If you are interested in the Festival da Canção RTP, book the date of March 2 in your calendar. The grand final of the most important Portuguese light music competition, from which Portugal's representative at the Eurovision Festival will leave, is scheduled for the Portimão Arena, on March 2nd.
The information has just been given at the press conference of the Festival da Canção 2019, in Lisbon, where it was also revealed that the final will be presented by Filomena Cautela and Vasco Palmeirim.
Isilda Gomes, mayor of Portimão, who is in Lisbon for this press conference, revealed to Sul Informação that, according to the protocol signed today, "there is no transfer of money from the Chamber to RTP, there is only a set of expenses associated with this type of event, namely accommodation and meals, which will be borne directly by us".
However, for this, the Portimonense Chamber will count on the support of hotel units in the municipality. The Festival da Canção takes place «at a time of the year when hotels that are not closed are at half gas. From this perspective, it is a good event, because it will bring more hotel occupancy», added the mayor.
But the greatest assets of the Algarve city being the stage for the final selection of the Portuguese song that will head to Tel Aviv, Israel, in a partnership between the Municipality of Portimão and RTP, have to do above all with the dissemination of the image and the tourist offer of the county, not only nationally, but also internationally.
For now, because the Final will be a program «broadcast live by RTP, RTP Internacional and RTP África», with images from Portimão. Then, "there are offsets of RTP broadcasts, throughout the year, which will be made in Portimão, namely associated with the issue of the European City of Sport". Is that, revealed Isilda Gomes, "at least once a month, throughout the European City of Sport, RTP undertakes to publicize an event", all to "make people talk and hear about the CED , because previously I used to spend very little abroad».
But there will also be «an important prime-time program that will be broadcast from Portimão, while the promos of the artists who will sing at the Festival da Canção are already being filmed in Portimão, with experiences that tourists can also have here. The singers are shown having experiences at the International Autodrome, playing golf or at the marina, in gourmet sweets workshops, taking a guided tour of the Museum, taking a parachute jump», among other aspects of the tourism offer in Portimo.
There will also be «images of Portimão that will be shown in the final, while the artist who wins the Festival, when he goes to Eurovision, will have clinging to you images of Portimão, which will be disseminated internationally».
"There is a dynamic here, Portimão is associating all of this with the tourist side, in order to guarantee the greatest possible return on the investment it will have to make", explained the mayor, in her statements to Sul Informação.
For those who want to watch the Festival da Canção Final live, at Portimão Arena, tickets will be made available, “at an almost symbolic price”, according to a source in Isilda Gomes' office.
The semifinals will take place on the 16th and 23rd of February at RTP's facilities in Lisbon. The first semifinal will be led by Tânia Ribas de Oliveira and Sónia Araújo, while the second round will be hosted by Jorge Gabriel and Carlos Malato. Inês Lopes Gonçalves will be at the Green Room in all three shows.
To close, there will be the grand final, at Portimão Arena, on March 2. In 2018, the festival final took place at the Pavilhão Multiusos de Guimarães, now it's the turn of the Algarve city. Over the next three years, the national qualifier will also take place in several Portuguese cities.
After a special year, which represented the first occasion on which Portugal hosted the Eurovision Song Contest, and which therefore generated a broad line-up of competitors, the 2019 edition of the Song Festival resumes the 2017 model and will feature 16 songs the contest.
14 result from direct invitations from RTP, once again taking into account the representation of the diversity of musical genres that has been applied since a remodeling of the format was put into practice after a year of pause in 2016.
The two remaining competitors came from two contests promoted by Antena 1, one of them through the “Masterclass” program and open to those who have not yet edited music, the other through a free public submission contest.
Thus, among the 16 authors of the competing songs, there are the names of renowned composers such as André Tentúgal, Calema, Conan Osiris, D'Alva, DAMA, Flak, Frankie Chavez, Lura, Miguel Guedes, NBC, Rui Maia, Pedro Pode, Surma and Tiago Machado, all by direct invitation from RTP. There will also be a song composed by Mariana Bragada, through the “Masterclass” program, and another by Filipe Keil, chosen through the free public submission contest.
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