who sings in a way more pleasant way than Celine Dion. Instead of screaming the chorus off the top of his lungs, he shows proper control of his voice. Apparently when I reviewed Eurovision 1988, I wasn’t bothered by Celine Dion’s style of singing, but if I ever do my Eurovision blog all over again (which I probably will), my review of 1988 will have a big rant about the school of volume = quality.

I would’ve watched the voting in full, but even that is filled with yapping and I can just look up the results online anyway. I already discussed the final results when reviewing “Deslocado”, so I’ll just say that my dissatisfaction with the song that won is why I procrastinated on finishing this post. But I had fun writing it anyway!