The band from Madeira ran away with the public vote to book their berth to Berne in Switzerland for the Eurovision Song Contest in May.
ADVERTISEMENTNAPA will represent Portugal with the song «Deslocado» at the Eurovision Song Contest after winning the final of the Festival da Canção, the competition organised by state broadcaster RTP to select the country’s Eurovision entry.
The winning song is about homesickness – a theme close to the four members of the group who left Madeira to live on the mainland. The group began making music while living in Funchal.
In the final table, NAPA scored 17 points, exactly the same as the song «Cotovia», performed by fado singer Diana Vilarinho. The tie-breaker was the highest number of votes from the public.
Voting in the Song Festival is done in two equal parts: the public’s televote and the national jury, divided into seven regions. Initially, «Cotovia» was the regional jury’s favourite, but it only came sixth in the televote with the song inspired by the women of Afghanistan.
In third place in the final vote was the song «Medo», sung by Fernando Daniel. The singer from Ovar scored 16 points.
Fourth place went to «I wanna destroy you» by Henka, a singer based in London. Henka came first in the public vote.
During the broadcast, presenters Filomena Cautela and Vasco Palmeirim emphasised that this was a very close final. The regional juries gave the maximum score to different songs and until the end it wasn’t clear who the winners would be.
This edition also saw a record number of votes from the public: 95,000 calls.
In the end, NAPA received the trophy from Iolanda, who won the festival last year. In May, they will take «Deslocado» to Switzerland for the final of the Eurovision Song Contest.
