First semi-final of the 60th edition of Portuguese national selection for Eurovision Song Contest has just finished and we have our first six finalists. The show was hosted by Tânia Ribas de Oliveira and José Carlos Malato. Total of ten songs competed for the six tickets to final of the show. The second semi-final will take place next Saturday, 2nd of February while the final is set to take place on the 9th of February.

The running order was as follows:

1. Nena – “Teorias da Conspiração”
2. Perpétua – “Bem Longe Daqui”
3. MELA – “Água”
4. Mila Dores – “Afia a Língua”
5. LEFT. – “Volto A Ti”
6. Rita Rocha – “Pontos Finais”
7. NOBLE – “Memory”
8. João Borsch – “…Pelas Costuras”
9. Iolanda – “Grito”
10. Bispo – “Casa Portuguesa”

First five of them were decided by a 50/50 combination of jury and audience votes while the last finalist was decided solely by the televotes.

The judges were:

• Gisela João (Fado singer);
• Benjamim (Singer-songwriter);
• Lia Pereira (Journalist);
• Miguel Esteves Cardoso (Writer, translator, critic and journalist);
• Lura (Singer);
• Pedro Oliveira (Musician);
• Mimicat (Winner of Festival da Canção 2023)

The show was opened by the tribute to Sara Tavares who passed away last November and the performance of her entry at Eurovision Song Contest 1994, Chamar A Música. As the interval act of the show we had a chance to watch the performance of Delfins who participated at Festival da Canção 1985 and celebrated 40 years of their career

The first five qualifiers were:

• Rita Rocha – “Pontos Finais”
• Nena – “Teorias da Conspiração”
• Perpétua – “Bem Longe Daqui”
• Iolanda – “Grito”
• João Borsch – “…Pelas Costuras”

The last act to qualify to the final thanks to the audience votes was:

• NOBLE – “Memory”

You can read our interviews with Perpétua and João Borsch. Check out all of the performances at the playlist below